false pregnancy or not

[selzer]

Nine weeks ago I bred Heidi to a young stud dog who has not produced any puppies yet. He is out of 2010 sieger Ober, and I am excited about possibly getting a litter out of him. He is not my dog.

Heidi has not had a litter yet either. She was four in August. I bred her at three, but only got outside ties, and no puppies. We determined that she was much to small, so her next heat we did an AI. No puppies.

I put her on amoxicilin as there was some strep in the vaginal culture prior to breeding, but nothing to be concerned with, and we did it only because we had no puppies last try.

Both of these, Heidi gained weight and acted pregnant, and when I x-rayed her, no puppies.

I decided that we have x-rayed Heidi enough, and unless we run into a problem, no x-ray this time.

Well, she is putting on an excellent case of a false pregnancy. I switched her to the whelping pen, and put together the whelping box, and she immediately started nesting. She is eating a lot, has gained weight. No mammary changes. two days ago, temp 101.8, yesterday, 102.2, this morning, 103.2. I called the vet, to tell them we may have a problem, but since she is acting fine, nose cold and wet, eating and drinking, energetic. We would wait out the day. Of course she is cleaning herself a bit.

This evening I checked the temperature again, as she has slowed down, is still nesting, and is lying around more. 100.8.

This thermometer is one that has a cord and you can switch from rectal to underarm to head, etc. But over two degree drop in temperature???

Has anyone had a false pregnancy with a temperature drop like that?

I am certainly prepared for puppies, but I am afraid to get my hopes up.

Any false pregnancy war stories would be nice. Thanks.

[Allan]

Did you do progesterone testing on any of the breeding?
That's the only way you would know if she ovulated.
Those temp you listed are in the normal range for a dog.
Most times a dog well be in the 99+ range a week before whelping.
.

[selzer]

Yes and no, we did target tests. So it was more of the shades of blue thing. This was not frozen or chilled semen, the dog was there, it was fresh. I do not target test or anything when I do a natural breeding. With shipped semen, frozen or chilled, you would want to be very precise with progesterone testing.

Her sister's temp would go down in the morning up in the evening, but trend downward for a couple of days anyways.

like evening -102.2 morning - 100.8
next day, 101.9 , 100.2
next day 101.6, 99.6
next day 99.0 and whelping.

Heidi was 100.2 this morning. Her temp is definitely getting lower.

I guess I will just wait and see.

I am supposed to babysit on Sunday. And of course she is going to keep me guessing.

Jenna's last litter, I was supposed to babysit, I went into the room in the morning, she looked fine, I went in and got dressed, and heard a little rustling of the papers. I decided to check one more time, and there was a very small amount of fluid and I thought, no way am I going anywhere. A couple of hours later she had the first pup.

Why do bitches pick the most inopertune moments to give birth?

I am keeping a close eye on her though, (already called my sister), and will get her to the vet ASAP if anything goes wrong.

I think they KNOW that my regular vet isn't IN on Sundays.

[Rerun]

Well, either way I hope things turn out well selzer. It would definitely be frustrating sitting on pins and needles waiting and wondering!

[Good_Karma]

[ChristenHolden]

[Chris Wild]

I personally think it a poor choice not to x-ray in this case. I think it very important to know for certain if she is or is not pregnant. If you are worried about additional radiation exposure to her, then do an ultrasound. It will tell you if she is pregnant, roughly how many puppies and if they are alive.

Her temp has not dropped enough yet to indicate whelping is imminent. And absolutely with a history of false pregnancies it is entirely possible that is the case here.

However, it is also possible that she IS pregnant, and as I said I think it very important to know one way or the other. The most worrisome would be with previous trouble conceiving that if she did this time, it is a small litter. Which could mean not enough pups to stimulate active labor, which can be deadly not just to the pups but to her if she has pups in there, and you don't know it, and she never whelps them, and you assume it was another false pregnancy, but it was not.

[Miikkas mom]

I don’t know much, or anything really, about pregnancy in dogs. However, I would think Heidi would get big and fat, much like a human female. No?

Also, is there no test, other than x-ray or ultrasound to confirm pregnancy in dogs? You mean to tell me there is no “Clearblue” for dogs.

[JakodaCD OA]

mikka's mom, sometimes with a false pregnancy, they will exhibit ALL the signs of being pregnant, weight gain, lactating, just no puppies show up

I would be kinda paranoid myself especially with her history as chris said.

Ya know I don't know if clearblue would work LOL,,but I do know I would want a definite answer to see what's going on..

Hope she will be ok

[DJEtzel]

Guh. I went through a huge ordeal with my foster chihuahua and a false pregnancy. She had the whole nine yards (2 days before a scheduled spay) and her temp dropped to 98 (was prepared for puppies at this point), yet nothing came. She got spayed two days later and the vet deducted she was definitely never pregnant.

GOOD luck.