"False" pregnancy question - Page 1

My 1 year old female Anna went through her first heat in July.  Both of my males are neutered so there was no concern about becoming pregnant.  She has no access to other males.  Now she is beginning to act and look pregnant.  I've read about this being fairly common, but I have never had this happen before.  Have any of y'all had this happen? 

Thanks,

Cole

I have a bitch that goes through this every year. She will get all of my 8yr old daughter's stuffed animals, and arrange them in a pile, then lay with them. She also produces milk.

my rat terrier just went through this...theres a thread on here about it somewhere...but she did the same thing with the stuffed animals, she even licked their butts- and attacked anything that got near them....

cole you better not have let her get pregnant. I kept Ava away from the boys.  So all is good here.I will be down next week and i will call you. I would love to see Anna.

 Jerry Marshall

Thanks for the input.  Hoping I wasn't crazy.  Do you think this may happen after every heat?

Jerry,

You know I didn't let my baby get pregnant!    Bring Ava Bird when you come. 

My female beds and carries her baby around!  She usually only picks one animal to be her "baby" although her last cycle she did not do it.  She has never produced milk, but she bedded with the stuffed toy, and found her little hiding place, and she was a bit moody.  One time we were off to a long weekend away and she had that damn stuffed animal for weeks, I accidentally forgot to bring it with us, but I guess that was good, she seemed to get over it being gone after the second day or so.

My vet said to be sure to watch her for uterus infection, he said it can be more prevelant in females with false pregnancy.  He said what Sasha was doing was not quite a true false pregnancy since she did not gain weight or produce milk, but her hormones were elevated for sure.

Good luck!!

My daughters female did this 3 tims before we had her spayed. It didn't happen afer that.

No access to stuffed animals she is an outside dog but she did look pregnant and looked like she had milk. She dug a hole and was ready to give birth but never did. Funny I still have pictures of her really fat like that.

my 2 yr old did they same thing , just 2 weeks ago,we did an AI at 11 days of her cycle , it was her 4th heat, she had no signs of this in the other heats, but spent the next 2 months with every sign of being pregnant, as well as  on her welping date ,spending 7 hours panting and pacing, put no nesting, and then just up and put down her toy , jumped on the bed went to sleep and got up the next morning like nothing had happened, It was upsetting as you can tell. My vet said not to worry , as it is just some females are highly driven at being maternal,and will  be very good mothers, but to keep tract , as some females who do this every time could have a cyst on there ovaries.  Hope this helps.

I am going to try and explain this as best I can, as it was explained to me, what seems like a hundred years ago. When a female goes into heat, progesterone levels and others increase. This determine optimal breeding time, once the LH surge occurs. Even if a female is NOT bred and even if she is and it doesn't take, the cycle is NOT over. A female, whether not bred, pregnant or not, will continue for 73 days from the day the heat cycle began to have an increase of hormonal action. Whether  the female was bred or not, she still gives off a subtle hint of "heat" scent, her hormones tell her she is pregnant, even when she isn't. At the end of the 73 days, (note not 63 days as for gestation) the hormone levels recede, obviously this in the case of a female that is not pregnant. WIth some females the hormonal response is much higher than others, and tends to be in females under the age of 6.