The American Beagler Forum

we went out the other morning to run dogs and we found my wife's 10 month old pup like this it his her 1st heat cycle. I've seen dogs swell up but never like this we rushed her to the vet and they checked her out they called it hyperplashia and said she would be fine and told us to keep it clean and lubricated. She doesn't act like it bothers her at all but it sure looks bad.

This condition is pretty common.

The vulva tissue is supposed to swell with the onset of heat, but in a hyperplasia bitch the tissue over-reacts to the estrogen and swells out of control.

The good news is the condition usually become less pronounced as the bitch gets older.

Just make sure she doesn't chew on it. Some bitches have chewed their private area nearly off, and can lose a lot of blood, as it apparently can itch ...

Other than that, the majority of these episodes gradually decrease in severity with each successive heat cycle ...

I've only seen a couple bitches like this and it seems they were always in heat, guessed their hormones had gone into free flow mode. Little nymphos they were and useless for hunting because of it...

the swelling is going down now and hopefully the vet is right they said she should line her self back out and it wont happen again