Evening everyone, Just a quick post about Luna who is now 10.5 months. She hasn’t been eating her food for the past 3 days, she’s had chicken and rice this evening and eaten it all, it’s been too long now without food. She’s happy, not lethargic, drinking water and playing. Tired in the evenings more than normal. She was nibbling at her back legs and cleaning herself more and she started bum shuffling the other day. We went to the vets yesterday and all was well, her anal glands were emptied and the vet couldn’t see anything that could cause this change. The weather has been hotter than normal but not ridiculously hot. Our other lab is eating fine. She’s on puppy kibble Arden Grange chicken and rice? Is she bored of puppy food?, I think she’s still got some growing to do, do I change it? I’ve never know a lab not eat
She finished her season about 10 days ago, funny you should say that as she’s been really skittish too since it finished x
Hi great that you took her to the vet. Nice to be reassured. I guess they can get bored Mason now 1 got bored and he went on longer and I too thought Labradors loved food. I thought about changing but was so undecided I added bits of chicken, cocktail sausage and cheese to his meals and he loves it
She might be having a phantom pregnancy, they can be some withdrawn or clingy. They can also start nesting go off their food and just seem out of sorts. They can also develop physical symptoms like swollen nipples.
I would also recommend checking her food and making sure it’s not gone off or expired just to rule that out as well.
She has got swollen nipples, however they seem less swollen today. But very clingy and hypersensitive. We’ve sneaked some chicken in to her kibble and she ate it all up. Food is in date. Just ordered new food and are changing to a more specific diet for her, tailored to her likes and age. Hey ho we’ll see what happens. Just out of interest, (SwampDonkey), I’ve heard bad things about phantom pregnancies but don’t actually know anything about them. Do they have lasting consequences? X
Some get it mildly and are ok without vet help but some get it quite severely and net vetenary treatment. It just depends on the female. If you do a search you will find a few things that others have tried. They just need sympathy and understandingi is not a very nice thing for themto have. If she is still feeling like this perhaps a phone call to the vet?
Cassie had a nasty one after her first season, I knew about them but didn't know just how extreme they can be, but by no means always. That said I'd advise anyone with an intact female to be aware of the likelihood and find out as much as you can, so I agree with Swampy @SwampDonkey that it depends on the bitch concerned, a chat with your vet is a good idea. There's no doubt that Cassie suffered -- physically with the milk production, and emotionally because she believed she had puppies on the sofa but they weren't there I treated her homeopathically in the end because I have some knowledge of the subject and felt confident to do so, with good effect.
Thank you everyone. She’s still not eating properly, spoke to the vets this morning and he suggested to slowly transfer on to adult food. We’re just constantly reassuring her but it’s just a worry as she’s such a confident cocky happy go lucky girl normally xx
Females are prone to "morning sickness" after they finish their season because even when not pregnant, their body acts as if it IS pregnant. They are designed to produce every season. Sometimes, this can progress into a phantom pregnancy but not every time. If she is experiencing morning sickness, it is natural that she would be off her food for a time, but not for a long time because their pregnancy progresses much more rapidly than a human's does. Also consider if the bag you are feeding her from is a new one or an older bag. Sometimes a bag of the same food can be "off" from too long a storage in a hot warehouse. We just had this happen to our 10 week old puppy who suddenly refused his food - same food as his breeder had been feeding - about three days after he came home and had been eating perfectly well. At first I wrote it off to his adjustment period. Our older girls swooped in and cleaned two bowls he had refused before I could get them out of his crate (I had forgotten to lock the crate when I carried him outside to wee). Both of those girls (we have five Labs total) were vomiting that food up all night long. That bag went in the trash immediately.
