Boxer Puppy in heat

Question
I have a one year old boxer and she is in her second season.  She has been bleeding for 3.5 weeks.  I called the vet and they said that she could bleed for up to 4 weeks.  She's been sedate and is sleeping a lot.  Normally, she is not as high-spirited as some other boxers I've been around, but she's sleeping a lot even for her.  Also, for about three days she had accidents in her kennel if she were kept in there for very long.  I'm wondering if this behavior is normal, or if I should be concerned at this point.  Although I am very careful about her interactions with other dogs, I'm still paranoid that I might have missed something.  At what point will I know that she's completed her season and is not pregnant?

Thanks!

Answer
Hi Wyndi,

You'll know when she's completed her season when she stops bleeding - but even then, I tend to add another week of confinement for 'safety'.  Increased frequency of urination is fairly typical, and decreased activity can be as well - you just want to watch for other signs of possible infection like fever, lack of appetite, a discharge that's got pus in it, etc.  There is a condition called pyometra that's not uncommon in bitches after a season - it typically shows up a month or so after they come out, but it can happen earlier as well, so you do want to be vigilant about that.

If you're truly concerned about a pregnancy, a vet can do a palpation or an ultrasound at 28-35 days post-breeding (or, if your "paranoid timeframe" extends more than a couple of days, guesstimate she would have been most fertile at 10-14 days after she started bleeding and go 4-5 weeks from there).  These are not 100% accurate, especially with singleton litters, but are pretty close.  Worst case, at about 8 weeks you'll usually start to see puppies moving, and at about 9 weeks she'll go into labor - temp will drop below 99F and stay down, she'll pant and shiver, etc.  (Some bitches go through false pregnancies which include false labor, but at that point a vet should be able to tell if there are puppies - at the very least an x-ray would show them.) The other signs of possible pregnancy - weight gain, losing tuck-up, enlarged nipples and vulva, lack of appetite, vomiting, 'clinginess', etc. can be signs of a false pregnancy or signs of pyometra, which complicates matters, but again, if you're truly concerned your vet can do ultrasound/x-ray to find out what, if anything, is going on.

Good luck!!