Looking for a bit of advice from anyone who's had experience of seasons or phantom pregnancies. Luna is in her second season (we're about 9 days in) and on the whole she's acting very similarly to her first season: very whiney, howling when left alone, very sleepy and very clingy especially with my other half, quite heavy discharge. The only change is that this time round she's become fussy with her food - she'll happily eat wet food, but turns her nose up at kibble so she's obviously not feeling herself. Her first season lasted quite a long time (about 20 days) and then about 3 weeks later she had a mild phantom pregnancy (confirmed by the vet) which lasted another 3 weeks. The vets have told us that she'll likely have this after every season. I was wondering if there were any supplements or specific foods that we could give her help avoid a phantom pregnancy again or ease some of the more uncomfortable symptoms of a season. Is there anything natural that's good for regulating hormones? Any ideas or thoughts would be welcomed. Thanks.
If you are not planning on breeding from her, then it might be an idea to get her spayed (no need to worry about accidents or pyometra). Most seasons result in a phantom pregnancy to one extent or another. For bad ones, the easiest way of nipping it the bud is to feed next to nothing for 2 days and exercise a lot. It sounds harsh, but it really works. The alternative Galsop (sp?) from the vets. We just feed a few spoonfuls of rice a few times a day so they have something in thier tummies, but very little nutritionally.
Thanks @5labs for the advice. I hadn't realised phantom pregnancies were so common, but having read up on them, it makes sense that it happens. We were planning to spay her after her first season, and our vets actually advised spaying before her first season, but after a lot of reading up a gazillion different research studies, I thought it best to wait until she'd matured a bit more emotionally. She's a bit OTT at the best of times, and I'd read that slightly "anxious" juvenile temperaments can be exacerbated by spaying. Having said that though, if she's this mopey with her hormones for such large chunks of the year, then I think it's probably the lesser of two evils. The plan is to spay her in the Autumn, but thank you very much for the advice on ways to deal with the phantom pregnancy if it rears its head again. Hope you and your pack are doing well and it's not too flooded up in Yorkshire.
Hi Loopy Luna, we've done the same with Isla. She's an anxious pup as well and like you we had read that it's better to wait until they are more mature or they can be anxious forever! I don't know if it's true but we didn't want to risk it. We are just waiting for her second season and then probably have her speyed. I hope Luna gets through her second season a bit easier this time. Good luck
Willow is in the same boat. She has turned really fussy with food I leave some dried food down and she will eat it when nothing else comes her way. She will eat cooked meat and chicken ready enough but not wet dog food. I blame my hubby as he fed her some of his dinner. Her teats are a little swollen after her first heat. I am waiting until after her second heat before spaying her she is quite small and I read it can stunt the growth if done too soon.
Please don't leave food out all the time. It's a sure fire way to train a dog not to value it. Dogs (and people) don't value things which are always available.
She went off her food in the hot weather now she just picks at the dried food and will not touch the tinned food so she is having meat cooked chicken and mince she had some steak and venison from the freezer she eate all that. I am worried she will drop weight she is 10 months and 20kg. I tried her on chicken and rice she picked the chicken out and left the rice.
Boring as this sounds.... this isn't a balanced diet for a developing puppy. There is a good thread/link on food motivation on here which you may want to try.
You need to think about the long-term and not the short-term. If you are obsessed with her eating RIGHT NOW, you are only going to encourage poor food motivation. Poor food motivation leads to a picky eater and an untrainable dog, because they don't want what you have to offer. Instead, accept that in the immediate future she may not eat much and she may even drop some weight. She will not starve herself. I can guarantee that there isn't a HEALTHY dog in history which has voluntarily starved itself when food is available!! Instead, your dog has trained you to offer her much tastier meat, cooked chicken, mince, steak and venison - instead of eating her dog food. As 5Labs says, she will NOT get all the vitamins, minerals, calcium to phosphorus balance and everything else that she needs from random provision of human food. Feeding a homemade diet (whether raw or cooked) requires a lot of knowledge about canine nutrition and which nutrients a dog needs - not just randomly feeding bits from what you happen to have in the fridge. (This is how you've created the problem in the first place.) And by the way, if she dog looks like your profile photo, you definitely don't need to be worried about her losing some weight.... Put the food down, give her a chance to eat some (literally 3 minutes), remove the food if she hasn't touched it - and do not offer any more food until the next meal time. Do not take pity on her and think she must be starving because she didn't eat and offer her something from the fridge - really - no more until the next meal time. When again, you put the food down - and again you remove it if she doesn't eat it. She will not starve herself. At some point, she will eat the food. If you want, you can follow this protocol: http://www.sue-eh.ca/page24/page39/
She is actually eating a complete dried food with a sachet of waitrose high meat morning and night she is not fat but has muscle so she is not loosing weight. I changed her dried food and taken the butchers tripe away and she is eating now. Maybe the tinned food was off as she eats other brands.
