Neutered bitch "in heat"

My mastiff bitch, Della, was neutered about 18 months ago, she is now two and a half. Recently she smells like she is in heat and is a bit upset. My labrador dog Dyson even more so!
They're being very good, Della is just a bit grumpy and smelly and the smell is putting Dyson off his food and he is licking her and fussing her. I have heard some toiletries can set neutered bitches hormones off, but we have had no changes like that. The only thing I can think of, is that I have been making chocolates for our favourite shop customers in the house recently. That takes about three days of melting, mixing, rolling and dipping. Is it possible that the smell of the chocolate has set her off? We didn't have this problem last year when I did the same thing.

Many years ago I had a dog go into a false pregnancy. She has all the signs of delivering pups … except no pups appeared. The question that comes to mind for me is “could this be something more serious?”

I agree with John that this could be signs of something serious.

I would suggest talking with your vet.

I have not experienced or have even heard of this before.

The false pregnancy can be very serious as we lost one of our dogs that way.  The vet did an autopsy and found she had a "twisted stomach".

That was a sad experience because our daughter came home from school while we were at work to find the dog, in terrible pain.

There is an uncommon thing called Ovarian Remnant Syndrome where part of the tissue was no fully removed and causes heat-like symptoms. Other explanations, mainly from the smell perspective, could be something like a UTI?

This will require a vet to properly diagnose.

Timothy Norton wrote:There is an uncommon thing called Ovarian Remnant Syndrome where part of the tissue was no fully removed and causes heat-like symptoms. Other explanations, mainly from the smell perspective, could be something like a UTI?

This will require a vet to properly diagnose.

This was my first thought, too. 'They didn't get it all', is not uncommon, in many surgeries. But, it could easily be something else, too. I'd definitely be paying the vet a visit, sooner, rather than later.

I thought I'd update this old thread. We kept an eye on Della and did not take her to the vet and she was back to her usual self fairly quickly. The same thing happened to a slightly lesser extent this year when I was making the truffles, so I think that Della (if not all female dogs) reacts to the smells of chocolates in this way.
Thanks all for the advice, and I can only say to do what seems best if your bitch seems to be going into heat when she shouldn't.