My small breed bitch was scanned last week at 25 days post mating. This would have been my first litter and most info around has said that scanning on the 25 day would show pups.
Sadly the vet found no pups and said we could scan again this week but he is not hopeful that it would show anything different.
She is now 33 days post mating - last week she had some morning sickness, her teats are bigger and she is filling out.
Is it possible that even tho the vet saw nothing on the scan that she is actually pregnant or is this likely to just be a phantom?

I personally wouldn't scan so early.
We scan at around 33 days, at that point if there are pups you should be able to see them (though you can have 'sneaky' pups tucked out of view that could be missed). If you scan at 25 days and she didn't conceive until a later mating (if more than one mating) or if eggs weren't fertilised until a few days following a mating, then it could give a false negative. Best to wait and scan a little later ;)

Well I would say it was a bit too early as the usual advice I have always had is at LEAST 28 days, ideally 30+. I normally have mine scanned at around 32 days. If the scanner wasn't very experienced (which often is the case with vets) they could miss pups.

I would go back for a rescan, sounds like she is, I can pick pups up at 21 days post mating, but can easily be missed, I have my own scanner and my girls just lie on the sofa for as long as I'm searching, enjoying every minute of it.  Pups are definitely a lot easier to see 30+ days

SharonM - this is whats confusing me. If you can pick pups up at 21 days then why would they be missed by my vet?
He is not a young thing and has owned the practice for many years so I would have thought he would be experienced at this.
Dont want to get my hopes up again and rescan only to be disappointed all over again!

If you can pick pups up at 21 days then why would they be missed by my vet?

Because most vets do not do a lot of pregnancy scanning, in particular not at different stages, checking the bitch frequently.

Keith who does numerous scans per day will not scan until the 28th day after last mating!  He's always been right in numbers or saying when they are not pregnant.

Ok so should I go for another scan this week - she will be 5 weeks on thursday if she is pregnant or would it be best to wait till next week?

many vets offfer a free rescan at 35 days by which time a scan shoudl be reliable.

Also, bear in mind that unless you progesterone tested, the '25 days from mating' is only an estimate as to when fertilisation actually took place.
When I used an experienced sheep scanner should would not scan before 28 days and preferred longer, but because I had progesterone tested and was mated two days after ovulation, I knew the mating would have been an accurate date.

Getting her scanned again tomorrow at 35 days post mating.
She has put weight on but not a huge amount - how much bigger should she be at 5weeks?

At 5 weeks I wouldn't expect the bitch to be bigger at all. Usually it starts from 6 weeks.

hi was your girl pregnant after