Expert: Renee Cox - 3/15/2009

Question
We found a stray 8 month old, unspayed boxer mix in October of last year.  During the week of Christmas she experienced her first "season".  We have an appointment to have her spayed next week (week of March 16) but her vulva appears to be swelling and she has a mucousy discharge, just like she did in December when she went into season the first time.  Can she be going into season again?  It's only been 10 weeks! I thought dogs only came into season twice a year. We also have a male lab mix, could his presence be contributing to her coming into season so soon?

Answer
Hi Dee. What does the discharge look like? What color, I mean. Does it look kind of like tomato soup? I would take her in for a check up and find out what's going on. She may have an infection. Was her last heat cycle normal, meaning that it lasted for about 21 days? It could be an infection, or if her last cycle wasn't normal, it could be a split heat. A split heat is when a dog goes into heat, quits, waits a while then starts back up again. Either way, I'd have her checked out just to be safe. Good luck.