Just a quick question regarding this. Is this something that will sort itself out once the puppies start suckling?

I have tried to bring it out myself but not having much luck and dont want to keep annoying her. Shes due next week and all other teats are fine. Its the one right up beside her front legs so not as prominent as the others.

Is it a big deal if it doesnt come out?

Thanks :-)

I found that mine had a couple of slightly inverted nipples up until she gave birth, but once the pups started suckling, they came out

Ah thats great. Thanks so much.

It might not really even do much, I don't think my girl had any milk in her nearest to front ones, it was the back ones that did the work! :-)

I had that with my first bitch.   Two inverted nipples right by the front legs.    They stayed flat.     The pups couldn't latch onto them and I couldn't get milk from them.    They were fine until the pups were almost weaned, then she got mastitis in them.   Because I couldn't milk them down  they did abcess, the vet said it was because there'd been no movement of the milk :(

She had antibiotics, but the one abcessed and burst - apparently it looked worse than it was - according to the vet.   Farm vet not small animal, but he was right about it healing quickly and the treatment/advice he gave was good.

I was unlucky, apparently it's very rare,in unused nipples, but it would be wise to know the worst scenario and be prepared.  

I chose not to breed her again as those two nipples weren't going to go away and I couldn't put her through it again.   Her daughter and grand-daughter don't have the inverted nipples, so they haven't been passed on.

This won't necessarily happen with your bitch,  just something to keep an eye on ;-)

I have been amazed with some of my litters how they seem to favour those useless looking front nipples,. 

They must get what they want from them, as whenever I move them back to the better nipples some insist on going to those ones again for preference. 

Especially in the early days many pups don't like the big rear ones.

One of my girls, who has had 22 puppies in three litters, only has 6 nipples, with those front ones totally missing, yet reared her 7 - 8 puppy litters well.

A couple of my girls have had them and reared large litters with no problems with the pups or the inverted nipples. some came out after pups started suckling and some didn't but it didn't make any difference either way so I wouldn't worry :)

Thats brilliant. Thank you for all your replies. I will definitely keep an eye out for the mastitis if its not being used. :-)

My girl had them and as we had 9 pups, got puppies on one of them to try stimulate it and ended up with 9 working nipples :-)
The one that was "not used" when the pups were born, did not produce milk :-).