boxer heat before breeding

Question
I purchased my boxer girl from a very reputable and all around great breeder. She is now 2.5 years old. When she turned a year old my breeder and I began talking about breeding her and when she was not quite 2 I agreed (with her help of couse) to breed her. My breeder has been absolutely great in mentoring me, and she has agreed to come when labour starts to help me with delivery. We have had all our health checks done and she has been cleared through them all. My female is due to come into season in about 2-4 weeks. My breeder and I carefully chose a suitable stud and all is planned. My question is, about 3 days ago she started having a copper brownish discharge coming out of her vagina. Could this be the onset of her heat cycle already? I have never paid real close attention to her heat cycles as we have no males in the house and outdoor time is always supervised, so i never noticed what colour it was at the start. My breeder has gone to Mexico on vacation now and wont be back for a week and a half, and Im worried that I might miss her period where she will accept the stud. We talked about what to do if she came in early, but I never thought to ask about this as I have never noticed this before. She had her blood work done about a month ago so I know it cant be any type of disease. The discharge is very thin watery like, occasionaly a little thicker and gooey, and its a light brown copper colour. It is not much at all, but if I wipe her behind with a paper towel, it is there. Should I be counting my days from the time this started or is she just gearing up for her full heat?
Thanks

Answer
Hi Cory. IS your girl off her food or water at all? If she is, or starts to act depressed, take her to the vet. It's really hard to say for sure without actually seeing the discharge to know for sure what it is. It could be the start of her heat cycle, and then yes, you would start counting from the first day you saw it. Or, it could be the start of pyrometra, a serious uterine infection. Pyrometra has a brownish discharge that looks like tomato soup. If she's had this discharge for three days already, I'd go ahead and take her in to the vet just to be on the safe side. It sounds like to me that this dog is a valuable breeding bitch to you and her breeder, and a lot of time and effort has went into this dog. I'd hate for something to happen to her that could've been taken care of. I really don't want to scare you here, but I would have pyrometra ruled out, so then you can safely start to think about her breeding. It very well could just be the start of her cycle, but I'd feel better if this was checked out, just to be safe. Good luck, and let me know if I can help with anything else!