QuestionQUESTION: Last night, my 7 month old female yorkie, and my 2 year old male yorkie tied for the first time-- that I am aware of. They are home alone sometimes so I can't say this is the first time for certain. She went through the bleeding stage 2-3 weeks ago, then about 1-2 weeks ago went through the "clear/pinkish" discharge phase. Now this happened. She is only 7 months old and I'm very concerned about what happened last night. I was wondering if there's anything I can do for her or what I should do. I'm not positive she is even pregnant, but I'm frantic at this point! PLEASE help!
ANSWER: Sami,
The usual breeding cycle is:
Week 1 - bleeding begins and intensifies towards the end of the week.
Week 2 - Bleeding starts to decrease replaced with pinkish discharge.
Week 3 - Bleeding stops completely all that remains is a slightly swollen pee pee.
The usual time to breed is the seventh to the ninth day of her cycle. After the pinkish discharge stops they technically cannot get pregnant. That however is not a steadfast rule. I say that because technically a female will not allow a male to mate with her once she is past the "pink discharge phase". This brings to mind two scenarios that could be in play here.
1. She was not past the breeding point and is now pregnant.
2. Because she is so young she did not know how to say no and she is not pregnant.
If scenario one is the case then you will probably have to make a decision about her having the pups or not. There are several methods to stop a pregnancy but none of them are good if you want her to have puppies in the future.
If scenario two is the case then you have nothing to worry about but for her safety I would keep them apart until you are sure she is well past her heat.
I want to caution you that if you don't want her to be pregnant (not a good idea at her young age) you must act quickly. If you want her to be pregnant then you will know in a few weeks because her pee pee will remain swelled well past her heat and as she gets more pregnant it will swell even bigger.
If you have any follow-up questions to ask please feel free to contact me again.
Sincerely,
Melinda
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: I hope that she was just too young to realize she's supposed to say no. However, if that's not the case, what are my options and how long do I have to make a decision and act? Also, her pee pee is still swollen and its been 3-4 weeks since her heat began, is this a sure sign she's pregnant since they only tied a few days ago? I'm very worried, please help!
AnswerSami,
You would need to act asap. There is a shot that can be given to the female to make her abort the litter. If she is past the point when they can do that she would have to have an abortion and more than likely they would have to spay her in order to do this. The pee pee stays swollen for about ten days after her heat but the way you tell if she is pregnant is that the pee pee will begin to swell bigger than when she was in heat. You did not say how large the male was. If he is larger than her she may have trouble having the pups naturally because they are usually to large. In that event she would have to have a c-section which is also not desirable because the mom and pups can both die during this kind of procedure. I was fortunate in that I never lost a mother during a c-section but I did loose several puppies. More than likely she is pregnant. If they are capable of going into heat they are capable of getting pregnant. Dogs are not like people, if they mate they usually get pregnant. If she were my Yorkie I would take her to the vet and have him explain what my options were and then go from there.
Good Luck and I hope your baby will be ok.
Sincerely,
Melinda
