Hello all, a while back I posted about one of my girls who was doing a funky heat cycle on me. Let me refresh here... She came into season and we bred her on Day 13 & 14 (just spotting blood at this time) used a home boy so no progesterone's where need at the time of breeding.
Then 10 days later she started to bleed again - thats what I posted and most of you thought MAYBE it was implantation bleeding (sounds good - my vet couldnt tell me for sure if it was or not) and I also did a progesterone on the second day she started to bleed again and its was very low (Canadian # 0.64) which can indicate pregnant or just starting her cycle all over again but no real confirmation as to which it really was. She only bleed for 2 days and then stopped again.
After 37 days from the breedings I didnt see any signs of pregnancy so I figured there was NONE!
Well guess what - 43 days from being breed she starts another Heat Cycle AGAIN.
( 55 days from the first heat cycle that she was bred on)
SO MY questions is has anyone experienced any thing like this and can this be classified as a split heat?
Thanks for listening.... Pete
I think the only thing you can do is track her progesterone levels and see if she ovulates. It is impossible to know exactly what your girl is doing without that.
I had a girl who came into estrus, and on day 11 rather than starting to flag, her vulva shrunk, and she was not at all receptive to the male. She was out! Some thirty days later, she started to swell and bleed again. A progesterone level showed that she quite literally came in where she left off. If I recall correctly, her progesterone level was about 4 on day two of the second go-round. About two days later (day four of the second season) we bred her, and she conceived a normal litter. My girl had a true "split season", as demonstrated by progesterone levels.
Nature is funny. Often if conditions are off somehow (health, weather, whatever..), it signals the body to stop the presses until such time as it is right to carry and deliver a litter.
I am a bit confused that you say her progesterone was "low", which you thought indicated pregnancy. Actually, progesterone is the hormone of pregnancy. Progesterone concentrations increase throughout estrus, and slowly decline thereafter, in both pregnancy and non-pregnant bitches.
There may be concern that your girl is unable to maintain proper progesterone levels if she repeatedly has a split-estrus. There is a good article online that I will attempt to find for you. I can't recall the author, and I'll have to search for it.
