The Cultivable Bacteria Colonizing Canine Vagina During Proestrus and Estrus: A Large-Scale Retrospective Study of Influencing Factors.

BACKGROUND

The evaluation of canine vaginal bacteria during proestrus and estrus and the chosen parameters will help to prevent the misuse of antibiotics in veterinary medicine.

METHODS

This study carried out a retrospective analysis to obtain microbiological examination results for vaginal swabs from 696 healthy dogs, all of whom were patients from one clinic. Age, body weight, fur length (long or short hair), the time of sampling of vaginal swabs, the duration of proestrus/estrus, progesterone (P4) concentration (the first and last samples), and bacteriological findings were evaluated.

RESULTS

Only 3.7% (26/696) of the samples were negative for bacteria. The impact of fur length was low. However, the calculation of the odds ratios revealed that the chance for a high-grade growth of () and () increases with body weight class. The earlier the sampling was performed, the lower the number of high-grade cultures ( < 0.01). The duration between the first and last measurement of progesterone (P4) was positively related to the cultural detection of , spp., and spp. ( < 0.05) and negatively to the cultivation of spp. ( < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings reflect some likely factors contributing to the variability of the physiological vaginal flora in dogs, which may help interpret cultured bacteriological findings.