female dog in heat and dog missing hair

Question
hi becky,  i have a female maltese who will be six months on the 10 of august.  she is not fixed yet( for certain reasons) but what are the signs of Daisy, going in to heat?  I have heard that they pant a lot.  Is that so.  I have lots of fans on with the air so i know the house is not hot.  Any suggestions of what all i can expect would be wonderful.

Also i have asked you about my dog Casper (he had 2 kidney stone and then was on medicine, which he now has finished) well on his chest his hair is very this almost like peach fuzz and on the sides of his head above his eyes/next to ears is very thin.  Also he seem to have gotten dark spots or freckles that I really never noticed before all this.  i know from the stress of it all he could have lost some hair or bodies change.  Are these new freckles/spots nothing to worry about. He seems find now back to like he was before all this started to happen.

Thanks and have a great evening.
Raquelin

Answer
Hi Raquelin!

The most obvious thing that a dog will do when coming into heat, is lick themselves alot.  Her vulva will swell and there will be a bloody discharge,  just a little bit at first.  If she is licking herself a lot, then you can pretty much count on her coming into heat.  Be careful as male dogs will come around and you sure don't want her to be bred.   Panting has nothing to do with her coming into season.

I'm not sure if the loss of hair or freckles on Casper has anything to do with his kidney stones.  If he is acting ok, then I sure wouldn't worry about it.  If the hair loss gets worse, then you may want to take him in for a skin scraping.  I wouldn't worry about it though, unless he begins to lose lots of hair.

God Bless,
Becky