Post Heat Cycle / False Pregnancy

[Rits]

Pretty girl having us worried enough to take her in to get checked today. She was behaving very off and depressed like the past 12 hours, not normal at all for her. Everything looks good of course (and thankfully!) We hear back on blood work tomorrow. She just wanted some expensive kisses and love from the nice ladies. I'm really guessing it's hormonal, the time frame lines up for post heat.






"When does false pregnancy occur in dogs?

False pregnancy can occur in an intact female dog regardless of whether or not she has been mated. It occurs 4-9 weeks after her estrus, or heat cycle. False pregnancies do not happen in spayed female dogs.

A false pregnancy can occur at any age and does not necessarily follow every estrus. The severity and duration of clinical signs can vary not only from dog to dog but also from one heat cycle to the next in the same dog.

Symptoms of False Pregnancy in Dogs
- Nesting
- Mothering activity or guarding toys/small objects
- Restlessness
- Lethargy or loss of interest in physical activity
- Vomiting
- Decreased appetite
- Abdominal distension
- Mammary gland enlargement
- Brownish or watery secretion from the mammary glands"

Symptoms and Treatment of False Pregnancy in Dogs

False pregnancy is when a female dog who is not pregnant starts to show signs of pregnancy. Read more about the signs, diagnosis, and treatment of false pregnancy here.

firstvet.com

 

[Ravenbird]

I'm really guessing it's hormonal, the time frame lines up for post heat.

Glad I'm not alone on that... I'm starting to mark my calendar with when Asha goes out of heat. 63 days until puppies and then another 4 - 6 weeks 'til she's tired of them. I never knew this was a thing. She doesn't show any signs of false pregnancy but at 50 days she starts nesting (no toys in the house anymore for her to claim). Right now we're at "two week old puppies" and she has been sleeping and sleeping. Fine when we're training or playing but the instant we stop she crashes in one of her beds. This morning she snarled at Reckless for meandering between Asha and her bed in the office. That's a first and really alarming because I reeeeeally can't tolerate that. I'd love to hear how Ripley comes out of this and what time of post heat she's in. Maybe a new thread is in order if others are experienced with this? P.S. That purple looks awesome on Ripley.

 

[Rits]

Glad I'm not alone on that... I'm starting to mark my calendar with when Asha goes out of heat. 63 days until puppies and then another 4 - 6 weeks 'til she's tired of them. I never knew this was a thing. She doesn't show any signs of false pregnancy but at 50 days she starts nesting (no toys in the house anymore for her to claim). Right now we're at "two week old puppies" and she has been sleeping and sleeping. Fine when we're training or playing but the instant we stop she crashes in one of her beds. This morning she snarled at Reckless for meandering between Asha and her bed in the office. That's a first and really alarming because I reeeeeally can't tolerate that. I'd love to hear how Ripley comes out of this and what time of post heat she's in. Maybe a new thread is in order if others are experienced with this? P.S. That purple looks awesome on Ripley.

Im so glad you mentioned it and that I'm not alone either. No one talks about it! From what I've read it's "normal" for them to experience symptoms as if they are pregnant. That's what their hormones are telling them. This happened last heat too where she even went off her food for a day. For an under 2 year old to be always busy, will settle when told to but right back up when released, and usually demanding me to train her to... Always sleeping for a day and not getting up with me, practically begging her to get up and go. My alarms went OFF! I agree a thread would be a great idea to discuss and share experiences.

 

[Rits]

I moved this to its own thread @Ravenbird !

She doesn't show any signs of false pregnancy but at 50 days she starts nesting (no toys in the house anymore for her to claim).

I would say this is for sure a "false pregnancy" thing. I think the term can have varying symptoms for each of them. That and the crashing in bed all day and being protective of her nest.

Ripley doesn't nest or baby anything at all. Her mammaries do swell and she did leak once during her second heat but not more than one or two drips, then I never noticed it again. I asked my breeder about it and she said it was normal for her body, she thinks she's having puppies. It would be a concern if she was licking them to stimulate them and constantly leaking as I would need to discourage her. The swelling did go down as she transitioned into the next phase of her cycle and her nipples were normal/small again.

That same heat cycle she developed some soft stools that turned into diarrhea. We thought maybe it was from the new bag of food. Same food we had been feeding her but it was a new bag, maybe something was off. Then it went from diarrhea to her straight up refusing food. Not even cooked chicken would entice her so we took her to urgent care because the vets were fully booked 3-4 weeks out (we had no ER at the time/place) and they found nothing wrong other than some gas in her intestines. They sent us home with a bag of prescription food and anti nausea meds and she was on her way. She turned around almost instantly so we chalked it up to a bad batch of food and changed kibble. This was 10 weeks post heat give or take... Granted there wasn't any correlation at the time so I'm doing my best to back pedal and figure out the time frame. I at least had written down when she looked puffy in the rear, and when she actively started and stopped bleeding.

Fast forward to the next heat cycle and most current. She stopped bleeding 7 weeks ago. Her mammaries are again enlarged. No leaking. All is normal besides that. This week she had increased thirst that evolved to yesterday's decreased appetite, sleeping a lot, and when I could get her to get up she seemed depressed. This is the dog who I have to tell her to settle and she will for an hour or two then she's demanding we train or do something. If I haven't told her to settle and I'm up, she's up right with me. She wasn't doing any of that. Literally sleeping on the couch all day and when I got her up her ears were crinkled, her tail clamped and she was slinking around. Complete 180 of normally confidently stomping around, tail up, ears erect. She would barely do what I asked, then go seclude herself to a room. She never chooses to spend longer than a few minutes in a room alone!

Again there was a food issue (now by happenstance) my auto ship was delayed by the company... so I was forced to buy a 5lb bag of food at the store just to get them by until their usual food arrived. With the symptoms above and refusing to eat my mind is thinking "there's something wrong with the food" so once her depression got so bad off we went to the vet just to be safe...

24 hours later she is more herself! Happy tail wags, pestering Paige again. Bounces off the couch to follow me around. Vocalizing to do something. Now, I'm starting to put two and two together and I looked into false pregnancy symptoms again and they seem to line up exactly. Nausea, Mammary enlargement, fluid retention, depression, lethargy... Oye! These guys worry us so but at least I can rest a little easy the next time, maybe.

 

[Ravenbird]

I moved this to its own thread @Ravenbird !

I would say this is for sure a "false pregnancy" thing. I think the term can have varying symptoms for each of them. That and the crashing in bed all day and being protective of her nest.

Agree! When I said Asha didn't show signs of false pregnancy until the nesting & resting thing, I meant the physical signs with mammary enlargement. She did that after her very first heat at 8 months. Since then she does gain weight (not sure about the pounds, but she fills out and doesn't seem as tucked as usual) and it took me a couple of heat cycle watches and calendar notes to realize that there is a clear pattern around "whelp" time and then until "weaning" time. LOL I thought she was finally becoming a normal dog - play/work/train hard, come in and crash on the bed. No such luck, it's just a phase. She'll be back to hyper-crazy self in a few weeks...

However - Ripley has behavior I've not seen in mine and it would alarm me too. Asha has an insane appetite and never leaves anything in the bowl, ever and looking for more. And as much as she wants to sleep, if I go to the door or reach for her collar she's 100% with me and ready to rock and roll. And if she ever laid out flat on the waiting room floor like Ripley in that photo, I'd be crying and thinking pretty morbid thoughts. I don't think Asha has ever laid out flat like that outside our house or a motel room. She's missing a Relax Gene or two. or three.

So, probably, just like everything else these bitches will have different, yet somewhat the same symptoms and patterns. It would for sure be interesting to see notes of others who have intact females.

Glad you started this thread, hope we get input from others!

 

[Rits]

Asha has an insane appetite and never leaves anything in the bowl

Yep! Soon as she went off her food and her behavior changed... !

I feel reassured seeing depression and lethargy as false pregnancy symptoms. I don't like it one bit though and I'm glad it went away as fast as it came in. I don't feel so crazy now either taking her in after explaining to you guys her symptoms. I kept toying with the idea back and forth whether to take her in or not since the last time, nothing was wrong! But our new vet had an opening yesterday and I had rather get her checked and catch anything early than to wait and see for something worse to show. Funny how we do that to ourselves, dogs are so stoic when they do show us changes we shrug it off waiting for something major to happen. With DCM being so silent, the behavior change was telling my gut to just go. On the bright side, after 3 chest x-rays, her heart looks great! We are still going forward with echo and holter when she turns two.

I'll share with you guys the night and day behavior for informative purposes. Don't mind my kitchen at all please; hubby was building a shelf and hanger for the dogs ecollar and leashes! The first video I had delicious treats that she would be normally doing back flips for; blazing off the couch at the first command, spinning and sitting at lightning speed...eager for my next word. The second video I stopped as that was enough of the two posturing at each other. As you can see in the second video, that is pretty much what Ripley is like 24/7. Missing the vocalizing though.

 

[JanS]

I've heard several people talk about this but so far we haven't experienced it "yet". Phoebe is just out of heat so I guess it could be coming yet.

Side note, but Paige still looks great!

 

[Rits]

Side note, but Paige still looks great!

Not bad for almost 14, huh! You can tell her knees in the rear are really bad but she's trucking right along every day. She gets supplements to help and she doesn't take crap from Ripley (even though Rip blows her off).

 

[Rits]

I've heard several people talk about this but so far we haven't experienced it "yet". Phoebe is just out of heat so I guess it could be coming yet.

Does she act any different at all post heat?

 

[JanS]

Does she act any different at all post heat?

Not really. She has been mopey since Albert left us but in my experience that's pretty normal for all of our dogs.

 

[GennyB]

Rue experiences hormonal issues bad enough we are considering removing her ovaries. She had OSS because I was adamant about her having the hormones. Now I wish I would have spayed her in the first place. That's not to say that OSS is not a good option for other dogs, just not Rumor.

 

[Ravenbird]

Rue experiences hormonal issues bad enough we are considering removing her ovaries

I'd love to hear more - keeping our females intact is something that is new to many of us. Trying to do the right thing for their health, I don't have plans to breed. More information on what to expect and what others are dealing with (or finally had enough of) would be great to hear!

 

[avmech]

Our pup had her first heat toward the end of August, ended a few weeks later, no issues, just normal leakage and lactating a little. She, however, kept acting strange, like her hormones were raging, also her nipples were still extremely engorged ,likewise her “private parts”. She was scheduled to get fixed a few months after the end of her heat, so she went in in December. Told her vet about her behavior and when we picked her up, vet told us she had a false pregnancy. Anyway, she is back to her normal velcro pup mindset.

Her Royal Sweetness in December with one of her favorite toys, a horse ball (she has 3 of them). She loves playing catch with them.

 

[GennyB]

I'd love to hear more

I can tell you that in our experience, nothing really changed post OSS with the exception of bleeding. Her nipples fill with milk and she goes in full blown false pregnancy. It is actually worse than pre OSS. The biggest challenge I am running into is she is now 5 so we are doing her heart testing twice a year. The heat cycles play havoc on those tests.
If you have any specific questions and I'll be happy to answer what I can.

 

[Ravenbird]

nothing really changed post OSS with the exception of bleeding. Her nipples fill with milk and she goes in full blown false pregnancy. It is actually worse than pre OSS.

Yeah, I was under the impression that OSS just prevents pregnancy, but everything else is exactly the same. Sounds like your experience with it says just that. My dog seems to go through some nesting and resting phase but her only milk production was her very first heat. Sounds like you've had several serious bouts of it! I'd probably opt for spay too after 5 years of that.

 

[GennyB]

I'd probably opt for spay too after 5 years of that

It's only gotten worse. Her first few of cycles weren't bad at all. As soon as life settles down a bit I'll be scheduling an appointment.

 

[JanS]

it took me a couple of heat cycle watches and calendar notes to realize that there is a clear pattern around "whelp" time and then until "weaning" time.

- Nesting
- Mothering activity or guarding toys/small objects
- Restlessness
- Lethargy or loss of interest in physical activity

Phoebe has been going through this exact thing with that damn duck I gave her out of the show bag in September. She's obsessed with it and does all of the mothering stuff, not wanting treats or go outside or anything but nest with her duck.

 

[Rits]

Sorry to laugh! Her face and the duck hiding under the blankets. I would take the duck away.

Ripley is in heat right now too. Funny cause Rowynn is on the tail end and here comes Ripley Fortunately I don't remember Ripley having any false pregnancy signs at her last heat in May like she did in my earlier post. Shes been coming in every 4.5-5 months the past two heats which can happen and is normal for some but I'd like a longer break

 

[JanS]

I would take the duck away.

I'm thinking I might have to and hubby brought it up too. It's just the first thing that's made her really happy since Albert left us so I hate to do it. Her buddy Selleck is coming over on Friday so I want to see how she acts when her idol is here. LOL

Shes been coming in every 4.5-5 months the past two heats which can happen and is normal for some but I'd like a longer break

Oh gosh, no kidding. Phoebe came in on July 1 last and she's been staying pretty consistent at 6 months. I was talking to our club president and she has the Czechoslovakian wolves and they only come in heat once per year. That would be nice.

​

 

[Kswoodssue]

Phoebe has been going through this exact thing with that damn duck I gave her out of the show bag in September. She's obsessed with it and does all of the mothering stuff, not wanting treats or go outside or anything but nest with her duck.
View attachment 129200

Bless her heart!