Hi guys our bitch which is pregnant got attacked by a staffy. The vet said to go back on day 28 to see if the puppy's were ok and trace a heart beart. However on day 30 we went for a scan and the vet we seen previous was off.  The locom vet did it and said she couldnt tell us how many pups were there in case we sued her and said pups were too small to see a heart beet and organs etc. She said come back on day 50 for another scan if we want to see inside again! Is this normal. After her trauma we just want to make sure all is well and to give us an idea how many shes havin

Doesn't sound particularly 'normal' to me.  28 days is the best time to be able to tell numbers, as the foetuses are small enough to count, and I would have thought you could have seen heartbeats then too.  I have mine scanned at 35 days usually, but this is leaving it late to tell numbers as they are too big to fit on the screen more than one at a time.

I've never really heard of anyone going back at 50 days!  Seems very late, and you would be able to see pups moving with your eyes and hear heartbeats with your own stethoscope then, so can't see the point?

I suppose if your still worried by day 50 another scan would be for your peace of mind to see if everything was proceeding well, I can't think of another reason to go back to late on.

Hi Thompson...

By day 30, you should be able to see heart beats, at the very least.

>The locom vet did it and said she couldnt tell us how many pups were there in case we sued her< This sounds a bit strange to me -- as you should be able to see heartbeats, and therefore be able to roughly say how many... when my mother takes her bitch to get scanned, the vet always says, I can see [however many puppies heartbeats he can see] but, there could be more, or less.

Going to get a scan on day 50 seems very strange - you'd be lucky to see two puppies on the screen together -- and I, personally, would suggest making another appointment to see the vet you first saw, just to make sure everything is okay with your bitch.

I would get her scanned by somone like a sheep scanner or get reccomendations from others for a more experienced person. In general vets don't scan often enough to be proficient. I have heard from several people that vets will not quote any numbers for fear of being sued, but that shows that some twit somewhere did infact sue!!

Good Luck, hope the pregnancy pregresses without further incident :)

I have been told that a scan is to confirm pregnancy only as final numbers may vary by whelping due to natural absorbtion of any defective pups.

I had a scan done at 60days due to some concerns and even then they could only tell me at least 2 pups with strong heart beats,there were 3 born 3 days later.

I would either find a pig scanner like Keith Shea who does it in the home or find out when your usual vet is on who you saw first with your concerns, tell him you were not happy with the info given by the locum and would prefer another scan done by him preferably free of charge.