We believe that we know everything about our dog pets, without thinking that they are living beings totally different from us, letting us know that we were wrong when trying to compare their behavior with ours. There are thousands of things we do not know about dogs, facts that often do not decipher what happens to them.

Today we will explain one of the most recurrent "disorders" in bitches, since it is important to know how it is presented, to know if our pet is really pregnant or is only psychological.

It is important to emphasize that psychological pregnancy is not a disease or a serious disorder, since it is very difficult to reach consequences on the health of our dog, even so it is a canine curiosity that is essential to know.

Why is the psychological pregnancy?

The psychological pregnancy of a dog, it becomes confusing for his master, because it presents symptoms similar to those of a common pregnancy, that is why we must know the cause of this disorder, because it only occurs in 60% of the bitches
You could say that this type of pregnancy are imaginary, as they are the product of increased levels of hormones such as prolactin, the hormone responsible for milk production. Pseudopregnancy usually happens after one or two months of "heat", because that is the time period in which the dog should be in gestation.

This disorder causes us to ask ourselves: How do we avoid pseudopregnancy?

If we have a dog as a pet and we are not willing to have a puppy, it is advised to be sterilized, as it can suffer disorders like this that can lead to mastitis. The psychological pregnancy occurs in bitches that are not in gestation, that is why the above mentioned is advised.

The pseudoembarazo can be very confusing for us, since it appears as real as a normal gestation, leading our pet to isolation, causing it to change its behavior completely.

Behavior of the bitch in the pseudoembarazo

There are several attitudes that we can perceive that will help us decipher what happens with our dog.
When our pet is going through a pseudoembarazo, we can observe isolation on the part of the dog, on several occasions aggressiveness, tend to treat puppies as objects, we observe a behavior of discouragement and sadness. It is essential that if we suspect a psychological pregnancy, we look for this type of behavior in our pet, as well as a series of symptoms.

Symptoms of pseudopregnancy or psychological pregnancy

Due to the alteration of prolactin, the dog begins to produce milk, in some cases the increase in size in the breasts due to the production of milk, many of them lose their appetite and look down.

recommendations

Although the pseudoembarazo does not get to be so dangerous, even so it can bring some consequences and that is why it is advised:
1.- Do not let the dog stimulate the breasts (sucking), as this causes it to produce more milk and eventually cause mastitis.

2.- Remove the objects they adopted, that is, those things (like soda bottles) that they treat like their puppies.

3.- Walk them, in this way we make them distracted and avoid that they are decayed and tired.

4.- Consult a veterinarian to prescribe medications that put milk production on hold.

To conclude, we can say that pseudoembarazo is one of the most "strange" disorders that our dogs can suffer and that is why it is very important to know about it, to know what measures to take in the face of this situation.

Author: @karencarolina

Veterinary medicine student