Phantom pregnancy in puppy?

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

My pup is now 10 months, she finished her first season last week in oct, she was supervised 99% of the time when out except for a couple of occasions when she escaped from our garden (was missing for no more than 5 mins and there are no strays in our area, arse end of nowhere and everyone's dogs are kept in unless walking) last 2 weeks I have noticed her mammary tissue is very swollen and her back 4 teats are enlarged, she also seems to have some milky discharge from her Teats if gently squeezed. She is 100% her usual loony self, and when I feel her abdomen it's not distended at all. I'm pretty sure she isnt pregnant, so this must be a phantom pregnancy right? So what the hell can I do about it? Does she need to go to the vet or will it resolve itself? I wanted to get her spayed ASAP after first season, wish I had ignored the vet and had it done before first season now! Hoping she isnt in any discomfort or anything

[haddock1976]

My dog had a mild phantom about 6 weeks after her first season (9 months). I reduced her food, took away her bedding and exercised her more. All this made her brain think that having puppies right now would be bad idea as life is not as comfortable as she thought it was. I took this course of action first rather than an injection from the vet, if it hadn't worked then of course I would've gone down the vet route. Bitches who have one phantom can be prone to getting them over and over again. I had no intention of breeding from my dog so got her spayed when the phantom cleared up.

Have a chat to your vet, he/she wasn't wrong (IMO) about waiting till after the first season before spaying. But that's probably a whole other thread.

[HopeTheHeraldAngelsSing]

If she already has milk, then I would suggest you get something from the vet asap to stop it, as it can get infected otherwise (as there are no actual puppies to suckle at the milk).

My 6yo bitch gets this too, and the best way to avoid it (if you are not spaying) is as haddock says to distract, exercise more and take away toys (which get apprehended as substitute puppies).

[whojamaflip]

had this with our Patterdale after her 1st season - knew she couldn't have been "got at" but took her to the vets anyway to be sure. Turned out she had a phantom pg and a urinary infection so ended up on anti-bs. btw the vet said not to squeeze her teats as it stimulates the milk production.

[rogersmellyonthetelly]

I only squeezed the once very gently so hopefully won't have stimulated anything. Will take her to vet tomorrow and get it sorted.