False pregnancy

Hi all

Luna's gone off her food since saturday morning, and as she is a labrador I know somethings wrong when she won't eat.

Went to the vet, and she says that Luna is false pregnant. She gave me a prescription for some medicine and told me to consider sterilization if it continues.

I would like to know what you would do? Give her the medicine? I don't really wanna sterilize her as I would like puppies one day.

She doesn't seem that bad. She is a bit puffy (I thought she had gained weight, but its only 500 grams) and she's a bit lazy. She has swollen mammary glands (according to the vet). She ate tonight, as I put hot water on her food, so it started to smell. And she ate it!

I have also just moved tuesday (a week ago tomorrow) and the vet thinks its a combo between the false pregnancy and nervousness from the move. She is quite clingy these days.

I like your opinions on medicating or not - sterilizatioon or not

Jeanette

Quote from Evans & White - The Book of the Bitch:

"If the signs are mild it is probably better not to give treatment. The nervous signs will disappear more quickly if the bitch is denied sympathy & if toys & brooding objects are removed. Less milk will be produced if the carbohydrate content of the diet is reduced...and the anount of exercise increased.

If the signs are severe & the actions mentioned above do not lead to an improvement veterinary assistance should be sought..... Once a bitch has had a false pregnancy it will continue to do so to varying degrees after each & every subsequent heat."

Personally I would elect to spay as I believe that false pregnancies are stressful to the bitch. You could spay after she has had a litter if you wish to breed her.

I found a homeopathic remedy to be 100% effective in clearing up the symptoms of false pregnancy in one of my previous bitches. Unfortunately I cannot remember what it was, but if you have a homeopathic vet nearby he/she would know.

False pregancy is the weirdest thing. My aunt's small dog had a few and the dog would gather her toys around her stomach as if she were nursing them. If you got near the toys, she would snap at you! It sounded really funny, like playing house, lol

Thanks SB

We don't really do much in homeopathy here in Denmark. But I can ask around, we do have a danish forum about dogs, perhaps someone there knows something about that.
I would think that Luna's signs are mild, wont you? Luna is my first dog, so I have nothing to compare with. But from what Kate (Gordonlover) told me yesterday Luna is mild

Barbara: Well Luna haven't gone that far yet

I've tried to count, today is day 61 since her season.

Jeanette

Sounds pretty mild so far, but could get more intense: nesting, lactating, substitute pups, etc. The more exercise, distraction, no sympathy, remove 'pups' advice is good. It is not at all "funny" if she gets to the stage of snapping over imagined pups. Vet intervention is certainly called for in that circumstance.

I know, Penny had a really bad one about 2 years ago.

I'm going to take the advice on exercise, no sympathy and distraction. I also got that from Kate (Gordon lover) yesterday, just wanted to hear if there were more great ideas

Just had a visit from a friend of mine and her dog. Luna and Freja were goofing around as usual and Luna was more energetic than I've seen in a while. Very nice to see

Jeanette

Sorry Shadowboxer for trying to make light of the situation. My aunt's dog was very tiny, and the snapping was not what I found amusing, it was the toys around her stomach. No offense meant

Bellaluna, I hope everything is ok.

Hi Barbara

She ate her breakfast today thats more than she have the last couple of days. She seems fine. Hopefully it won't get any worse than this. But I will get the medication if it gets as bad as your aunts dog

Jeanette

That's ok Barbara, no offence taken. Just that I have had a bitch go through this and observed the stress & bewilderment she experienced. It was both sad and pathetic and if it can be avoided by spaying/medication I do feel that is the way to go