Hi as you all know my bitch has been staying with the stud. She was having none of it however this morning the stud owner rang to say they were tied for 10 mins.
She wants to keep her another two days as she only allows them to breed once daily and she wants her to have 3 seperate maitings.

So (jumping ahead i know) i rang the vets to ask when I would be able to book her in for a scan.
She said at 5-6weeks?? I said that, that long in the pregnancy she would be visable anyway so she wouldn't need a scan.

Is this right? I thought the scan's were done much earlier.

It's only £62 per scan which I thought is quite reasonable.

Any advice please as I didn't scan last time she had a litter.

I have always had then scan ed at 28 - 30 days from first mating, as you say by 5 - 6 weeks with an average litter you can see they are in whelp.

I would try a different vet as it sounds as if they are not that expert at it if they need to wait that long..

I do not go to the vets as they do not do it regularly enough to be expert (IMHO) I use a lady who scans at her home or a sheep scanner who are much more practised! Worth asking other dog owners in your area if they know of anyone.

Think I paid £35 for a scan in a relaxed environment with pictures to take away.

Don't use the vet either , we have a lady locally (well 20 miles away) she only charges £18 she has been doing it for years and is really spot on

I have my own scanner and can easily pick pups up at 3 weeks, like you say at 5-6 weeks you are usually pretty certain if they are in whelp anyway and as vets don't give numbers seems quite pointless (and expensive)

My vet wants to scan at 5 weeks as well. I took my bitch in absolutely certain she had NOT taken. She was 5 weeks to the day with no signs at all. The vet saw 8 pups with probably more hiding. Yes it would have been obvious a week later, but it wasn't then. In this case we wanted to scan to check for heartbeats above all as the bitch had been bleeding/had a discharge just over 2 weeks into the pregnancy. I was sure she'd lost the pups but she hadn't.

It all depends on the skill of the person who scans. I used to use a sheep scanner, she said she had failed to spot so many pregnancies early on (told owners the bitches were not pregnant, then they had litters) that she had to tell bitch owners to not come before 5 weeks.

£62 per scan sounds very expensive to me -my vet charges £25!

I am getting my bitch scanned on day 32 between 4-5 weeks, this was roughly when the vet I am using said to go. They are also vets for equine and farm and scan sheep,pigs cows etc to confirm pregnancy so I have high hopes that they are confident in the use of their equipment. I thought it was going to be expensive as the area i live in isn't the cheapest, but it comes to £32.02 which I thought is a pretty good price :-)