Okay, don’t ask how this question came to me. Because I can’t remember. Regardless, what I want to know is, do animals, such as cats, dogs, whales, etc, have a period? I would think they do, being mammals the female produces eggs and nurses the offspring in her body, and these eggs must go to waste at least some of the time, in some species. Yet I’ve never heard of an animal having a period. I can see how it might be rare, with specific ‘heat’ times for some species, but it has to be that sometimes the egg will not be fertilized, which leads to… what?
Basically most animals don’t menstruate, the uterine lining is resorbed by the body instead of being wasted if implantation doesn’t occur. AFAIK only the great apes menstruate.
There is this thing called civilization…it seperates us from all other animals and provides us the restraint to NOT fertilize every single female we see. In the animal kingdom I would think very few oppurtunities are missed. If it does happen I am sure it is the same as with humans.
There are often cases where animals fail to fall pregnant despite going into season, sometimes because the mate is infertile, sometimes because a mate can’t be found and often because humans interfere. The vast majority of domestic animals in devloped nations aren’t contunuously mated. It’s just too difficult to control and stunts growth. Instead cows, ewes etc. are routinely separated from the males either until they are sold or until they reach full maturity. Mating is also controlled during times of drought etc. In these situations failure to become pregnant does not result in menstruation. Most animals simply don’t menstruate.
When I got my ferret, I had to have her spayed because they told me if she started menstruating and wasn’t impregnated, she would keep bleeding, and die.
Then they told you wrong. Ferrets, like 99.9999% of mammals don’t menstruate. They’re oestral animals. Female ferrets, like queens, cycle continuaously until fertilised. This can however be overcome with a simple hormone tablet as used for breeding queens. Of course ferrets not being noted stud animals it’s easier and cheaper to spay them. If a female ferret doesn’t get the hormone treatment after cycling however the suppression of the bone marrow that occurs as part of oestrus will eventaully kill it if pyometra doesn’t get it first. Blood loss is not a problem.