GSD cycling her seasons every 4 months - Page 3

Trixx, you misread. I am thin. My thyroid was so low I was at risk of going into a coma. They missed it BECAUSE I wasn't fat. I don't have hyperthyroidism; I have hypothyroidism.

oh ok, yea i have to get mine check every few years ,  its very big on my moms side.

Both females that I mentioned had ZERO symptoms and at the time the practice I went to thought I was nuts for even checking for it. When it turned out the thyroid was abnormal, the vets were surpirsed to say the least.

Just so you know, before I did any research on this, I came across some articles from Jean Dodd DVM with relation to heat cycles and thyroid. She too (or did) felt the connection with thyroid and heat cycles.

Trixx, hypothyroid and hyperthroid really are not that easy to classify. It used to be the "general" symptoms but not so much today and now many physicians feel that testing for the basic panal to determine thyroid problems is really not accurate.

I mentioned required AI and split heats as I think they too play a role in what we will do to produce from dogs that we think are "good enough" but really cause a weakening of the gene pool.

So for the lifers: 20 years ago I rarely heard of a female cycling every 4 months. What has changed? For breeds that only cycle once a year ie. Basenji's have they changed as well?

Barb

My first female that cycled every 4 months got pregnant every time she was bred. She's 14 now (which means, of course, that she was 4 month cylcling at least 13 years ago!) and still getting around pretty well and not on any meds. No thyroid problems.

I think it's not unusual or unhealthy for some females. In and of itself, a short cycle is not a problem. I've had more 4 month cyclers than 6 month cyclers, in fact--not all related to the aforementioned female.

Christine

My take is, the interval of the heat cycle - when it is a consistent 4-month or 5-month or 6-months or 8-months etc., have nothing whatsoever to do with anything else. 

jumping to make gene-pool addition/deletion decisions, based on some esoteric thing like the heat-cycle,  for an otherwise perfectly healthy animal is not a wise move, IMO. If such criteria were applied across the GSD population, for all such frivolous reasons, there won't be any individuals left to breed with. 

The further from the animal in the wild that a domesticated animal originates, the less natural they become. I had a SFT thirty years ago that only came into heat every twelve months, bred her for only one litter, then spayed. Kept a daughter and two males for myself, the daughter also came in only once every twelve months. Had her spayed at age two, after second heat cycle. Basenjis are very close if not actually pariah dogs, so would stand to reason twelve month cycle. Bitches coming into heat at six or seven months is also unnatural from the stand point of animal of origin, the wolf, which is two years or older before first heat.