I was very familiar with this problem. One of our bitches is experiencing this now. This is called a split heat. First she always goes into a false heat. This false heat is not a full heat; she bleeds and swells a little but she does not attract the male nor flag. With this heat the bitch does not ovulate and does not go into estrus. Therefore she cannot get pregnant at this time.

Three weeks later she goes into a full heat. Now, this heat she bleeds, flags, and attracts the male. The breeding takes place. We succeed in getting three good ties with her. Everything looks good until three weeks later when we look outside and she is backing herself against the fence at our stud dog. She is in heat again!

Now, this has never happened to us before. We are wondering - should we breed her again? Does this mean she can or cannot get pregnant from these heat cycles? We started making numerous phone calls to the University and the veterinarians we knew who were breeders, and of course we got different answers. One thought she might have a cyst on her ovaries, and if that was the case the breeding would not take. Another thought that she might have an infection which I did not find until after both her split heat cycles.

These split heat cycles cause the bitch to have proestrual vaginal bleeding, swelling, and she attracts the male, but she does not enter the standing heat or estrus, but goes into the end of is the diestrus cycle. A few weeks later they start their heat cycle and go into the three phases, proestrus, the beginning of the cycle, estrus, the stage at which they can become pregnant, and diestrus. At the estrus phase ovulation does take place; therefore she can be I bred.

But our bitch did not become pregnant. Something else must be wrong. I noticed a discoloration with her discharge. I proceeded to take her to the veterinarian to have her cultured. Sure enough, she had an infection.

Now we wonder if the split heat is related to the infection. I researched it in the medical books and no book went into detail on this matter. When we talked to the veterinarians at the University we came to the conclusion that this matter has not been heavily researched. All we can go on is the experience we have had on this matter. A few other breeders have experienced this and they have found a lowgrade infection. That is one reason we tell owners of bitches to have a culture on the female before they even go into heat. This way, if there is an infection it can be cleared up by the time she goes into heat. One thing I always do, if a bitch has an infection, is to have another culture done following medication to make sure the drug administered did clear up the problem.

A bitch with an infection has a very poor chance of getting pregnant, so the little money you spend on a culture will determine whether your bitch gets pregnant or not.

Our bitch’s infection cleared up. Everything looks good now, but we face another dilemna. She is in heat again. Whether this is a full heat and she can get pregnant, we will let you know. In the meantime we will continue to research about these split heats. And someday we will be able to understand more about this. We would information you have on this matter - if you have had experience with a split heat in a bitch, let me know.

Until next month, rrrrrrrring!