Did Mercedes go into "heat"

[lindak]

Never having gone thru this before and spaying my 6.5 y/o Rottie before she went into her first heat, i am not sure about a few things.

First, Mercedes suffered a bad UTI when we picked her up from the breeder. We found a great vet who got her back into good health. She was on antibiotics and RX food and all was in order again.

Two weeks ago (at 5 months, 3 weeks) she came into heat. At least we believe so. My husband picked her up from school. She is a great passenger in my SUV and stays in the back. She insisted on climbing over onto the back seat where she lost it! There was alot of discharge and blood. When i got home, my husband told me to take a look and OMG, the smell was something like i never smelt before. Sorry !!! Can only describe it as bad fish or like to vet said, bad meat. We went out and bought her pull up pants and occassionaly that evening, there were tiny spots on a liner. The next morning, there were large spots of blood in her crate. My husband has seen small spots around the house too. The smell has persisted thru the last two weeks in her urine. The vet says it her "calling" to the neighborhood.
Just to make sure, we also took a urine sample to the vet. The results came in with crystals in her urine (she was previously ver sick with this and it went away with diet - he prescribed changing food again). Puss was also found but is common when dogs go into heat. The smell was confirmed that it is part of the heat.

Her spotting has been soooo minimal if any at all. My husband has seen it here and there and if you clean her off, you might see light traces.

Has anyone had similar experiences.

Thanks.

[OnyxGold1]

Sounds like a very odd "heat" period if it was one.

Right now I have 3 girls in season......one can surely bring the others in.......and I certainly haven't smelled any type of odor as you are describing. They all wear bitch britches in the house which I have lined with diapers.....and for the first 1-1.5 weeks I end up changing the diapers daily because there is that much blood.....however after that it dramatically decreases. Again I've never smelled the type of smell that you are describing.

Also her coming in at 5 months sounds peculiar as well. My girls typically come in anywhere between 8-10 months of age. I believe my vet once told me that little dogs mature faster and they are typically in around the 5-6 month mark but larger breed dogs take longer to mature so typically come in later. I do know from hearing from people who feed raw that their girls come in even later and that it isn't unusual for a bitch to come in for the first time around a year or later.....

I've had bitches bred ~~ and have never had the pus as you have described either.

So it sounds unusual to me~~I think if she were my dog and I wasn't intending to show her I would probably spay her sooner rather than later as it almost sounds like a pyrometra type situation setting itself up for the future.

JMO
Heather Peters

[lindak]

Thanks for your reply. We have her spay appointment for June 5th.
The vet did smell the odor and confirmed that it is from her "heat". He's not concerned and he did compare it to a smell much like anal gland secretion.
My thought was that if this was an infection of the bladder (because of the blood) it would have gotten worse since two weeks ago and it hasn't changed. The urine is only a very deep yellow color when she's held it for a while. I am just a bit anxious for next week to confirm whether she's gone into a heat or not. Vet says he can tell!

[Terri Lambert]

I actually would get a second opion if it was my dog as it does not sound like she is in season. Females that are in season do have an odor to them but not like what you are talking about. Also I agree with the others that five months is quite young, both of my girls have come in at ten months as well as my friends.

[sweetlee]

I also would seek a second opinion. This is very early for a large dog to have a first heat.
Also I have been around females who are in season, and although they have a certain smell, I did not find it anything like rotten meat or anal glands. This almost sounds like an infection of some sort, especially the rotten stench.
Did your vet do a smear of the discharge, and look to see if it contains pus cells?
I would at least insist on that, because you certainly don't want a vet cutting into your dog for a spay surgery in a week if there is infection present, it could be disastrous.

Sharon