Phantom pregnancies - Advice on how to deal with phantom pregnancies in setters

[Noeleen Corrigan]

Hi everyone, I am really after some advice here, or experiences on dealing with phantom pregnancies. Betti is 19 months, and she is currently experiencing her second phantom pregnancy. It is really heart breaking, she is off her food, is carrying toys around whimpering and licking them, she is totally depressed, and she is full of milk. I did get some homeopathy tablets from the vet for her. She is settling down now, but this started 9 days ago and has gone on much longer than the first time. Does anyone have any tips?

Noeleen.

[eva ciechonska]

Ossian, I have never, luckily, had a bitch with a Pyo but I would certainly take advice and treatment from a homeopathic vet. One of the reasons I give Sepia for the whole duration of season plus 9 weeks after is to prevent the risk of Pyo as well as minimising a phantom so, hopefully, it works on both conditions.

[Dee Rance]

Sepia is made from Squid ink..it changes hormones of the female, this is why it works so well on the bitches, at whatever potency your homoeopathic chemist advises, we are very lucky up here, to have one of the top homoeopathic chemists in the county, living in and working in Glasgow.

[eva ciechonska]

Its actually Cuttlefish ink not squid Dee.

[Dee Rance]

Cuttlefish Squid its still ink..

[ursula wilby]

Taking her toys away (as is mentioned by someone else) is step number one. And the most important one!

Step number two is to do fun things with her, and that does not need to mean hard excersise but rather something that lets her use her brain.

Just for a bit of comfort, I have not noticed ANY connection between mammary tumors and false pregnancies.

[Cheryl Gorey]

Just for a bit of comfort, I have not noticed ANY connection between mammary tumors and false pregnancies.

No, I haven't either. I had a girl, Kathleen who had at least 6 phantom pregnancies throughout her life which prompted me to eventually have her desexed at about 8 1/2 years old. The vet said she had a lot of fatty tissue around her ovaries.

She wouldn't take toys, etc but made milk and got sooky. For about 3 months, she was out of the competition trials in obedience because she didn't want to do the exercises. She passed away at 13 1/2 years from a stroke.

[Carmel Murphy]

I had a similar story with my retriever/collie cross"Wooly" many years ago! She too had phantom pregnancies producing milk etc and when (for medical reasons) she was neutered at the age of 11yrs she had lots of fatty tissue around the ovaries and also the vet said her ovaries were unusually small!! Perhaps that was just due to old age!!? Her phantoms didnt last long as I ignored them and took toys away also, and we played more football(her favourite game!!)

[Ossian]

Bet all your Geirgie Best skills have gone out the window now Carmel

[Carmel Murphy]

I dont think I had them to start with!!!!! Wooly was much better!!;o))

[eva ciechonska]

Dee - "Cuttlefish, Squid its still ink" - not quite. Squid ink is blue-black, Octupus ink is black. Cuttlefish ink is brown or SEPIA. It is cuttlefish ink which is used in artists colours and in homeopathic formulation cut with milk sugars.

[Dee Rance]

Yeh fine

[eva ciechonska]

That's ungracious Dee. We are all on this site to learn.