Hi, im new to the forum so please be gentle... lol
I had my bitch scanned earlier this week,she was 29 days on the day of scanning, the guy said he deffo saw 8 pups, now i know these things can be wrong and that pups can be reabsorbed but my question is, if she went on to have the 8 pups would they all be ok, shes a small utility breed so not a big breed and now im worried incase the pups are going to be too small, am i worrying over nothing?

I have small breeds, and once had a Chihuahua bitch carry 6 pups (I much prefer between 1-3.)

She went into labour 10 days early - far too early, and lost the lot.  I wish she had reabsorbed 3 or 4.  By the way, I'm not trying to scare you - just recounting my experience of a small breed, and a litter too large for the breed.

Hi, and dont worry about scaring me, im glad to have someone with experiance, ive only ever bred a large breed in the past so large litters were quite the norm, so was a little shocked with this one as mum came from a litter of 3 and dad a litter of 4 so was sort of hopeing for a smallish litter,she only had one tye too. well just hope things turn out ok, will make sure i get in the heat mats and lots of bedding to try and help keep the little ones warm if needed.
one other question... do you know when is the latest a pup can be reabsorbed?or is there no time limit, only ask as my friend who also breeds has a litter due nearly 3 weeks before mine, she had her girl scanned at day46 and they stated 7 pups, just wasnt sure if there was sort of a cut off date for pups to absorbe or not.
thansk

I'm fairly sure that there is a cut off date for reabsorption.  Hopefully Brainless will be on and see the post, as she is the one with the knowledge, and I'm sure that she will give you some advice. 

With my breed, if they carry too many, the uterus is so streched, that they literally have difficulty in having room for contractions, and they are known for C-sections when this happens.  It's why I like small litters!

I have a terrier breed average 3 to 4.  One of my small show bitches had a litter of 5 and a litter of 6 no problem all well and good mum.   Nature sorts itself out. 

Hi , my french bulldog was scanned with 8 pups at 30 days , she delivered 7 days early and had 4 healthy pups, 2 still born and 2 which had been re absorbed ( but she passed them , 1 was tiny black shrivelled like a stone and the other was black and shrivelled but a lot bigger and all the features were there ). She had them without any problems and she coped really well with the four she had , I know she could've looked after the others as she was a natural first time mum.
Try not to worry I'm sure she'll be fine.

The lady who scans for me says they can reabsorb until about 5 weeks.  The guy who scanned for you, is he experienced - if you read on here, scans are more often wrong than right with numbers.

thanks everyone for the replies, the man who did the scan is good and is well known in lancashire, a few years ago he scanned one of my girls and saw 5 live and one reabsorbing,but did say the thought one of the 5 looked like there was something wrong and would poss absorb, she went on to have 4 very healthy pups with no sign of the other two,

Have Pom's.  We had one once who had 6, normal litter size for breed and our dogs was 2, 3 at the most.  All survived and she was a fantastic mum. 

cut off time for reabsording is day 35/36 hope this helps

Hi FoxyFay welcome to the forum, hope all goes well with your litter, i think i know your scan man, we also use him regular, i have just bought some help to welp off him, he swears by it, he is very knowledgeable, good luck, keep us posted, x

Hi, yes he talked to me about the help to whelp and also the puppie aid thing(cant think of the name now) hes great,he sat telling me loads for about an hour, he deffo seemed to know what he was doing and got it straight away,will be ordering some of the help to whelp soon.

Du mean puppy saver? its a colostrum paste for weaker puppies, yes he is a great guy, dropped our help to welp off last night, didnt think my girl would eat it on her food but she did.

cut off time for reabsording is day 35/36 hope this helps

I had a bitch scanned at day 38, 7 healthy pups seen, day 49 she looked smaller back to vet, no heart beats, she delivered 5 mummified pups starting day 65 and absolutely no sign of the other 2, so it can happen later, it took her 3 weeks to deliver the mummified pups, but she was on a very strong course of AB's to help with any infection.  She stayed on the AB's for 2 months, my vet was happy for her to continue this way as she was healthy with no temperature etc.

OMG that is terrible Sharon, thank God your'e girl is ok,

She was very depressed afterwards, but recovered and is obviously retired now.

Ah bless her no wonder she was depressed poor girl.

thats awful sharon :( !! xx