Dog spayed now acting like she whelped

[nootka]

A friend's dog was taken in to be spayed.

There is a possibility she was pregnant at the time, and now that she's home, they think the vet aborted the babies because the dog is gathering stuffed animals and nesting with them, and whining at them. One of her favorites is an Eeyore donkey animal that also makes noise, she thinks it's talking to her, apparently.

The reason they took her to the vet initially was that her nipples were changing. They always wanted to get her spayed and the vet went ahead and spayed her (as far as I understand...if it were me, I would have found out yes or not before the spay procedure...do they perform spays on a pregnant animal?).

Does anyone know if this behavior is a sure sign that she was indeed pregnant? Why wouldn't the vet have told them what happened?

Also, how can they get the dog past this? Or how long will it take her to realize that she's not really a mommy?

I had never heard of this before, but know there are lots of dog breeders/dog "experts" here and lots of experience.

Thanks in advance!

Liz

 

[laughingllama75]

well, number one, the vet may have had his own "feelings" on dogs with an unplanned pregnancy.....and spayed her anyway. Number 2, he may not have known, until he opened her up, then said to heck with it and spayed her anyway. and number 3, and this is probably more the answer......she has major hormonal issues going on (a spay takes out the whole reproductive tract) so her body may just be dealing with that. Either way, I would not worry, she will get over this in a short amount of time, I have seen dogs with false pregnancies before and they usually stop the behavior in a week or 2. Good luck and have your friend contact her vet about the way the dog is acting.......he may have more answers.......

 

[Sonya]

do they perform spays on a pregnant animal

Yes they will. My niece found a dog at the pound that she fell in love with...a small mix about a year old, that was pregnant. The animal was brought to the pound pregnant and the shelter was just going to let her have the puppies and try to adopt them out since the alternative (abortions) was too pricey....when my niece said she wanted the dog they said no you can't because she's pregnant. My sister said she would pay for the abortion/spaying and all costs plus the normal adoption fee and they did it.

I was shocked the shelter was going to let her have the puppies in the first place...it may sound heartless but better to destroy the pups before they were born than after IMO.

I don't think their dog had any adverse reactions like you are describing though...I'm sure she'll be ok in a couple days.

 

[Ashley]

YEs they do. We had a cat and dog spayed that were both preggers. They never had those reactions tho.

 

[nootka]

Ok, thanks for the information!

Her owners didn't want the puppies, but they also were not consulted and I guess if it were me, I would have wanted to be (of course if it wasn't discovered until they opened her up, that's another matter).

It's interesting to know that her behavior can happen even if she wasn't pregnant in the first place.

Liz

 

[Miniv]

Liz,

I think it would be common courtesy for the vet to inform the owners that their dog was pregnant, unless he discovered it in the middle of the surgery and couldn't break away.

That said, we had a cat who was still nursing, just starting the weaning process, and we took her in with her kittens to be checked and make arrangements for spaying. The vet informed us that she was already pregnant again!

Since she was very early pregnant, we went ahead with the spaying. And no, she didn't behave like your friend's dog is, but she was also not very far along.

Your friend's dog was probably in the late stages of pregnancy, since her nipples were changing. This may be why she is acting the way she is.

 

[RainSong]

My mother's "rescue" kitten, dubbed Mrs. Kitty, was pretty abused when she was found. maybe 2 weeks old, starved, etc. Mom doesn't want kittens, and Mrs. Kitty is only "big kitten" sized because of her start in life. So, Mom was nervous about having her spayed - she's apparently lost cats that were small due to being put under for spays before. When she did finally do it, apparently Mrs. Kitty was "a little bit" pregnant, but they did the spay anyways. As far as I know, she's never done any sort of mothering to anything- infact, if a cat older then about 6months is introduced, she attempts to drive them away!

That said, I've heard of a lot of female dogs who're spayed, never had pups... and have "puppies"- that is, stuffed animals they treat as though they are the dog's pup! I've seen/heard of cats doing it too, but not nearly as often.

Makes me wonder if we've always just had oddly non-motherly animals lol