Experience with odd heat cycles? - Page 1

Two year old bitch, waiting for third heat cycle. 

First heat cycle was at 11 months, normal.  6 months later, bitch swelled up for a week but did not come into heat.  Swelling went down and three months later (9 months total from 1st cycle) had a normal heat cycle.  We are now 6 months from the 2nd heat cycle and she is doing the same thing.  Swelled up for a week, no bleeding, males not showing any interest, and now the swelling is going down again.  I've never had a bitch do this before... anyone else?  Did the cycles regulate as the bitch got older? 

 

 

You may not like my answer.. I would not wait around with that bitch..I would be selling her and finding me a new line..

Sorry but that was one of my pet peeves. I had an American Parti color cocker, who did the same thing...THE breeder lied to me about the birth of the litter..THE mom had hepatitis when pups were 4 weeks old...she died...SO this pup later was messed up female wise...So never bred her...I spent a lot of money buying a bitch for reproduction of my male Cocker spaniel and never used her..SHE IS still here..Made a great pet..

I would never have a bitch I had to spend money to do normal breeding with problems of reproductive organs   or wait on to come in heat or fool with inconsistencies. You might speak to the breeder about her dam and find out if anything was off with the birthing or the parents..

 

Thank you for your input YR.  She is out of my own litter, no problems with the birthing.  Her female littermates are having normal heat cycles.  I had seen that thread about flaxseed and infertility which peaked my interest since this bitch has been on Fromm food her whole life which has flaxseed in it.  I just switched her food to Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream (only food I could find that was decent quality that didn't have flaxseed in it) a couple of weeks ago.  About two days after the food switch is when she began to swell.  Since estrogen is what causes vulvar swelling and starts a heat cycle, it seems like she is just not producing quite enough estrogen to fully come into heat.

The bitch will stay here regardless of whether she can be bred or not, although it will be a heartbreaker since she possesses so many wonderful qualities that I would love to pass on to the next generation. 

 

IMHO

It could be that her heat cycles are every 9 months, as this the start of what happened on 2nd cycle(swell at 6 then full cycle at 9).  I do not think 2 cycles is enough to determine if she has cycle issues.

i definitly would recommend not breeding until you see if she is irregular or just every 9 month cycle.

Actually, when this happened during her 2nd heat cycle, the vet recommended that I breed her on her third heat cycle to see if that would straighten her hormones out.  The vet checked her out at that time - vaginal culture and exam showed no abnormalities.  I know that I, personally, had severe endometriosis before having children and after I had my first son lots of hormonal problems were fixed including the endometriosis.

 

Just an update on this issue in case someone else deals with the same thing.   My bitch came back into heat on Sept 12th and had a normal heat cycle.  Progesterone tests showed she ovulated this past Saturday and she has been bred.  Now we wait and see if we have pups on the way.  

This was a very special breeding.  My bitch's dam was purchased to be matched up with our male.  She had the one litter that my bitch came from (by a different stud) and the following year was bred to our male.  At 7 weeks into the pregnancy, she barked at another dog that came too close to her while she was eating and she aspirated food into her lungs.  We lost her to sepsis of the lungs after 4 days in the vet hospital.  Necropsy showed 8 beautiful pups that were just too young to survive.  I have worked to get her daughter ready to be bred to our male for the past two years.  She has passed all of her health testing and I just trialed her for her IPO1 in June.  Our male is now 13 years old and although we have him collected, we really wanted a fresh insemination if possible.  Unbelievably, he is still getting around great and his sperm analysis was good before we did the insemination.  Kudos to his breeder for breeding such valued longevity.

 

 

And Kudos to you for taking such good care of him for him to reach that age and still going strong;  glad you collected him.  Can you post pic's.  Really sorry to hear about the misfortune of your other bitch, really heartbreaking as years back a very special bitch I owned dropped dead at my feet due to either aspiration or heart attack from bloat.  Not sure which one it was and at that time was terrified of having a post mortem on her.  Heard some really horrific stories about our local clinic doing neocropsies.  Now looking back I kind of wished I would have done it as you never get answers without it only assumptions to ease your mind.  Best of luck  Nan

Here are some pics of the old man in his later years.  He lives the good life with my in-laws, so all the credit to them.  He still comes to visit with us and get some bites though.  It's going to be a very sad day when we all say good-bye to this boy.  Everyone, from the UPS man to the grandchildren, is very attached to him.

10 years old -

  

7 years old - 

      

10 years old -

  

12 years old - 

      

12 years old -

WOW;  what a fella...  hoping for many more healthy years for him.  Nan

Good that got a breeding with your girl. Was he able to breed her? Or did you do ai. Do you mind posting his pedigree ?