We adopted Luna from a local shelter in January 2024, just a day after her spay. In March 2025, surgery revealed she still had five mummified puppies inside her, missed during her spay. A simple pre-op X-ray could've caught this.

This was rare, but it raises concern. I'm hoping to advocate for better screening before spay surgeries, especially in shelter dogs who recently had puppies.

If you know of any local or statewide animal advocacy groups or people working to improve shelter protocols, please comment or message me. I'd love recommendations on whom to contact.

Thank you!

I don't know the answer to your question but feel sad for Luna.

One of my former employees had a dog by that name. He had to give her up. I wonder if it's the same dog.

trouble said:

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I'm very confused. Doesn't a spay remove ovaries and uterus? How do you spay a dog and miss a gravid uterus?

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Agreed. There must be more to this story. If the uterus and ovaries were removed during the spay (aka ovariohysterectomy), there should be no mummified fetuses to discover.

A radiograph is not necessary (and many shelters won't have an X-ray machine). Also, the entire uterus is exterioized during the surgery, no way a gravid uterus is not recognized or left behind.

Yes, a spay does remove it all. There is a lot of unknown. Possible scenario is she gave birth to a puppy that she came in with and her uterus burst expelling the other babies. Then her body mummified the remainder. Why she didn't go sepsis is beyond me. Apparently this is extremely rare.