• We got Susie from the SD puppy mill the end of March. She is still bleeding. I asked the vet and he said she should bleed for a week. My experience as a vet tech always told me a week as well so I am confused. She is fine otherwise but my god this is taking forever. We are getting her spayed next thursday so it will be over then but still. Do basenji's have an abnormally long heat cycle? Could it be something more serious? I have never had an unspayed female before.


  • @dash:

    We got Susie from the SD puppy mill the end of March. She is still bleeding. I asked the vet and he said she should bleed for a week. My experience as a vet tech always told me a week as well so I am confused. She is fine otherwise but my god this is taking forever. We are getting her spayed next thursday so it will be over then but still. Do basenji's have an abnormally long heat cycle? Could it be something more serious? I have never had an unspayed female before.

    Basenjis are in season for 30 days so yes, they have a longer cycle then other breeds of dogs and will usually bleed for almost that entire time…. typically in the beginning and end you miss it because they keep themselves clean, but coming from SD Mill situation, that may not be so....

    But even other breeds are in for at least 21 days and will bleed that entire time? I have never heard of them only bleeding for one week? Granted it is heavier for that one to two weeks.....


  • My girl is 5mts old now and she is starting to spot. Its been going on for about 3 weeks now.


  • When we had Jazz spayed we had to wait until –I believe it was -- one full week AFTER she had STOPPED bleeding.

    Apparently many vets will not spay until after the cycle is complete. We would have had to travel to Seattle {an hour} to get to a vet that would spay during the cycle.

    this is not an issue for your vet?


  • @this:

    No. BRAT said to spay her anyway and the vet agreed. There is an extra fee involved though. They said they would prefer to wait but it wasn't required.


  • They definitely bleed for more than a week. If it is her first heat, she might bleed for the entire four weeks of the heat cycle. As they get older, they bleed less with each cycle…but it still spotting, flow, spotting for at least two weeks.


  • @dash:

    No. BRAT said to spay her anyway and the vet agreed. There is an extra fee involved though. They said they would prefer to wait but it wasn't required.

    Wow, certainly makes it a much harder surgery both on the Vet and the dog? let alone the extra cost… Wonder why they just didn't wait?


  • I think the concern was our neighbors dog is intact. We keep them separate but you never know.


  • @dash:

    I think the concern was our neighbors dog is intact. We keep them separate but you never know.

    Well, yes that would be a concern….


  • I have a whole new respect for you breeders. Trying to keep a determined male away from an in heat female is difficult. As well as she is spotting everywhere and keeps getting her diaper off. She gets spayed this Thursday I can't wait. Dash is having surgery on an eyelash that is poking him in the eye as well. Poor baby.

    She is the most verbal dog. Dash is silent so we never hear anything from him and I think she feels the need to be the opposite. She talks and barks constantly. But it isn't like an annoying yappy bark just talking. Ernesto's parents are talking about wanting to take her. We will see. It is also quite the challange with 3 dogs. I am not sure how you can handle more than 2. They should be posting her soon. I am so torn.


  • We just got out of being in heat AGAIN - arg - after being in heat in August. Has anyone else had this sort of six month heat cycle? My only guess is that she was around a dominant female (though spayed) that we were dogsitting for about two days before this started. Any thoughts?

    We had great success with a denim diaper and using pads, it made it so much easier than the dispoables… and she looked cute as a button! 🙂


  • some Basenjis didn't read the same book…ggg ... there are some that really do have two cycles a year...
    How old is she...?


  • I've been reading the post on bs on heat, our chilli is i think on her 3rd week now. apparently there was a white pea size thing that came out of her this morning. is this normal? and what on earth is it? She didn't seem to bothered by it, she cleaned it away and was gone.. thought i'm still wondering at what it is???


  • Um…I would say that is NOT normal. Sorry, but was it soft, or hard?


  • soft i guess


  • It could be mucous? But I can never recall any of my girls passing anything like that. You might contact a reproductive vet to ask about that. Here in the US, a lot of regular practice vets don't know all that much about the practical workings of the reproductive cycle in bitches; reproduction is kind of a specialty here now. I don't know if things are the same down under…but I would definitely check around about the white object that she passed.


  • 16 months, Tanza.


  • @wrx227wrc:

    16 months, Tanza.

    She could be one of those that are going to have two seasons a year…


  • @tanza:

    some Basenjis didn't read the same book…ggg ... there are some that really do have two cycles a year...
    How old is she...?

    Jazzy had two heat cycles a year, one in the Spring and one in the Fall, starting at age 5.5 mos or so, for the two years prior to being spayed.

    I was really disappointed, :p , that she didn't read the Basenji manual!


  • Several of my girls have had years where they had two seasons. It seems like the more females we have, the less we have multiple seasons. And they don't always seem to be six months apart either….

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