My chocolate girl turned 1 on Sunday (hooray!) and to mark the occasion, there was some red spotting on the bed in the morning. No sign of swelling and on a very cautious lead walk, no interest from other dogs. Later that evening a chocolate boy we walk with once a week - he's entire and a few weeks older - suddenly became glued to her back end and was pretty frenzied trying to mount her endlessly! They were both on lead and his owners kept him back so no danger of tying and pregnancy scares. She has since started secreting a (apologies for the lovely graphic detail!) brown watery discharge. She is slightly swollen but its barely noticeable. She's been licking the area clean a lot so it was tricky to even notice anything had changed at all other than the sudden attention from entire male dogs. I called our vet this morning to check having worried about nasty things like pyometra. They were reassuring, confirming that some dogs don't really swell at all particularly in their first heat, and if she was showing no other signs of being unwell then it was nothing to worry about and sounds like the moment is here! Wondered if anyone else has had similar experiences? And why the discharge is brown and not red? I've been very careful walking her when no other dogs are really around and always on short lead walks. I am hoping for some verification that this is the season at last so I can get her booked in for a spay in the autumn! Again, sorry for the level of detail! Thanks!
Hi ELD, Happy Birthday to you girl! Luna turned one last week. We believe she had a season when she was about 6/7 months as she was showing signs but we never spotted any blood. We sometimes walk her with her brother and dad and let them run around together, they started showing interest in her and tried to mount. At first we thought it was because her mum was in season and they were getting them mixed up. But on 31st May she started spotting and she didn't have any swelling until about 4-5 days after first spotting. The bleeding then got worse and she is just coming to the end of it now. Keep an eye on her behaviour. Luna became more tired and cuddly, she wanted to be close all the time. Also she would sometimes jump up and look at her back end and cry, she must have been cramping and not understand what was going on. You can check by getting a some toilet roll and just pat her vulva and it will show if there is any discharge. It does sound like a season as she will be wanting to keep it clean and if dogs are frenzied around her thats a sure give away. You are doing the right thing by walking her when no other dogs are around as it isn't fair on her or the male dogs. From what we have experienced these last two weeks all I would say is make some comfy, cosy places for her to curl up and plenty of cuddles! We even put our pyjama's down in the morning for her to sleep on as she found comfort since it had our scent.
Happy Birthday to Luna! Yay! Thanks for sharing - no change here today. She's her normal self wanting to play constantly and with a very healthy appetite as ever! We're doing a 45 minute lead walk early morning and later in the evening each day but still full of energy! I was a little concerned the spotting is not red/pink/straw coloured like everything I've read. Perhaps we'll see some more developments in a couple of days... It's a waiting game isn't it?! Will remain cautious and see how it goes. Looks like no off lead walks for a few weeks now...
Try mental stimulation and scent games in the house. The colour will change is it was brown when Luna started. It is 8 days from the last day of bleeding before off lead walks. Also make sure any swelling has gone down.
Brilliant, thanks so much for the reassurance. We're stocked up on kongs, snuffle mats and doing lots of 'find it', I'm going to be more exhausted at this rate!
Luna has now been bleeding for 2 1/2 weeks n she has little moments of playfulness and we have allowed her to have balls in the house just now. Other than that though she sleeps most of the day and likes to have a chew on her antler. I just hope it was right as this is our first time going through it too. When the bleeding gets heavier she will calm down a bit more and want more cuddles.
How is Luna doing? Is she back to running free off lead and mixing with other pups?! Thanks so much for sharing your experience of the season fun - Ember has followed Luna's timelines exactly so far! It's 3 x weeks today since the first spotting, still bleeding (though slightly less now) and swollen. Hoping she is coming to the end of it now...
Luna is great now. She was out with the dog walker on Friday running around with the other dogs and having a blast! The bleeding will stop before the swelling starts to come down, well Luna did anyway. We went 8 days from when we definitely noticed no more blood and swelling had started to go down. Also read that its good to give them a bath after it to remove all the scent so we did this on Thursday night before going with the walker.
