Foster Dog Is In Heat

[Guest shannon252]

What a day! One of our volunteers dropped one of our adoptables off at the vet this morning for her spay only for me to get the call that they can't spay her because she's in full-blown heat. In five years this is only the second dog that we've had in heat and even the last one was probably four years ago or more. You can imagine that I'm less than enthusiastic about the entire scenario. I went to Petco and purchased one of those high dollar diapers but, low and behold, the hole for the tail is too big and it's not catching the blood. Likewise, the pads are not really sticking to the diaper so the pad is a mess when I take off the diaper (although not because it's dirty but because it's twisted and stuck to itself.)

 

So, I'm asking...what do you recommend to get me through these next few weeks with my sanity?

[Batmom]

Disposables -- diapers or depends, cut your own hole for the tail. But I don't know what size to tell you to get .

[Chicocat]

I held a little girlie for a few nights that was going on a haul - Donna M. brought her over with a regular pair of panties with a pad (hole cut for the tail). That worked ok too.

[Guest shannon252]

Ooooh, Ann. She would go awfully nice with your crew. She's black with Cutie's pointy ears. Can I bring her to you tomorrow?

[Guest longdogs]

Scotch.

[Burpdog]

Valium -- for you Only 5 or so days of bad bleeding then it'll taper off. Will she crate?

[Guest shannon252]

When she was still loopy when we first got home she was crating beautifully but, now that the meds from them stitching up an owie in her side have worn off she's pretty whiney in the crate. She's at least laying pretty still with very little wandering around the house.

[Chicocat]

Ooooh, Ann. She would go awfully nice with your crew. She's black with Cutie's pointy ears. Can I bring her to you tomorrow?

 

Oh darn, my Casa is full.

[GreyTzu]

How about tighty-whities with her tail through the vent and a girly pad stuck inside.

[seeh2o]

No advice here, just writing to say that after I read your post I dreamed that my soon-to-be girl (Carl's sister Doodles) arrived at my doorstep in heat. Ugh!!!

[marion]

I think it's not a big deal to have a female in heat. My Soldi is not spayed and I have gone through 9 heat periods (she's 9 years old and enters in

heat once per year!) and no problem. Her blood loss is minimum and she cleans herself up all the time. In the heat season I keep her on-leash during the

third week when she's getting 'interesting' for the male world, but that's it. Where is the problem?

[Guest sheila]

How about tighty-whities with her tail through the vent and a girly pad stuck inside.

this is what I was going to suggest too. The Depends would probably work too and instead of cutting a hole just cut a horizontal slit for the tail.

The panties in most pet stores don't really fit a greyhound physique. I could make a pair of panties that would work, but by the time they arrived you likely won't need them anymore.

[Guest shannon252]

I think it's not a big deal to have a female in heat. My Soldi is not spayed and I have gone through 9 heat periods (she's 9 years old and enters in

heat once per year!) and no problem. Her blood loss is minimum and she cleans herself up all the time. In the heat season I keep her on-leash during the

third week when she's getting 'interesting' for the male world, but that's it. Where is the problem?

 

Oh yes, she's definitely cleaning herself up...for four hours straight from roughly midnight to 4am she was cleaning herself while laying on the dogbed next to my bed. She is also dripping blood though, even with the cleaning.

 

I bought diapers and naturally I got at least one or two sizes too small so, don't get the 16-(whatever) pound size. So, I cut the hole for the tail and then I put the baby diaper inside the doggie diaper and I think it may be working.

[Guest LynnM]

Marion, as I'm sure you know, some dogs bleed more than others. You're fortunate to have a dog that is a once-a-year dog and doesn't bleed much. Not all are so fortunate, and when you're not accustomed to dealing with it, it absolutely can be an inconvenience!

 

What works best for us is to take a belly band (the ones for boys), and put it around the dog's waist. Next take a Goodnights size XL (bigger than Pull-Ups, smaller than Depends... closest thing to greyhound size I've found), cut a hole for the tail, and put it on the dog. Take a couple of safety pins or diaper pins and pin the diaper to the belly band. That'll keep it from sliding off.

 

With any luck, she'll settle down, and if she's already in the middle of her season, well, you're already halfway done! Once she's done bleeding and acting generally wacky (yes, behavior can go out the window with some bitches), give her a good bath. For some reason it seems to help her get back to normal, and also gets her scent off so any males in the house quit acting stupid.

 

Best of luck!

 

Lynn

[Guest shannon252]

Ooooh, thanks for the great advice Lynn!

 

Surprisingly, my boys are doing really well with her. They are still giving her a quick sniff but are calling off easily. I was a little worried about the neighbor dog but, I checked and he's definitely neutered and not causing any trouble either. Can I assume that the dripping gives a pretty good idea that she's pretty well into it? She was with another volunteer for the past week and they kept talking about how whiney she was...well, no wonder.

[Guest MJandthe6]

My worst problem with girlies in heat was not managing the mess but managing the BOYS. They drove me absolutely crazy until I found this stuff called "Lust Buster" that helped quite a bit. You spray it on the girl's behind--doesn't smell like anything to me but it helped neutralize the smell for the boys. All my boy dogs were neutered but that didn't stop them from being totally annoying! Hope you're not having this problem too, if you are maybe Petco sells it. I love the belly band/diaper idea. I used half a maxi pad with panties for my Whippet girls.

[Guest meakah]

Solution? An intact male. You are going to spay her anyhow right?

[onrushpam]

As LynnM said, we've found the combo of the bellyband and Goodnights to work best. A couple of tips...

The Goodnights can be hard to find. They are for older children with incontinence problems. We usually find them at WallyWorld either in the diapers or in with the Depends. Put the tail hole in the side that is marked "front" (so you're sorta putting them on backwards). We get the ones labeled for up to 125 lbs. or the next size smaller, depending on the dog.

 

That said, I HOPE we won't need any for a LONG time!

[bjnno1]

They need to make tampons for doggies

 

How are things going? Hopefully she's finished with her "cycle" by now.

[Guest StriderDog]

Solution? An intact male. You are going to spay her anyhow right?

 

Who needs an intact male? I can just send over Strider!

 

(Putting on the Barry White music)

[Guest shannon252]

LOL! Well, I believe we are just about done with the worst of it. She seems to be pretty well finished bleeding (thank god) and her crankiness is getting better. We went through a couple of days where she wouldn't eat and was throwing up what food she did eat but, she's eating again.

 

I did end up getting baby diapers that were not big enough but, between the baby diapers and the doggie diaper I was able to work it out. I agree though that we will happily go another five years without another dog in heat if we can.

 

Thank you so much for all the help here!!!

 

Shannon and foster doggie Oprah (who was not amused by the diaper at all)