Lola, a one-year-old Staffie puppy, recently amazed both her owner and the vets by suddenly growing a penis. It seems she is a hermaphrodite dog.
There has been much talk in the media recently about transgender people, most particularly, of course, the tale of Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner. However, you rarely hear of anything like this happening with dogs.
To be more accurate, in what has been termed to be a hermaphrodite dog, a female puppy has suddenly grown a penis.
According to Wikipedia, being a hermaphrodite is a condition of sexual reproduction where both partners can act as the “female” or “male” at will. They refer particularly to certain snails and slugs that are hermaphrodites. However, the article doesn’t bring up any dogs having the same condition.
Female dog Lola turns hermaphrodite after she suddenly grows a penis http://t.co/tdaJnRrGzm pic.twitter.com/r2QJIig5IO
— Daily Mirror (@DailyMirror) June 17, 2015
The owner became concerned when Lola, said hermaphrodite dog and a one year old Staffordshire terrier, suddenly developed a small growth around her genitals.
Initially when the owner took Lola to the vet, they deemed the growth to be harmless. However, it kept on growing and turned into a full-size penis. Quite a shock when you get a girl puppy only for it to turn into a boy hound, in other words a hermaphrodite dog.
Vets decided it was a good idea to spay Lola, and when they operated they were amazed to discover testicles where her ovaries should have been.
The owner, 35, hails from Lincolnshire and according to the Mirror Online prefers to remain anonymous. However, he or she did say that people kept asking what that thing was around the hermaphrodite dog’s rear end.
“I just thought it was normal for when girl dogs are in heat.
“But it used to get bigger at times, and when she lay on her back it used to pop up, sometimes coming out quite far!
“We all jokingly said that it looked like a willy, but thought there was no way it could be – it’s in the wrong position.”
Streetnewz reports that Lola was four months old when the owner got the Staffie pup from a neighbor – apparently the people who were supposed to take her let them down by changing their minds. However, they never expected her to be a hermaphrodite dog.
“Everything was fine at first; she was just a normal puppy. But when she was about one we noticed she had lumps on her body.
“We took her to the vets, who told us it was simple hives. That was when they first noticed her penis.”
It is unknown whether Lola the hermaphrodite dog will now get a brand new, more masculine name. Rather amusingly, a Twitter user compared a sign he saw recently in the social media with a hermaphrodite dog.
Everytime I see that sign, I initially think ‘hermaphrodite dog’ and ‘Caution? Labs are so friendly’ #mixedgenderlab pic.twitter.com/VgKTcbjU9z
— Steve Jones (@sjfloat) June 15, 2015
Of course, in that case he was referring to the recent scandal where Tim Hunt referred to female scientists in such a demeaning way , as reported recently on the Inquisitr.
[Image: Staffie puppy (not Lola) CC BY-NC 2.0 Rob Swatski ]
