Season regularity and vest help needed please.

[strongasmeringue]

My 13 month old golden retriever is booked into be spayed later this month but I'm worried she's gearing up for another season already. Her first was mid June but for at least 4 weeks before she refused breakfast and wasn't overly fussed about food. For the last 3 days she's not been wanting breakfast and only has it threee hours later after a walk and me showing it to her and staying with her. Is it possible she could be having another season already?

When she is spayed I do not want her having the lampshade head cover and want something a neighbour's dog has but I can't remember what it's called. It sounds like a vest type thing which stops the dog getting to the stitches. I've googled but nothing has come up.

Can anyone help with either question please?

Medical vest or medical pet shirt. You can get them from Amazon.

If you google medical pet vest it should bring up the one my dog had when he had a mahossive wound on his side. It won't stop her licking the wound though, so she may need a collar for a while. I used the vest to keep his wound clean.

I found that he could still reach some wounds even with the collar, and we ended up with the biggest collar I have ever seen! I got over this with his last injury by getting a blow up collar in additoin to a smaller cone.

Yes, he is very accident prone #bastardspaniel

Thank you, I'll look now.

Did her last season start in mid-June or finish then? And was it a completely normal season, no stopping sooner than you'd expect or anything?

There are such things as split seasons which is where a bitch appears to go into season normally but it stops before ovulation happens. Then the season restarts and usually progresses normally several weeks (or even a few months) later. It's not anything to worry about but obviously it's not ideal for her to be spayed if she is heading into another season. I'd keep an eye on her and if she does continue to appear to be going into season I'd postpone her spay until everything has settled down afterwards.

Another thing to consider is that if her season stared around mid-june she'd be within the usual timescale for pyometra. It's less common in younger bitches and just being off her food could be caused by all sorts but I would just keep an eye out for any further symptoms, just in case. Any abnormal discharge, drinking/urinating more, vomiting or lethargy and I'd get her checked out asap.

She would be bang on time for a phantom pregnancy which can cause them not to eat, nest, mammary development and often milk to be present.

She started bleeding in mid June and was in season for 4-5 weeks. She wasn't liking it much. I wondered about a phantom pregnancy so bought her two soft puppy toys. She killed them within the week .

Two days running she has laid down a couple of times during the walk and just played with her ball. Not usual behaviour. Today she kept trying to go back the way we'd come which was the first time for this.

She ate tea straight away. Didn't miss her 7:30 treat and is happily chewing on a toy at the moment.

Daft question - how will I know if she has a discharge? She does quite a few little wees on her walk. Maybe 4-5 and did in the run up to her season starting but really, it's quite normal for her I think.

Will the vet be able to tell if she's about to come into season? If she's bleeding then it's easy but other than that I don't know. A friends dog was spayed when just starting her season.

Please don't have her done until at least 18 months old research why!

I can't believe your friends dog was spayed when she'd just started her season?!?! that's awful!!! What kind of vets does she use? Ours do not spay female dogs until at least 12 weeks AFTER the last season, certainly wouldn't touch her whilst she's actually in season

The vet will know.

They'll ask you questions about her last season, how long ago etc.

But honestly, any decent vet would advise not to spay until 18 months old. If they suspect she's due any time soon then any vet with half a brain wouldn't go near her.

DDog3 was spayed a week after a suppressed season and the effect on her has been greater than I could possibly have imagined (and not in a good way)

The vet said do it at six months. A nurse said let her have a season and wait until at least one year old so we did. We were going to let her have two seasons but she said no advantage to her having two. She never said we had to wait until 18 months. Given DDog struggled the first time around, wouldn't it be kinder to not make her go through it again? Is the advantage to doing it after 18 months old worth the distress she may have? .

Sparkling advice has changed 12 weeks post season is most likely to be phantom pregnancy so the current recommendations are 6 to 8 weeks post season. Where a bitch has been caught by a dog and the owners do not wish to breed I future recommendations are to Spay 4 weeks post season.
With an experience surgeon bitches are spayed in season in certain situations because the risks associated with spaying in season are less than the risks of continuing with the season, diabetes would be one of theses and I did one such case last week.

That's interesting lonecat, we weren't told anything about diabetes or anything else when DDog3 was spayed

The nurse told us six weeks after but that would have been when DDog was on antibiotics so said to wait. When I rang to book her in I checked the time span and she said 12 weeks after checking with the vet.