phantom pregnancy

Poor little dog!
Has she been spayed? None of my dogs have ever gone through this so I can offer no advice, just feel sorry for your dog and for you hearing her cry

It doesn't happen in speyed bitches, it's something that can occur after a recent season. Sorry to tell you symptoms can last for up to 4 wks.

I'm sorry to hear your poor dog is going through this.

This info might help :

There is a limited amount of ways in which you can deal with a phantom pregnancy that is already underway, and the condition will usually go away on its own as your bitch’s hormone levels change and return to normal. However, a bitch that has undergone one phantom pregnancy is exponentially more likely to go through the same process again with future seasons, and as bitches come into season once or twice a year and the phantom pregnancy may run on a lot longer, this can prove to be a recurring problem for dog and owner.

Spaying the bitch will of course resolve the problem, and if you are not intending to use your bitch for breeding, there is of course no good reason not to have her spayed as early as possible! One of the main problems of a phantom pregnancy can be milk production, which can be fairly copious. Your bitch may lick her nipples, which will stimulate milk production and increase hormone levels too, so preventing your bitch from doing this by means of a buster collar or putting your bitch in a t-shirt may help to shorten the length of the phantom pregnancy.

If the phantom pregnancy goes on for a long time or is particularly problematic, your vet may recommend a hormonal treatment to dry up her milk production and counteract the effect of the female hormones that are leading to the generation of the false pregnancy symptoms.

Phantom pregnancies are not physically harmful to your bitch but they can lead to emotional changes for the duration, so it is important to work closely with your vet to ascertain the best course of action to follow.

I've bred and shown dogs all my life and only ever experienced this once, so it's not the norm. Not that that helps but it does pass

Do have her spayed, some suffer badly emotionally and if they have one you can expect it to happen every time . Distract her, more walks, but she will still nest and she will produce milk

Very sorry to be a pedant but it is spey and not spay.

Sorry to correct your correction, nina but spay is right. The Spey is a salmon river.

Do have her spayed; not only will it stop her having phantom pregnancies but also prevent a potentially fatal condition where the uterus becomes infected, necessitating an emergency operation (I can't remember what it is called, endo.....something or another)
My mother had a poodle that had phantom pregnancies and it became increasingly difficult to manage so she was spayed. End of problems!

I nearly lost my last whippet with pyometra and would never not have a bitch spayed now. I thought the operation was more for convenience and vets pushed it because it made money but I'm almost evangelical about it now.

That's it Tegan (not 'endo....something!)
It cost mum a heck of a vet's bill to save the dog's life
We always had bitches and every one was spayed, no question whatever it's best for the dog.

Our first bitch, a dalmatian, started to have phantom pregnancies very early, after her second season. When we realised they were becoming a pattern we let her have a litter (broke our hearts seeing her trying to feed one of the children's soft toys ). She had 8 beautiful little pups (I bought my first tumble drier from the proceeds - an absolute boon with two DC under 3!).
Unfortunately having the litter didn't break the cycle and she continued having phantoms, so we had her spayed.
Incidentally, our vet told us that spaying wouldn't necessarily stop the phantom pregnancies . But it did, thank heavens.

Pyometra is common in bitches that haven't been spayed or used for breeding. We nearly lost JR Millie two years ago and she had had two litters of puppies. She was booked in to be spayed but it was postponed because she had a dental infection that had to be cleared up first.

Like Tegan I would advise everyone to get their bitches spayed.

The veterinary surgeon I worked for wrote it as spey and on line sites say spey.

'Unspayed female animals can be messy when they come into season - during this time, females can bleed for up to three week's.
...that's from the RSPCA site
my Sherleys Dog Book spells it as 'spay'. Maybe 'spey' is American perhaps?

Not worth squabbling the very but I checked too and found this

Cats Neutering - Cats spaying | RSPCA
www.rspca.org.uk › pets › cats › health
Protect your kitten by neutering them. ... to have a simple operation called spaying (also known as 'fixing', 'neutering' or 'being done'). ...

Not "the very", over sorry!

Not important in the grand scheme of things and I'm certainly not bothered any more maybe it is American

Maybe veterinary surgeons handwriting is on a parr with GP's ...

many thanks all - very helpful. She seems calmer but it sounds as though the sp word may the best course. mustgrumble (forgot her password and had to reregister) won't forget to ask vet how he spells it while he's sharpening the knife