A shocked dog owner says he “burst out laughing” after being told by vets his pet Boston Terrier was a hermaphrodite.
Mark and Brenda Golding, from Rochester, got Lincoln when he was a puppy a year and a half ago, and he seemed completely healthy to begin with.
But when he was around six months old, they were told he had testicular torsion, a rare condition where the spermatic cord, which supplies blood to the testicle, twists and cuts off the blood supply.
“It’s very, very rare in a pup,” Mark explained.
“We then had to take him to have them removed, and he was fine for a while, but he then started getting loads of little problems.
“There was a lot of going back and forth to the vets, and after about six scans, we were told he might have a cyst on his bladder.
“It wasn’t giving him any problems, but then he started getting hernias, which is also pretty rare in a dog so young.”
About a month ago, Lincoln had surgery to fix this, but the next morning, he became extremely swollen.
Mark added: “He was the size of a balloon, so we rushed him back to the vet, and they told us we’d need to see a specialist surgeon.”
They went to see a consultant at North Downs Specialist Referrals (NDSR), who told them he’d need a CT scan – which ended up costing £3,000
“We love the little boy, so we went for it,” he explained.
“He went into the hospital in the morning, and we didn’t hear anything for hours.
“At around 7.30pm, I rang up and they told me that his lungs were full of blood, and at first they thought he had TB, which is very contagious in animals.
“After a blood test, they found out he had actually had lungworm, which is a parasitic infection.
“But then, they said: ‘You’re not going to believe this, but he’s a hermaphrodite’ – I just burst out laughing.
“They told me he had an ovary and a womb and that the last known case was years ago”.
Lincoln’s discharge letter from NDSR states: “The CT scan demonstrated that Lincoln has a combination of male and female reproductive organs (a condition known as ‘intersex’), with a possible small ovary herniated into the left inguinal hernia, and an ovary and small section of uterus (womb) within the abdomen.
“The opening of his penis and prepuce are very narrow; this likely contributes to his ‘narrow’ urine stream and increased risk of urinary infections.
“Once he is tested as negative for lungworm, we would advise that he has surgery to remove the intersex reproductive organs from the abdomen and to reassess the left inguinal canal in case a hernia is still present.”
The condition is rare within dogs, with a small number of cases reported across the world.
Lincoln will have to undergo a hysterectomy in the next few months, where he will have his ovaries and his womb removed.
His previous exploratory work and scans have totalled around £12,000, and the surgery will cost another £7,000.
While they have footed the bills to date, due to the excess unforeseen costs the family are now asking for any help. Donations can be made here and any leftover funds will go towards dog charities.
Mark added: “It’s not a life-threatening procedure, but we have been told that it’s going to cause problems in later life.
“The little boy is running around like nothing’s going on, and we’ve cured his lungworm now.
“All the vets said they’d never seen anything like it. It’s bonkers, this just doesn’t happen.
“At the moment, we don’t know what he’s going to be like in the future, he might have to go on hormone replacement.
“He’s a lovely little dog. He’s really affectionate, cuddly, and happy. But we don’t know what he’s going to be like when we start removing the hormone-producing organs.
“Any pennies we can raise would be really, really helpful.”
