Hi

I have had my bitch at vets today as she has picked a sickness/diarrhea bug, while there the vet had a feel at her tummy and said that she can feel 1 pup (bitch is on day 36) how accurate is it doing palpation?

The vet has advised that bitch have an x-ray at 8 weeks to see if any more there,

Thank you

28 days is the optimum time for palpation when the foetus are like a string of pearls.  After that it's much more difficult and as with all things, depends on the experience of the operator. :)

I wouldn't bother to have an in whelp bitch x-rayed at 8 weeks.  You'll know by then if she's pregnant or not.  Does the number matter as long as it's more than one?

Thank you for info :)

Nope does not matter how many are in there as long as there is one for me i am more than happy

I once had a bitch palpated at around 28 days and the vet said definately not.......................she went on to have 9 puppies!

A few weeks ago my vet palpated my bitch on day 21 as he said this was the best time and said he couldnt feel anything so I took her for a scan a week later and another vet saw 5 puppies.

I dont think I'l bother getting any more bitches palpated.

Good luck

I'm not sure how much practice they get at Veterinary School.... ;)

Had a bitch palpated at 9 weeks told absolutely nothing there, 4 hours later she had 4 pups which is a large litter for the breed!

I've had a far better success rate when the vet has palpated. The scans have all been hugely wrong, the palpation much more accurate with exact numbers given most times.

> Had a bitch palpated at 9 weeks told absolutely nothing there, 4 hours later she had 4 pups which is a large litter for the breed! <IMG class=qButton title="Quote selected text" alt="Quote selected text" src="/images/mi_quote.gif" width=20 height=10>

   

> Had a bitch palpated at 9 weeks told absolutely nothing there, 4 hours later she had 4 pups

this is exactly what happend to me,i was taking my bitch in denyal as i thought she was just really over weight.the vet in the room and the head vet both said they could feel nothing and advises to diet her asap.so i did i upped the exersize and even bought a treadmill thinking i wasnt giving her enough!!!!

.two weeks later she had 8 large sized puppies.
but i was told a definate no!!

Well we were told by the stud owner that they hadn't mated, but we could feel ripples all the time.  Took her to the vet to check that we weren't imagining things.  She actually said we were and that she definitely wasn't pregnant.  This was a Pomeranian so not exactly a big dog.  Though saying that she was the same vet who we'd had a black Pom in for a c-section only a few weeks before she went missing.  She was found by a guy who actually took her to our vets and saw the same vet who performed the c-section and the guy was told that they didn't have any Pom's on their books, black Pom's weren't even that popular in those days either so how she could forget so quickly I don't know!!