Why is my dog lactating?

False pregnancy, or pseudo pregnancy, is a term used to denote a common condition in a non-pregnant female dog that is showing symptoms of pregnancy, lactation, or nursing, without producing puppies. The exact cause for this condition is unknown. However, hormonal imbalances, especially of progesterone and prolactin, are thought to play an important role in its development.

There could be a couple different possibilities why your dog is lactating. If she is pregnant, it's normal for her to begin lactate. Most don't begin producing milk until the puppies are born or a few days before. Some have been known to produce a little milk a couple months before. Unless your dog is producing a lot of milk before the puppies are born, then it's not cause for worry.

If you know for sure that your dog is not pregnant, then she could be having a false pregnancy. This usually occurs due to hormonal imbalances, especially after your dogs first heat cycle. Her belly may become swollen and she may become more moody as well as lactate. Normally this clears itself up within three weeks. But producing milk can be a painful issue, especially if the pressure isn't being relieved. If she seems to be in pain, please take her to your vet as she is at risk of mastitis.

Another possibility is that your dog has a health issue that is causing her to appear to lactate. Sometimes the secretion is milk while other times it is white pus instead. Mammary glad cancers/infections can cause this and require immediate vet attention. Another possibility would be hypothyroidism which makes your dogs hormones go crazy. This can result in your dog lactating. Ask your vet for a full blood workup to check for any thyroid issues.

This site was very helpful for finding this information: https://www.cuteness.com/blog/content/reasons-why-a-dog-secretes-milk (https://www.cuteness.com/blog/content...)

I rescue dogs and have had a few cases like this. None of the dogs could actually be pregnant because I only had females! But here is what happened on those cases. 1. Female begins to lactate a few months after being spayed. The vet gave her stuff to cut the milk but it would come back and she acted s if she was in heat . We took her in for an ultrasound and it turned out a piece of an ovary had been left in which was causing all the mayhem! It was removed and never happened again. 2. Spayed female begins to lactate, 6 ys after being spayed. We took her in to the vet and they said it was hormonal, we had just rescued a new female that was in heat and that threw all the other dogs off. Once the dog in heat left she went back to normal. Either way, you should see a vet in any case to get an answer to why it is happening and what to do about it.