Pyometra is a uterine infection, caused by the hormonal changes of a heat cycle, showing up 4-8 weeks after being in heat if a pregnancy doesn’t occur.  My mastiff has had it twice at the time of this post.  Some of the signs for her are drinking excess water, losing weight, loss of appetite, and eventually pus leaking from her vagina (open pyometra).  It’s not pretty, but it’s a good thing because in some dogs the cervix is closed tightly (closed pyometra) and the puss becomes toxic, sepsis sets in and can lead to death.

Emergency spaying is the best treatment for the dog, however, if that isn’t an option then here are a couple alternative natural treatments I found that have worked for me.  The sooner you can begin treatment the better.

This one here is all I had the first time around.  Vitamin C (Sodium Ascorbate Powder), turmeric, and manuka honey, at least +15 but the higher rating on it the better.  I found the easiest way to get my dog to eat it was by mixing it with a bit of peanut butter and making a sandwich out of it.  She may not have wanted to eat her dog food, but luckily she still gobbled down a sandwich! lol  The following amounts are to be given 4-5 times a day for the first day, and then 3 times a day for up to a month to make sure the condition is resolved.  If you only have some of the ingredients start with that until you can get the rest.  If you can’t find manuka honey locally, substitute with raw honey until you can order the manuka online.

For dogs over 80 lbs: 3 teaspoons honey, 1 teaspoon turmeric powder, and 500-1,000 mg. vitamin c powder (about 1/2-3/4 tsp.).

20-80 lbs:  1 1/2 teaspoons honey, 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder for dogs 41-80 lbs, 1/4 tsp. for dogs 21-40 lbs., 1,000-2,000 mg. vitamin c powder (about 1/4-1/2 tsp.)

5-20 lbs:  3/4 teaspoon honey, 1/16 – 1/8 teaspoon turmeric powder, 500-1,000 mg. vitamin c powder (about 1/8-1/4 tsp.)

You may have to get creative with ways to get your dog to eat it.  Mine eats it on a sandwich.  Others have mixed with cooked chicken, broth, tuna, whatever they will eat.  If your dog is not eating you’ll have to mix the ingredients with water or broth to a consistency that you can syringe into their mouth.  It took about a week for the discharge to stop with my dog, but she was obviously starting to feel better within a couple days of starting the manuka honey, turmeric, and vitamin c protocol.

You can read more about this, and see how it’s worked for other people in the comments, on this website, https://earthclinic.com/pets/pyometra-in-dogs-treatment/vitamin-c-turmeric-manuka/.

The first time through this I also found this 3-part set of herbal and homeopathic formulas for pyometra, although by the time I ordered it and it arrived I no longer needed it, but now I had it on hand for the next time, since they are more prone to it happening again once they’ve had it.  It consists of  Part 1 homeopathic formula Pyometra, Part 2 Herbal Sepsis, and Part 3 homeopathic Drawing Out, to draw out any and all infection in the body, since any infection left will fuel the fire for next time.

Having been through this once I now knew the signs, and suspected that’s what was happening when my mastiff started losing weight and went off her feed last week. It was no surprise when I saw the discharge.  I had all the ingredients on hand from the first time and immediately mixed up a honey, turmeric, vitamin c sandwich, then got the homeopathic kit out and got to work with that, two of the bottles say to apply 3-4 drops on skin between the shoulder blades, the third bottle is given orally, I either mix it in tuna or in her dinner bowl.  It worked fast, discharge was gone after the second day.

In the long run it is going to be less expensive to spay a dog than treat for pyometra, but these options work great at clearing it up or buying time until you can get them in for surgery.  Occasionally some dogs will still get infections on the reproductive tissues that are not removed during surgery, so having these options will help save lives and additional surgeries, and they are way better for them than frequent use of antibiotics.

The video below also suggests a couple other options, one is a Chinese medicine, Yun Nan Pai Yao (aka Yunnan Baiyao), 250 mg. capsule / 20-30 lbs. weight 2x day.  The other is Allicin (a garlic extract) at 100 mg/10 lbs. weight 2x day.

Study on Yun-Nan-Pai-Yao