False Pregnancy

AryaStark

Hi All.

My poor dog has been through the mill the last few weeks. When she finnished her heat she was not well and the vet diagnosed pyo and I arranged to have her spayed.

She went in on Thursday and the op went well although she did have a bad infection and is on antibiotics. After a bit of bleeding and messing she settled on Sat and seemed to be doing ok.

Then Sat night/early sunday morning she started crying and panting and was very visibly upset. She has a load of teddies but she grabbed one and was really possessive of it. I had to get the vet and he has now diagnosed a false pregnancy. He said that she should be ok but is crying and upset because she is missing her puppies. He said I should let her have the teddy and just leave her to it.

She is ok when I am sitting beside her but if I leave the room she is bawling and she will not go out and leave the teddy.

Does anybody have any experience of this? I would love to be able to do something to help her...

She is in Thursday to get the stitches out and the vet said he would see how she is then...

Milly33

When you say she misses her puppies do you mean she was pregnant with the pups when she got sprayed

AryaStark

Milly33 wrote: »

When you say she misses her puppies do you mean she was pregnant with the pups when she got sprayed

No the vet said that she thinks that she was pregnant... I had never heard of false pregnancy in dogs but looking it up it seems like the dog really thinks they are pregnant. She now thinks that her teddy is a pup ...and that the others are missing (thats what the vet said)

Milly33

Ok so the dog thinks she was pregnant! Yeah tis normally alright a lot of dogs suffer from it.. And as your mentioned she is very possessive with the teddy, all normally just try to give her a bit of tlc

Milly33

sorry should have said normal, still glitches on the site it keeps jamming..

Maybe you could like go with it that she does have the pup until it phases out.

AryaStark

I am going with it because she is so upset but then she seems to really love the teddy (its a little purple sheep) and it seems to be giving her a bit of comfort.
I would be a little bit worried because when I looked online everything says that you would not spay during a false pregnancy... I guess it is too late to worry about that now. Just hope she is ok soon... she will get loads of tlc and back to the vets on Thursday.

Knine

Normally they have a false pregnancy 2 mths after they have a heat i.e. when they would be due puppies if they had been mated. Spaying would normally stop that. How soon after her heat was she spayed?

I have several intact bitches here. You need to take that teddy bear off her immediately. Normally I would reduce food a bit & increase exercise at the same time but you can't do that as she is getting over a spay. Certainly though she should not be allowed mother a teddy as this only prolongs her recovery from the false pregnancy.

AryaStark

Knine wrote: »

Normally they have a false pregnancy 2 mths after they have a heat i.e. when they would be due puppies if they had been mated. Spaying would normally stop that. How soon after her heat was she spayed?

I have several intact bitches here. You need to take that teddy bear off her immediately. Normally I would reduce food a bit & increase exercise at the same time but you can't do that as she is getting over a spay. Certainly though she should not be allowed mother a teddy as this only prolongs her recovery from the false pregnancy.

Are you sure about taking the teddy away? I don't mean to question you, its just that she is totally attached to it and I don't want to stress her out any more.
I was out making dinner in the kitchen and she cried the whole time (about 45 minutes)... Its a bit distressing to see her so upset.

AryaStark

AryaStark wrote: »

Are you sure about taking the teddy away? I don't mean to question you, its just that she is totally attached to it and I don't want to stress her out any more.
I was out making dinner in the kitchen and she cried the whole time (about 45 minutes)... Its a bit distressing to see her so upset.

I meant to add that she ended her heat in the 2nd/3rd week of December. I didn't know that is was a possibility of a false pregnancy as well as the pyo ... It was about 7 weeks ago...
She was sick after finishing her heat so I arranged to have her spayed but with being away for new years and then the vets off the soonest we could do it was last week.

andreac

AryaStark wrote: »

Are you sure about taking the teddy away? I don't mean to question you, its just that she is totally attached to it and I don't want to stress her out any more.
I was out making dinner in the kitchen and she cried the whole time (about 45 minutes)... Its a bit distressing to see her so upset.

Yes you should take it off her. It will only prolong it and make things worse for you the longer you leave it with her. Follow knines advice as she is very experienced but you should never really encourage this behaviour when it's a false pregnancy.

DBB

You might also talk to your vet about giving her anti-prolactin medication, to suppress the hormone prolactin which helps drive false pregnancies. Probably only worth considering if she's taking too much time to get over this.
I have a dim and distant memory the pyo can cause or worsen the symptoms of pseudopregnancy. I might have dreamt that, but there's a little bell ringing for some reason
The spay was completely incidental to this pseudopregnancy, it's just an unfortunate coincidence. It will stop this from happening again though.
Poor girl, she's really in the wars lately, isn't she?

AryaStark

DBB wrote: »

You might also talk to your vet about giving her anti-prolactin medication, to suppress the hormone prolactin which helps drive false pregnancies. Probably only worth considering if she's taking too much time to get over this.
I have a dim and distant memory the pyo can cause or worsen the symptoms of pseudopregnancy. I might have dreamt that, but there's a little bell ringing for some reason
The spay was completely incidental to this pseudopregnancy, it's just an unfortunate coincidence. It will stop this from happening again though.
Poor girl, she's really in the wars lately, isn't she?

She has definitely been through it... she is usually never cry or show that she is upset so thats why it is a bit stressful and sad.

I hate the idea of taking away the teddy... could it not push her over the edge?

Knine

The teddy will encourage her to produce more hormones which will delay her recovery & she may then start producing milk if not already to feed her teddy. This will cause some new problems. The best thing for her is to take it away.

She will be back to herself soon.

AryaStark

Do you know if the crying and heavy breading and panting is normal. She only ever cried twice before now and now it is continuous unless I am sitting with her... then it is on and off.
She is very intense and alert... she would usually sleep nearly all day and now she didn't sleep once today...

Knine

I would not expect her to have too much heavy panting or be too restless. In view of her having the infection I would take her back to the vet if you are worried. My bitches having a phantom tend to be quieter then normal & if they got anything furry they would hide away with it. Keep a close eye on her.

AryaStark

The vet seen her Sunday when she was crying loads... he seemed to think she would be ok and said it was hormones making her cry and upset etc
I will keep an eye I guess... I won't be taking the teddy tonight but will see in the morning...

katkin

My little doggy had this after she was spayed, all her toys became her pups and she carried them around whining. Only lasted about four/five days before she started throttling them again. I would just leave it to her, comfort her, and it will pass shortly.

jimf

with the heavy panting I would be more worried that she is a bit of pain maybe the meds are not doing the trick

would agree with a false pregnancy having these symptoms but usually these appear nearer the time that pups would be due if she was in pup

another worry would be mastitis at this time as well does her teats look swollen or discharging

poor little pet hope she is better soon

AryaStark

Her teats look ok but in general that area is still a bit swollen. It is not red at all and the stitches look great. She is not at them either so I think they are ok. I was worried that she was in pain but she is moving around very good. She is also eating and drinking and has been able to go to the toilet no problem.

jimf

from experience I know only too well about having to spay bitches with pyo

with the increased blood flow around the time of heat can bring other problems usually not associated with a planned spay

AryaStark

jimf wrote: »

from experience I know only too well about having to spay bitches with pyo

with the increased blood flow around the time of heat can bring other problems usually not associated with a planned spay

Would the recovery normally take long? I had not realised it would be so hard on her. She is finished her anti biotic today. The vet didn't give me extra pain killers. He said she had a slow release one when she was coming home. Then on Sunday he was happy with her movement and how she was with him examining her.
He did tell me to leave her with the teddy which is really the easy option for me. I can't image taking it as she really is attached. I can see it is not healthy but it really is easier!

jimf

I can honestly say the first few days were hard on my lady but by day 4 she was back in great form
she is a springer spaniel and they don't like being curtailed only exercise was on the lead for a while
but unlike yours mine didn't develop a false pregnancy

peggy had to go back to surgery again the following day because of overnight bleeding she also needed a blood transfusion to which she had a reaction

id say by day 10 she was back to her old self