How easy/hard is it? My girl is a few days away from 6 weeks and i have my stethoscope! Just wondered if anyone has any tips on the best place to listen...i understand it takes alot of patience and luckily my bitch likes to lay on her back for long periods while i fiddle!!!

Probably easier with a bigger litter, but I did manage to get a heartbeat with both my girl's litters, and they were 2 and 1 puppies. I didn't hear them as well as 6 weeks though.

We're week seven today I think (mated on the 26th of August), I thought we were just a few days ahead of you? I'm using the Debbie Jenson calculator; have I miscounted?!

Would also love to know this, let us know if you find heartbeats!

A stethoscope I didn't  find was very useful despite being used to using one on humans for heart/chest sounds so I bought a cheap sonacaid which shows the number of heart beats which allows me to distinguish between each pup and also the dams which is much slower.

Male and female pups heart rates one is faster than the other but I can't remember which way round.

Waggamama, i have just calculated it from the mating she took from- 28th august, which counting 1 week from each makes her 6 weeks on sunday, as she is due on the 30th :)

I had a listen for ages with the stethoscope but nothing...think im too early and not helped by the fact she is having a small litter for her breed.

That's so weird; how am I getting 7 weeks today on this online grid then? www.debbiejensen.com/date.html

I'm so confused, oops!

> www.debbiejensen.com/date.html
>

Interesting site. Never heard of this before though? if you calculate a pregnancy it states at about 3 weeks:-

"Your veterinarian may want to prescribe a drug to relax the uterus."

Is this something other people do?

If mated on the 26th August the due date is 28th October.

>"Your veterinarian may want to prescribe a drug to relax the uterus."
>Is this something other people do?

No. Never heard of it. The embryos don't implant till that stage so I'd not want to do anything that might disrupt that.

The stethoscope should have two sides, the diaphragm and the bell. You can only listen to fetal heartbeats with the bell. They are quite clear near the end of gestational time.

Which side is the bell?

The bell is the cupped side; the diaphragm is the flat side.

Stethoscope information.

Feel like a right ninny now; thank you!

*cough* I'm glad you asked that question! lol

That's probably why I've never had any luck listening! Off to dig my stethoscope out.

>"Your veterinarian may want to prescribe a drug to relax the uterus."<br /><br /> Is this something other people do?

A big fat NO here.

No to the drug to relax the uterus...never heard of it, sounds barmy.

We always use a stethescope to determine numbers, to monitor during labour and always have it around my neck during delivery.
A seemingly 'dead' puppy may resist all attempts to revive and I alway keep ckecking for a heart beat and I never give up until its lost.

Very easy to distinguish between fetal beats and mothers....so much faster.
My husband can be very precise with numbers unless there are more than 5 or six because he may be hearing the same pup from different locations. But he hears them all as quite different entities, each being subtly different...but then it is his job and he uses a top of the range cardiology steth.

I don't think my stethescope looks like that, though I haven't seen it for 15 months - I think it only has one thing to listen with.