Intersex pet dog undergoes gender reassignment surgery

An intersex dog born with both male and female genitals has successfully recovered from a rare gender reassignment surgery.

Molly, a Jack Russell terrier puppy, was taken to the vet when her owners Frank and Mary Finlay noticed she was behaving strangely when going to the toilet, sometimes lifting her leg and other times squatting to pee.

The couple bought Molly in 2015 believing she was a female but became concerned about what they felt was increasingly male behaviour.

Upon examination by Glasgow vet Ross Allan, it appeared Molly had both female genitalia and male testicles - which had not descended - and a poorly-formed “vestigial” penis, BBC Scotland reports.

Mr Allan told the couple Molly’s hermaphrodite nature explained her genital discomfort.

Mr Allan told BBC Scotland's Kaye Adams Programme Molly’s condition was “extremely rare” and that neither him nor his colleagues had come across it before.

“In the literature there have been about 15 cases published in total. In 15 years of doing this job I have seen this in Molly and in no other dog at all," he said.

The vet operated on Molly, when she was six months old. He removed her male genitals and formed a functional urethral opening where the female genitalia would normally be found.

"She actually had the female external genitalia, as it were, but in the male formation,” said Mr Allan.

The vet said that without the operation, Molly’s problems would have exacerbated over time and could have developed into a debilitating condition.

Nearly a year on from the operation, he said Molly had made a full recovery and was happy in her home.

“Molly is Molly and she is happy and fit and healthy, that is the main thing,” said Mr Allan.