Hi all, I am looking for some advice whether in your experience a fetal doppler or an ultrasound scan is better for detecting heart beats in puppies. I have had several bitches ultrasound scanned in the past but have been told its not always possible to detect heart beats depending on the way the puppies are lying. Does anyone have any experience of a doppler being more effective for detecting heart beats. I am asking as I recently lost a litter of puppies where there were puppies clearly seen on ultrasound at 8 weeks and there were heart beats on 2 but not detected on the 3rd, but by day 64 she was having a caesarian for 3 dead puppies, so I was looking to invest in something that could help me monitor the heart beats if I was to try again with her to see what's going on. Thanks

I should also probably add this is for a toy breed.

I thought dopler was one kind of ultrasound equipment.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_ultrasonography

Yes I know that, I should have been more explicit in meaning an ultrasound image scan vs the fetal dopplers which just give a heart rate reading.

To be honest if it's for pregnancy diagnosis then the image scan, if it's to check for viability (if overdue or problems whelping) then the doppler may be of use to know if pups are alive or dead.

I must say I obviously have become more patient since my early days breeding as I now don't bother with scans, you get what you get, no amount of scanning will make the bitch pregnant, and knowing numbers is pointless as you still won't know how many live pups you will get, and rear.

Monitoring heart beats does not guarantee live pups, my last litter there was at least one live pup at the start of labour but she delivered a fresh stillborn pup and 2 which had been dead a while, all 3 were alive on day 39 when she was scanned.