My spayed dog has vaginal discharge

[Tootsie326]

My mini daschund Tootsie was spayed over a year ago, after having a litter of puppies. Every once in a while i have noticed that she has a menstrul smell(but no discharge) like when she went into heat before we got her fixed. it hasn't happened in a while until last night. I was holding her and i smelled that smell so i put her down and there was a brownish white spot on my shirt(which was black so it was hard to tell exactly what color it was). it looked and smelled similar to premenstrul "gunk" like from humans. I've been looking online and it seems more likely that she has some kind of infection but it hasn't happened since last night so i don't know if she has an infection or not. Lately she has lost some bladder control. i don't know if it is related to the possible infection or a side effect of her getting spayed(she didn't have bladder loss until the last month or so). We cannot really afford to take her to the vet unless we know for sure. Should i be concerned that she might have an infection?

[ginger899]

It could be a bit of cystitis? If it is, it needs treating to make sure it doesn't back up to the kidneys. Cystitis can cause a lot of urination problems, but is not terribly serious as long as it's stopped in its tracks. Usually it's easily got rid of,  a short course of antibiotics usually gets it. Because in a dog, where the urine comes out, and the vagina are together, if there's an infection it will affect both. Hope it's gone soon...

[Jaybay]

Unfortunately, you won't know for sure that an infection is present unless you bite the bullet (or wallet in this case) and take her to a vet.  With the added symptom of loss of bladder control, it appears to be a safe assumption that something is wrong and she needs treatment.  It will only be more expensive letting a medical condition go untreated, so you'll actually save money by acting sooner rather than later.

Please post back and let us know how she's doing.  Hopefully it's something fairly minor - and inexpensive.  :-)