Hi all, firstly I should explain that this is my first litter, one very much planned for, health tested to the extreme and all potential pups have homes.  However my mentor sadly pulled out in early September leaving me on my own. I have been reading/watching/preparing as much as a I can and have a fabulous vet and my breed is an established easy whelper so I am hoping everything will go okay.  She is due on Friday going by day of ovulation and on Saturday by day of mating. She is massive, has at least 8/9 pups by scan and is very uncomfortable, will hardly move from her whelping box but is still eating and drinking fine. 

I wonder if I could ask a question about what her temps have been doing please, as they are confusing me slightly. The vet has asked me to call them as soon as she has a prolonged temp drop just so they know.
Her normal temp is 37.7 and it has been that over the last two weeks when Ive taken it at lunchtime to get a baseline.

On Monday (day58), she was really flat all day, hardly ate, didnt want to get out of the whelping box and didnt eat much.
12pm  37.7
8pm  37.4 which was the first lower temp Id seen
At this point because of her behaviour, restless and digging at the vet bed, I thought we were heading for proper temp drop
but at 12pm it went back up to 37.7

Tuesday (yesterday day 59)
Bit brighter today, ate breakfast, a bit of lunch, some of tea and all of supper
9.45am 37.7
1pm 37.6
3.45pm 37.4 so I thought here we go again!
but by 7pm it had gone back to 37.7
at 12pm it was at 38.0!! she has never been this high

Today (day 60)
9.45am 37.9
12.30pm 37.8

I am just really confused as to why her temp should be going up and staying up higher than her normal temp? Today she seems pretty calm in her big whelping box, we still havent seen any stringy type discharge, pups are still moving around and she ate half her breakfast.

I know I am waiting for a significant drop, however at what point does a raise in temp cause issues too?

I know people talk about that significant drop (to lower than 37) but I've NEVER seen it myself, not even once. I keep hoping for it and keep taking temperature, but every time pups have arrived without the temp drop being seen.

Im just not sure why we seem to be getting a consistent raise in temp, at what point do I think hmmm something going wrong here?

Forget all your previous temperature readings... the drop is what youre looking for.
Mine ( if I bother to check) drop to around 36C if I catch the lowest point.
If you are staying with her you probably wont need a temp warning in any case. Panting .... which sounds like sawing wood....and restlessness, digging, whining, and then grunting with tail rising slightly - contractions ... they are unmistakable.

With my bitch she fluctuated from 37.4-37.7 from day 53 until day 61 when her temp raised to 38.  On day 62 it went down to 37.3 and she went into labour that night.  With her first litter it dropped to 36.9 but I never seen it drop that low this time unless it happened between midnight and 9 in the morning!! 
I would say other things are a better give away like , not eating, being sick, having several loose stools and sqeezing a bit more than you'd expect.
I have large/giant breed and from things i've read they dont always have as dramatic a drop as smaller breeds???
Good luck  xx

My bitch gets a bit restless but shows none of the other signs (a few days before she is going to the toilet a lot), her temperature did drop this time. Best to compare same time of day for temperature readings as it varies a bit throughout the day.

She has a very easy delivery with hardly any signs of contractions, a little ripple through her body and then a puppy.

Good luck.

Thank you, she seems so fed up tonight although her temp dropped to about 37.4 at lunch until tea time it's gone up to 37.9. Her eyes are now a bit pink and if I put my hand on her tum it goes hard but no signs of anything else at the moment.

Possibly you're temperature drop is on it's way! Have a look at this, I think it explains quite well:

http://www.debbiejensen.com/temp_chart.html

I do find the temperature method very accurate for me, as does my breeder friend/mentor. I'm not sure what you mean by a 'significant' drop. I'm just looking for a drop into the 36Cs, just as an example, the lowest I recorded on this year's litter was 36.7 at 0300 on the Saturday, she whelped at 2335 that night. I may well have missed a lower drop as the previous temp taken at 10pm on the Fri was 37.3, the temp taken on whelping day at 1145 was on the rise again!

The lowest on another litter was also 36.7 and she whelped within 24 hours, again the temperature prior to whelping was on the rise.

A dog's normal temperature is around 38.6C, so 38 isn't to be worried about. Whilst you are saying 37.7 for your girl's normal temperature, that's only been taken whilst pregnant, if I'm reading your post correctly. Post whelp it may be in the range of 38.3-39.4. If it's more than that then that's when I start to worry :-O 

I'd say don't get too hung up with the temperature thing, it's just a guide to help you judge when the pups will start arriving, and can be nicely used alongside other signs. But if I were recording your temperatures, I'd now be monitoring to look for the steady drop and my guess is that you're looking at another 48 hours. But, don't hold me to that, I don't know your dogs, I don't know your thermometer, I don't know your thermometer reading skills, I don't know your room temperature, and I don't know anything else should she be a week overdue :-O But if she were mine that's what I'd be sort of expecting ;-) ... hhmm, wondering if I've given a sufficient get out clause!

I am wondering what the temperature is this evening.

Oh, my girl ate a lovely big lunch on the day of whelping :-O So, if she eats don't rule whelping out! Oh, also, my girls have never been sick prior to babies ;-)

How exciting, I hope all goes well, I am sure it will do ;-)

And in 35 years I have never bothered with taking temperature!     

And have always found that just watching my bitches, it is very easy to detect, and being in tune to them, can pick up on inertia just by the look in their eyes.

So not everyone finds temp taking to be the most reliable indication.

Don't beat yourself up too much, try and relax, to make her relaxed.  :-)

i took my girls temperature and it was around 37 ish then at 4.00am one morning it dropped to 36.2/4 cant remember which one
13 hours later she had her first pup
will take temp again as i found it good for me
good luck with whelp let us know how it goes

I never had any success with a thermometer, if you "spear a poo" it gives an inaccurate reading so I just watch and wait.

I have been lucky that my girls have all gone into labour after a very good nights sleep in bed with me, sometimes a couple of days early or late and the labours can vary in length from 4 hrs to 16hrs to first pup.

Only tried the temp taking twice and both times unreliable with my girls, my vet told me not to do it again as it wasn't reliable anyway.

My last girl, although I knew she slept more the day before, I sat up all night watching her, she slept solidly all night, no panting or digging, I made a cup of tea, she came out of the whelping box, stretched as normal when she wakes up, arched her back and produced a pup, looked at it and went back to the whelping box and went back to sleep....I got the pup out of the sac put it in the whelping box with her, thankfully the following 8 she took over, but no panting or digging, first bitch I've had like this, we normally get the panting/digging/poo'ing/being sick.

I used to take the temperature but never found it useful as bitch always whelped with no drop in temp. Our bitch who whelped 2 days ago just started panting heavily 12 hours before then stopped just before first puppy was born. 

Tracy

Sorry it has taken me so long to reply (I cant stand it when someone starts a thread and doesnt come back to update it lol) but Friday morning saw the safe arrival of pups. My girl's temperature followed almost exactly what was in that Debbie Jensen link, she had a rise to 38.0 about 6 hours before she started to have a drop, she went to 37.1 for a whole day and over the course of the day got progressively quieter, she spent the night going to and fro out to the patio weeing and eventually with runny poos.  Hardly digging or panting though so very much still in the preparation stage of labour.  Her temp dipped to 36.9 at 7am and she fell fast asleep, no tiny contractions, no mucous, no whining or panting. My son came downstairs to keep an eye whilst I went upstairs for an hours sleep (as had been awake pretty much the previous 48hours).  Within 45 mins I heard a shout and she had gone into our fenced off patio for a quick wee with him, she ran back into the whelping box and on the way the first pup, complete with sac and placenta fell out onto the floor in a tidal wave of waters!  Fortunately I have a very cushioned floor and he was absolutely fine.

She pushed out three more within just over 45 mins, had a break for an hour then two more, then another break for about 45mins then one more.  After two hours, she was settled, all pups settled and feeding, bedding changed, my girl had a meal and been out for the toilet with me with her.  Was sitting with her and two contractions later, out popped another one squeaking his head off!  So four hours after the last pup we had number 8.  All gaining weight and happy.  Soooooo exhausted, how people go into this lightly I'll never know.  Thank you for all your help, was really appreciated.

My girl's temperature followed almost exactly what was in that Debbie Jensen link
Excellent.  I've used it reliably for 30 years.  Success depends on taking the trouble to learn when and how to take the temperature and how to interpret the results. :)

Yeay, congratulations :-D

Congrats on the new arrivals, enjoy,they grow so quickly.