Silent heat?!

tk123

Firstly apologies because I'm clueless about girl dogs(!)..
Lucy will be 11 months this week and I'm wondering if she may have had a silent heat 2 months ago? There was an odour, I checked her and saw that she wasn't inverted like she had been and when I wiped with tissue there was a discharge with a very feint yellow colour but no blood - I didn't think she was swollen though. Around the same time she was standing with her front legs up on the couch basically shoving herself in Bailey's face a lot - he was sniffing but not humping her or anything (he's neutered). I had read that liquid chlorophyll is supposed to help with masking the scent so assuming she was going into heat gave her one dose and the smell was gone. Again I'm clueless here but when the vet told me at her 6 month checkup that she was still quite inverted I didn't get what she meant - after some googling I found out that dogs with inverted vulvas can get vaginitis a lot so possibly that's all it was and it cleared up when she was no longer inverted??! I'm kicking myself that I didn't just bring her to the vet at the time - I felt a bit stupid lol! :P

Knine

Several of my bitches have had silent heats for their first heat. They swelled up as normal & the heat cycle was fairly short. There was no blood. Other dogs were very interested as normal. If having a silent heat the swelling is still fairly obvious. They went on to have normal heat cycles afterwards.

minipink

This is fascinating. I'd never heard of silent heat but it definitely happened to my dads dog. We got 2 females from a golden retriever, smooth collie litter, I got Lola at 8 weeks and he fell for her so when one of the homes for another dog didn't work out and she needed rehoming, he took Suzy at about 6 months. She had not been in heat in her old house and when Lola came into heat at 8 months I was expecting Suzy to follow suit. Lola is blonde and Suzy is black so it was easier to see swelling and stuff on Lola. She never came into season and as dad was recommended to wait til first heat to spay, Lola got spayed (keyhole) and Suzy remained un neutered. We started asking questions at 18 months as she surely should have come into heat by then and got her spayed anyway but perhaps she had a silent heat as she got very moody and glum at about 9 months but at that time Lola was going through her rebellious unlearning all training phase so we thought that that was Suzy's way of being teenagery! But maybe she had a silent hear there. Hope your little lady has been and gone through her first heat poor Lola was traumatised by it, she's a licker and was worn out trying to keep clean not to mind the unwelcome visitors we had!

tk123

Oh how did the keyhole spay go - I'm leaning towards it for Lucy? We're waiting for her to have a heat before we spay too.

minipink

Keyhole spay went perfectly, I didn't think I could deal with the dramatics of my little diva with a cone and stitches! She went in at 9 and we collected her at 5. She was woozy and sore for a day or 2 and exercise was limited but 1 stitch scar is gone and all was well. She was a bit dramatic about it. Another dog who got done walked out as though she'd been in for a check up. Have you a vet in mind to do it?

Although, and this has nothing to do with the procedure, Lola has always been a bit of a giddy goat and has a scared vulnerable dog act that she puts on by rolling on her back for anyone we meet. This only started post spay. She is still a feisty dog, wants to know everything that's going on etc and has experienced everything in the world - following guidelines to make her ok with trucks, trains lawnmowers from when she was a puppy etc worked perfectly until she was spayed and a lady who dog minds met me in the park and said anxiety in dogs can be made worse by neutering - maybe she was spouting old wife tale nonsense but a little bit of me still feels guilty.

tk123

minipink wrote: »

you a vet in mind to do it?

Our vet doesn't do it so thinking of Paul Kelly in Ratoath

minipink

That's who we used and he was so kind to Lola gave her a kiss when she got her stitch out and all. However, she developed kennel cough after being with him. A risk I suppose you take when going to a vets (seeing as she's never kennelled my own vet said she didn't need kennel cough vaccine) he stayed open late into the night as I drove from Malahide out to him and he charged me usual rates not emergency vets charge. The cost of the surgery itself was only slightly more than my regular vets full spay.