yorkie in heat
 

My Yorkie is 10 1/2 months old and I believe in heat. She has had a swollen vulva for at least 10 days now, but has not started bleeding. Is this normal or should I be concerned? I have noticed her licking a lot but no signs of blood. Most of the information I have read says she should start her menstrual cycle a week after swelling. Please advise. She only weighs 2 1/2 pounds, so I panic every time something out of the norm occurs. I have another Yorkie that weighs 7 pounds and solid as a rock. He is 9 1/2 yrs old. My baby, is just so small, I worry so much about her. She also has a fontanel that has never closed which I also worry about. My vet has told me, many small breeds have the same situation and live a normal life, but I just to be a little more careful that she does not injure her head. I even worry about brushing the top of her head. Am I being over protective?

Please tell me that your male is neutered. She is far too small to ever have a litter of puppies so you must insure that she is always protected against having puppies. With an open fontanel I too would be concerned to always keep a very close eye on her.

ETA~I just took a quick look at your older posts and it looks like you have a male in your household that is not neutered. You cannot EVER leave them together even for a second. If she is in heat like you suspect no matter what age he will want to mate with her. It could be her death to become pregnant by your poodle. No diaper, bellyband , or even crating will be safe enough to keep them separated.

:yeahthat:

OP, from what I've read, some girls show no signs of bleeding because they keep themselves very clean. The only time you might be able to check for bleeding is after she pees. Take a tissue and dab her after she urinates.

Please consider spaying you little girl, it's very safe if the vet is experienced in small breeds and uses the right anesthesia. Pregnancy is much more dangerous. Dogs can breed all their lives and a pregnancy at any age will probably prove deadly.

At this point I believe you haven't been protective enough. Your girl should have been spayed by now. By not having her spayed you are subjecting her to other dangers. Oops breeding...very, very dangerous for a girl her size, mammary cancer, pyometria......all things that can take her life. An experienced toy breed vet can conduct a spay on your girl with minimal danger.

If it is true that you have an unneutered male on the premises. Neuter him right now.

At 2.5 lbs you don't want to risk any pregnancy ever ever ever.
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And yes many Yorkies don't "show" when in heat. In fact I have a much larger breeder by far, my female doesn't show other than a few drops every now and again. Some females are really fussy about keeping themselves clean.

Your male if un-neutered can impregnate your female even at his age Belly bands et al, do not stop mating. The only way to stop mating is to insure complete separation of the two intact dogs for at least 4-5 wks once you know heat has commenced.

In fact most un-neutered males will telegraph that the female is going into season, even as early as one month prior to their entry.

Remy had one heat before she was spay..I had her scheduled and then she went into heat so I waited a couple of months. She was very swollen but I saw very little blood.
I hope you will schedule her as soon as possible.. good luck

O.k. everyone, you have now completely made me panic. My poodle HAS been alone with my yorkie but probably not more than 5 minutes. I try very hard not to ever leave her alone with ANY of my other dogs, just due to the fact that I'm afraid one of them might snap at her because she loves to get in their faces just to play, and none of them want to play with her. And another reason I don't suspect she is at the READY STAGE, is because my poodle shows no interest in her whatsoever. In fact whenever she tries to get near him, he growls at her, just as he always has since I got her 7 1/2 months ago. I am going to take her to the vet tomorrow, and ask his opinion on who it would be safer for: my yorkie to be spayed or my poodle to be neutered, or both. I was originally going to breed my poodle, but haven't. I of course realize my little Yorkie is much too small to breed. I did not expect her to be this small. I thought, according to the breeder, she would be at least 4 lbs and I still think she has room to grow. My seven pound Yorkie was only 4 1/2 pounds at the age of 8 months and I was told, that was as big as he was going to get. He actually got up to 8 lbs. (he was sneaking into my older Cocker spaniel's food when she wouldn't finish eating. I put a stop to that and cut down his intake slightly, (veterinarian said he was a little overweight) and he is now down to 7 lbs., his ideal weight. Anyway, back to Sassy....the reason I have not had her spayed yet was on the recommendation of her breeder. She even recommended I wait to give her her rabies shot until she was at least a year old. (That was her vets recommendation also.) She actually lost one of Yorkies due to an overdose of the rabies injection. I only want to do what is best for her which is why I registered on this website. I would NEVER intentionally be careless or do anything to risk my little girls health or life. You have no idea how much she means to me, (or perhaps you do, having your own Yorkies). I will let you all know what my vet tells me tomorrow. I am also going to ask him if there is any way he could run a test to determine what stage she is at now. Or, God forbid, if she was pregnant? I refuse to believe that! (And by the way, in case you are wondering why she was even left for 5 minutes with the poodle... that was before I realized she was even in heat.

Yet an FYI, neutering your boy is not going to be a quick fix either. It can take weeks for the sperm to be flushed from your poodle's system.

If your vet does not feel comfortable spaying her then I would begin looking for someone who has experience with tinnies like her. They can spay rabbits and Guinea pigs so there is no reason not to spay her due to her size. Do not leave her alone with your poodle~you just never know. Those hormones will kick and and there could be an accident. I can see that you are willing to do things the correct way but it only takes a minute for a tie that you don't want to happen. Good luck and welcome to YT. :)