Just wanted to know if anyone else out there has had this happened to them. I have a bitch that every time she comes into heat she produce's milk. My vet say's it is because she is the alpha bitch.(always comes into heat same time as other bitch). This time though it was almost three months after she was in heat that she started producing milk. My vet wants to put her on some medicine for 6-8 months to block her hormones to calm them down. I was wanting to breed her soon since she is almost 4. Has anyone every have this happen to them.
Sounds like a full blown false pregnancy to me. I sure wouldn't mess around with her hormones and if you want to breed her do the proper testing and go for it. It may make her more normal, or some girls always have false pregnancies when not bred. Poor things....
I agree with the previous poster; unless you're going with a reproductive vet or an expert in endocrinology who has a lot of successful experience with this type of thing, I would not mess with it medically. Bitch's hormones are mysterious things. I personally try to go as naturally as possible with hormonal things; they are so powerful and have a mind of their own!
I've heard many a vet say the ony "cures" for a false pregnancy are: 1. get her pregnant, it will often stop the false pregnancies forever, or 2. spay her! In your case since you are wanting to breed her, I would do that.
I had a mixed-breed unspayed female that I found on the street once that had milk and acted very "broody." I took her in to the vet, and we xrayed her and determined there were no puppies. We spayed her and I fostered her for the adoptive owner as they couldn't handle her obsessive behavior. She collected all the soft toys in the house and pulled them towards her, nested with them and refused to leave them and wouldn't let any other dogs around. This went on for a couple weeks after she was spayed. I let her do this, as trying to make her "not pregnant" and taking her "babies" away caused her extreme anxiety. This is what I mean about hormones being very strong forces!
I have a bitch that did the same thing with every cycle and is not the alpha. I took her to a breeding specialist and at the U of M and they put her on a round of progesterone the first day she bled on her next cycle. In three days her cycle was over and she did not produce any milk. Since then she has had normal cycles with no false pregnancies. She did not need to stay on the meds, it was a one time thing. I now have her on concept a bitch at all times and that seems to help as well.
I have two that produce milk every heat cycle. I just watch carefully that they do not develop mastitis. I find that if I get them out more frequently (walks, training, etc) they tend to dry up quicker. I guess it gets their minds of of having imaginary pups.
