first season or rather lack of it !

Question
QUESTION: Hi sorry to bother you, we have been given quite a lot of conflicting advice so now our head is spinning. We breed pointers and 1 girl that we bred is now just over 22 months old and never had a season. She has twice now appeared as though she was coming in ( swelling peeing more etc) but nothing its not a silent season as she lives with my other dogs which inc 2 stud dogs. They occasionally smell her but thats it. Several people have said "leave her she will come in eventually" others inc vet and the fertility expert they contacted say " do something now as she is on course for a pyometera" the fertility expert suggested she is lacking progesterone so that is stopping her coming in so suggests a PMSG jab which wil bring her in, then he suggested mating her and then having a folical injection, the mating now was because there can be no guarantee that she wil ever have a season properly. We are holding off for the time being as she is being elbow and hip scored next week so wont even consider mating her until results are through.
We hadnt even contanplated mating her until late 09 early 10 so it would be earlier than planned. BUT all we want is what is best for our girl.The other concern is that her daddy sired a litter a week before he mated our girl and he sired another litter a week after.. so there was 3 litters to him born within 3 weeks and at least 1 bitch from each litter has failed to come in to season.
There were 3 bitches in our litter, our girl and 1 that was spayed at just over a year who hadnt had a season and the other had a season aged 13 months old but nothing since.
Your advice would be most welcome.
Many many thanks for your time.

ANSWER: Hi Di

At 22 months and no heat, the fact that the male is consistently throwing females that don't cycle would suggest genetics.

Sure you can go with fertility drugs, progesterone and the like but do you really want add the negative list of genetic traits to your breed?

I would suggest doing a thyroid test.  That may be the root of the problem, but remember that thyroid is genetic.  I would then spayed her and let her live a pampered life.  

A responsible breeder would remove the sire from their program immediately.  Once you have a genetic marker in a breed, it is near impossible to get it out.

Good luck


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much for your reply I would NEVER ever breed from a dog with suspected hereditary problem that is why we hip score etc as we are Kennel club accredited breeders and consider ourselves responsible, so if it is proven what she has is genetical she will be spade asap. Again thank you very much

Answer
I didn't mean to imply you would Di.  

Just as a FYI in the German Shepherd, one of my favorite breeds, a particular male was used extensively and his lines are everywhere.  The problem was/is that he had cryptorchidism (one testicle) and today it's common in the breed.

So kudos to you for doing everything right the first time!