5 Month Heat Cycles

FloofyNewfie

The Floofy Administrator
Staff member
So as the title states, my Newfie girl tends to have a heat cycle just shy of 5 months to a couple of days past 5 months. I've only had her for 1.5 years and this has been the case since I got her. It honestly could just be normal for her. I've consulted with many more older and more experienced zoos as well as 2 zoos that happen to be veterinarians. Most people tell me not to worry about it and that it lies in the realm of normal. I've even had a couple of people state that it's a bit more common for doggy girls that enjoy frequent sex outside of their heat cycles, and as you may know my Newfie girl is definitely one of those types of doggy girls. She just went into heat again yesterday and the last time she had a heat cycle was in the beginning of January.

So, I'd like to know your thoughts and opinions on the matter. Is this something I should be concerned about, or is this something that's relatively normal given that my girl frequently enjoys sex? I've tried to find more information online about 5 month heat cycles but my many searches have yielded very limited results.
 
Nothing out of the ordinary in my opinion, while most large breeds generally go for longer periods between heats than smaller breeds it's not set in stone.

My small lab mix cycles nearly three times a year where my labradane is closer to 7 months between heats.
 
Well if she is only 1.5 yo maybe she just did not develop a regular cycle yet. Or maybe she is older and you only had her for 1.5 years?
 
Well if she is only 1.5 yo maybe she just did not develop a regular cycle yet. Or maybe she is older and you only had her for 1.5 years?
I've only had her for 1.5 years. She herself is roughly around 3.5 years old. I actually don't know her precise age as she was given to me by a fellow zoo. He got her off of craigslist.
 
As my veterinarian said me : The important thing is the regularity and not the time between two heat.
Example: If your girl has his heat every 5 months, it must remain constant.

However, if the heats are very close (ex: <3 months) and than it's brings an incomfort for your girl, or the heats are irregular, in this case, you must worry about it and act if needed.
 
i'm no vet so chances are it doesn't relate at all, my girl's mother (a pure-bred kangal) passed away last week due to inflamed uterus combined with cancerous growth around it. she went into heat up to 4 times a year in pretty regular intervals.
to be honest, i'm seriously considering whatever to spay my girl now. i love her way more than i love having sex with her.
 
One of the most common reproductive emergencies seen in a veterinary emergency room is a condition called pyometra. Its a life threatening uterine infection that most typically affects older, intact (or unspayed) female dogs. Best to spay say after 5 or 6 years old.

Also unspayed female dogs will develop a mammary tumor during their lifetime. The risk is much lower for spayed female dogs,
 
One of the most common reproductive emergencies seen in a veterinary emergency room is a condition called pyometra. Its a life threatening uterine infection that most typically affects older, intact (or unspayed) female dogs. Best to spay say after 5 or 6 years old.

Also unspayed female dogs will develop a mammary tumor during their lifetime. The risk is much lower for spayed female dogs,

this is largely scare tactic propaganda used to convince people to mutilate their dogs. you have been misled.

truth: yes pyometra exists, yes some breeds are more suceptable than others, age MAY increase the risk especially in breeds predisposed to it. NO not all dogs get it, and certainly not from simply aging. the biggest cause in the zoo community is poor hygiene, or use of inappropriate lubricants. Outside of zoo its from being kept in a severely unsanitary enviornment, or having a UTI go untreated, and general negligence.

Also unspayed female dogs will develop a mammary tumor during their lifetime. The risk is much lower for spayed female dogs,

Also misleading. unmutilated dogs MAY be at higher risk for mammary cancer but that does not mean every dog will get it. also the risk is moot when compared with the risk of bone cancer, kidney disease, and mental issues from hormonal imbalance, not to mention urinary and fecal incontinence, and the various risks of surgery itself.

So as the title states, my Newfie girl tends to have a heat cycle just shy of 5 months to a couple of days past 5 months. I've only had her for 1.5 years and this has been the case since I got her. It honestly could just be normal for her. I've consulted with many more older and more experienced zoos as well as 2 zoos that happen to be veterinarians. Most people tell me not to worry about it and that it lies in the realm of normal. I've even had a couple of people state that it's a bit more common for doggy girls that enjoy frequent sex outside of their heat cycles, and as you may know my Newfie girl is definitely one of those types of doggy girls. She just went into heat again yesterday and the last time she had a heat cycle was in the beginning of January.

So, I'd like to know your thoughts and opinions on the matter. Is this something I should be concerned about, or is this something that's relatively normal given that my girl frequently enjoys sex? I've tried to find more information online about 5 month heat cycles but my many searches have yielded very limited results.
it sounds to me like that is just her normal cycle, as you said its regular, and every dog is different.
without actually examining her and performing various tests, I cannot say one hundred percent, but yes, regular five month cycles are not that uncommon, and nothing to worry about.
 
Also misleading. unmutilated dogs MAY be at higher risk for mammary cancer but that does not mean every dog will get it.
Most sources that I can find puts the rate of an unaltered bitch developing mammary tumors at around 26%. Of that, the majority of those tumor are benign as well as most tumor being easily treatable even when malignant if caught early. So the moral of the story here is to play with your doggy's titties every now and again, it could save her life.

it sounds to me like that is just her normal cycle, as you said its regular, and every dog is different.
without actually examining her and performing various tests, I cannot say one hundred percent, but yes, regular five month cycles are not that uncommon, and nothing to worry about.
Yeah, most people I ask say that's the case and in reality I should have just listened to them. But I can't help but to worry. She's my lover, my light, my all. I want to make sure she has a long, healthy, and happy life because she truly deserves it. Both my wonderful doggy girls do, and so do all dogs for that matter.
 
WEll, I guess fake news I have read as well as my experience
thats what makes misinformation such an effective scare tactic. all it takes is one bad experience and suddenly the misinformation campaigns seem more credible. thats the thing. these diseases are real, but they are nowhere near as common as the spay nazis would have you believe.
 
thats what makes misinformation such an effective scare tactic. all it takes is one bad experience and suddenly the misinformation campaigns seem more credible. thats the thing. these diseases are real, but they are nowhere near as common as the spay nazis would have you believe.
guess i can ease my mind a bit, coming from an actual vet (at least i hope you're not just making that up to seem credible). my vet was kinda pushing me to spay my girl on our last visit, i had her fully checked out after the failed birthgiving... her reasoning was along the lines of "she's getting old so she'll likely get pyometra". this combined with her mother actually dying of pyometra combined with cancer got me thinking....
 
guess i can ease my mind a bit, coming from an actual vet (at least i hope you're not just making that up to seem credible). my vet was kinda pushing me to spay my girl on our last visit, i had her fully checked out after the failed birthgiving... her reasoning was along the lines of "she's getting old so she'll likely get pyometra". this combined with her mother actually dying of pyometra combined with cancer got me thinking....
Yes, just clean yourself before making love, and you should have little to worry about. I recommend taking a shower as close to lovemaking time as possible, and using antibacterial soap, just be sure to rinse it off thoroughly as well.
Since her mother had problems, she may be at an increased risk genetically. Due to this, I recommend not cumming inside during the last 5-7 days of her estrus cycle, and at least a week afterward.
 
thats what makes misinformation such an effective scare tactic. all it takes is one bad experience and suddenly the misinformation campaigns seem more credible. thats the thing. these diseases are real, but they are nowhere near as common as the spay nazis would have you believe.

Yes I think them vets are in it for the money too. and pushing some agenda.
 
it sounds to me like that is just her normal cycle, as you said its regular, and every dog is different.
without actually examining her and performing various tests, I cannot say one hundred percent, but yes, regular five month cycles are not that uncommon, and nothing to worry about.

I agree

truth: yes pyometra exists, yes some breeds are more suceptable than others, age MAY increase the risk especially in breeds predisposed to it. NO not all dogs get it, and certainly not from simply aging. the biggest cause in the zoo community is poor hygiene, or use of inappropriate lubricants. Outside of zoo its from being kept in a severely unsanitary enviornment, or having a UTI go untreated, and general negligence.

Respectfully, I feel like this is oversimplifying things a little.
Normal dogs have a relatively long period after their "heat" where progesterone levels are high even if they don't get pregnant (progesterone is a pro-gestation hormone, it does stuff that makes the uterus more comfy and habitable, like more glandular activity in the uterine wall, less uterus muscle contractions, tightened cervix, decrease in the local immune cells destroying intruders...). This is a basic requirement for pyometra to occur (and why it would be uncommon to see it in healthy per-menopausal women, who have a completely different cycle).
The bump in estrogen during the regular heat cycles accentuates those effects as it increases the expression of progesterone receptors. These changes are cumulative with every cycle throughout the life of the dog, which is why you are more likely to see pyometra in dogs that are older.
Although not all dogs get pyometra, a fair estimate seems to be that something like 15-20% will by age 10 (as always with some breeds being more more prone then others).
My point is, although it's reasonable to consider sexual activity and hygiene to be contributing risk factors for developing pyometra, at the end of the day, dogs get pyometra because their physiology puts them at risk for getting it. Suggesting that poor hygiene and/or living in squalid neglectful conditions are the main cause of it, in my opinion, is kind of misleading and unfair to all the people who's dog gets pyometra despite being very well cared for.
 
Shorter a dogs lifespan the shorter the heat cycle gap (unless im wrong)
I don't think so.
The lifespan of my Dane girl is ~10/12 yrs and her heat cycle is ~7 month.
So I don't see any relation about the lifespan of a girl dog and her heat cycle.
 
my Newfie girl tends to have a heat cycle just shy of 5 months
normal, no need to worry. however, like any sexual dog keeper, you need to pay attention, even if are healthy.
for me one of my dogs was hot every exactly 12 months. a friend of mine’s dog was hot every exactly 4 months and nothing wrong. if it is more common than 4-5 months then it should be monitored. or in case of any weirdness, other secretions, bleeding too short or too long, too much blood, the dog is sick etc.

surgery is a difficult issue because it takes away the sex life, but it protects the life of the dog which is important. but only if she is really sick. until the disease is proven I will not have surgery, guesses and mostly based on facebook comments from other idiots.
you also have to be careful with the doctor because there are "surgery maniacs" who immediately everything to have surgery, and persuade the owner...
 

in a general sense, neutering is really a kind of idiot propaganda that idiot facebook users send to each other. but it should also be understood that the traditional dog handler does not have sex with his dog so in this respect it is not an expectation for them, but it is more comfortable for them to keep the dog. we zoos, on the other hand, want a sex dog anyway. only the world is not built on zoos.
it is also true that many people who campaign for neutering are so stupid that they should not keep a dog anyway.

it is very difficult for us to zoo life and we have to pay close attention to keep the dog healthy, keep the sex life and where is the limit when the dog’s disease definitely needs surgery and thus we lose the sex life but the dog stays alive.
hygiene is very important, the internal functioning of the bitch, the knowledge of hormones, the knowledge of the symptoms of the disease are also important, then the inflammation remains easy to treat. but nevertheless (rarely), can occur a fatal outcome.

1 of my 5 dogs had to be operated on, but she was easy because I watched her and noticed her in time, very little pus accumulated in her, but I noticed her tiny symptoms and the ultrasound showed her.
not all zoo people can spot it in time. and luck is needed.

a dog that is hot every 5 months at the age of 3-4 is very likely not to get sick, I would not operate on it in any way. but pay attention to it, especially if you experience something strange with her.
 
My recently deceased (at twelve) dog had her cycles every 10 months. Apart from his first heat cycle being somehow traumatic for her (she would lie in her bed all day long, as in discomfort), she never had a problem.
 
this is largely scare tactic propaganda used to convince people to mutilate their dogs. you have been misled.

truth: yes pyometra exists, yes some breeds are more suceptable than others, age MAY increase the risk especially in breeds predisposed to it. NO not all dogs get it, and certainly not from simply aging. the biggest cause in the zoo community is poor hygiene, or use of inappropriate lubricants. Outside of zoo its from being kept in a severely unsanitary enviornment, or having a UTI go untreated, and general negligence.



Also misleading. unmutilated dogs MAY be at higher risk for mammary cancer but that does not mean every dog will get it. also the risk is moot when compared with the risk of bone cancer, kidney disease, and mental issues from hormonal imbalance, not to mention urinary and fecal incontinence, and the various risks of surgery itself.


it sounds to me like that is just her normal cycle, as you said its regular, and every dog is different.
without actually examining her and performing various tests, I cannot say one hundred percent, but yes, regular five month cycles are not that uncommon, and nothing to worry about.

I agree I have no clue why people dont sit down and do the research. Jumping to "SURGERY IS THE ONLY WAY!!!?!!?!" is not the way to go about it. First of all there are consiquences to both choices. Personally I dont believe that its right to do this to your dog as the hormonal imbalance is going to do more harm than good. Dont forget that spaying can cause cancer (haemangiosarcoma, lymphoma and mast cell tumours) just as much as not spaying.
 
She should be fine to answer the question just keep an eye and make sure she has plenty of water. Cycle takes a lot out of them.
 
I had to spay my girl at about 7-8 y.o since she got pyometra. She had a lot of unbalances after that (like hypothyroidism, weigh problems, incontinence, and never losing her winter coat), but I didn't have another option (maybe it would be better to perform an ovary-spay hysterectomy, but I didn't know about it, and my vet recommended the full hysterectomy). She also got small mammary tumors, but they grow so slow it wasn't worthy to remove them (though maybe spaying her make them to grow slowly).

My mom's dog started getting longer heat cycles at the same age (with more bleeding), and she got a full hysterectomy too, but she'd already got cancer cells at the uterus and some parts of it had spreaded. She still managed to live around 2 years more, until they had to put her down.
 
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