Hi,

This is my first post in this forum although I have been a reader for quite some time now.

I have a dog (medium-sized hunting breed) who is 61 days pregnant today (we took several progesterone tests so we know exactly when ovulation occurred). On Sunday, the 58th day, we noticed a clear discharge dripping from her vulva and it has continued since. Later that night her temperature dropped from 37.7 degrees Celsius to 36.8 (we hadn't started temping before that) and then rising to 37.8 next morning. So we expected labor to start within 24h. But still nothing has happened. She seems to have had some mild contractions on a few occasions (her eyes are glazing and she is fully focused and pushing her legs ) but nothing more than that.

We took her to the vet on Monday for an exam and he checked to see if she was dilated, which she wasn't (or he didn't really say, only that she wasn't dilated enough), and said that we should wait and see and that it probably would start within a day or so. Yesterday we took her to another vet - at her ordinary clinic - for an ultrasound just to make sure everything is ok. Everything looked fine. There are quite a number of puppies in there (on day 35 they estimated 8 puppies) and all seem to be doing fine going by their heartbeats.

I am still a bit concerned as she's had her temp drop 3 days ago and is shedding her mucus plug (I would guess) but still no action.She's gained 7.2 kg so far (+35%) so I'm guessing the puppies are quite large.

I have 2 breeding mentors, one of them is concerned (and the reason why we've been to the vet twice already) and the other one thinks the 36.8 reading was a "false drop".

I would like to know if anyone in here has an opinion about this - or even better, personal experience of similar cases? Is this normal? How long should we wait until seeing a vet next if still no action?

If you are concerned the way to find the exact stage you bitch has reached towards whelping would be to progesterone test her now to see how far her levels have dropped.

I live in Sweden and vets here are not as advanced as yours - if I would be able to convince them to take a progesterone test, it would take 24h to get the results back and I would get no support in interpreting the result

i had a similar situation with my toybreed a few wks back... started taking the temp couple of times a day from day 54.. it was always around 37.7, then on i think day 56 it dropped suddenly to 36.8, great i thought!! that was 10am, around 3pm... the panting started, pacing around, digging.... i thought right anytime now! then after a few hours she stopped! next morning i called the vet... but it started up again by this point... my breeding mentor had said she may need a shot to get things going... so i called the vet back at like 5pm and said no pups still.... so they said bring her up. so off we went, they said her temp was going back up so she was going into the second stage of labor and she was dilated. so they told me to expect pups during the night and if not back in the morning!
thankfully at around 1am she got her self comfortable then got up and started walking around hunching her back up like a cat lol. she had5, but 2 were stillborn. they are almost 4wks old now.... so it is possible that was a false drop. all in all her labor lasted 36hours which can be normal for a first time mum.

if you dog looks in distress at any time., or if you cant feel the pups move or if you have any of the bad warning signs.... green discharge ect... then go straight to a vet. if everything seams fine and dandy wait until day 63 and call your vet who will most likely want to see her then

But we're going on 63 hours now.

A a short while ago something really scary happened.
She was sleeping next to me. Initiallly when she fell a sleep her breathing was really weird so I got scared and woke her up. Took a while and she was a bit confused at first but then fell a sleep again with normal breath. On a couple of occasions she shivered in her sleep, like she was freezing. After an hour I got up and asked if she wanted to join me. She just glazed into the wall, I got no contact whatsoever for 2 min. Then her tail starts wagging like it usually does when I talk to her and after another minute the glazing stops.

Now I'm really concerned. From what I've read, the glazing is a sign of pain or chock.

And again, my "chicken mother" breeding mentor is very concerned, and my "laid back" mentor thinks it's perfectly normal so I have no idea what to think.

Am waiting for a call back from the vet.

Hej! Svensk jag med fast jag bor i England.

Personally I would worry and I would ask for a caesarian now as it does sound to me like she IS in labour and things aren't starting properly. I have heard of too many bitches recently (including one that I bred but did not own) where people have been adviced by vets to wait, and it resulted in dead puppies. It isn't ideal to end up with a c-section but if it was my bitch, this is what I would be asking for now.

I have to agree with Goldmali. With a med sized gundog breed I would have expected labour to be well under way by now. I think a vet needs to check her out. If in doubt then you really do need to have her progesterone tested (Though with a 24 hr result window it could even then be way too late)  Personally I would be moving towards a C-sect. A scan will help to establish heartbeats and if it is a good scanner position to see if pups are on the move.
Aileen

At the vet's office now, let's see what they say.

Goldmali, kul med fler svenskar här! :)

I hope all is well x

New ultrasound done and they took a glucose and calcium blood test  - everything looked good.

The vet wants us to wait until tomorrow morning, if nothing has happened by then they want to check her and the puppies health again before deciding on whether to do a c-section or not.

Update: I asked for a progesterone test but they said that they don't do it. If they do it they send it to a lab in Germany that takes 24h to process IF it's done before the mail gets sent (i.e. before 14:00), so we wouldn't get the result before Friday. So I didn't see the value of pushing it.

I would be very, very worried for my bitch.  INSIST on a section.  Don't accept being put off.  Too many people on CD have not heeded advice, and ended up losing pups.  They have been too complacent.

It seems as something is going on. Since yesterday evening she's been digging and nesting in the whelping room. She's constantly moaning, restless and wants to go outside at least every hour (she's got loose stools).

I think I'll give her an hour or two to see if active labour starts or else I'll take her in for a c-section.

Temp is back down to 36.8. In fact it was at 36.4 for 30 seconds but then started climbing as she got stressed (over taking the temp, not her favorite thing). So maybe she's finally in first stage for real

>Since yesterday evening she's been digging and nesting in the whelping room. She's constantly moaning, restless and wants to go outside at least every hour (she's got loose stools).

This is what I consider first stage labour, not the acting uncomfortable, with a bit of panting between heavy sleeping that can be something some bitches do for several days before labour really starts.

Good Luck, but don't leave it too long.

This is what my girl has done for both her litters too. Temp drop at 12 lunchtime on the Friday and sleeping. Wanting to go outside to the toilet really frequently all night and restless. First pup born at 6am after very little digging and panting. Literally saw one contraction and first pup was out. She tends to stand up for the first one and then lay down for the rest. Good luck.

So .... we went in to the vet's office first thing Friday morning as our dam's temperature had been 36.4 for more than 24 hours. She was fully dilated and panting on and off but there were no serious contractions until cirka 13:30. The vet could soon thereafter feel a head but not able to reach it, and after 15 additional minutes of contracting the pup had slipped back in so it was decided to give her a shot of oxytocin to speed things up. After a few minutes the pup was within reach and he was able to help it out after some agonizing minutes where she was screaming and clearly in pain :(  The following pups were delivered without any major issues. Six pups in total, 3 of each gender. And they are all healthy and doing well as is mummy dog. They weighed between 420-440g, average size is 380g for this breed so quite big!

Congratulations on a successful outcome! :-)

>After a few minutes the pup was within reach and he was able to help it out after some agonizing minutes where she was screaming and clearly in pain :-( 

I would be livid if my vet had a bitch of mine screaming in pain!  I have a wimpy toy breed, and several years ago I took a bitch in as she didn't seem to be getting anywhere.  It seems that the pups were moving down but not engaging.

Each time the vet brought a tiny (very tiny) toe down, she seemed to draw them back up again.  He persevered and although it took some time, he delivered two 3oz pups without hurting my bitch.  This is a breed known for sections, so I was over the moon with his patience.  My bitch wasn't screaming at all.

To be fair some bitches can be drama queens.

My breed are normally stoic easy whelpers.

My Lexi, 4th generation home bred bitch, screamed her head off with each puppy born (they came easil;y every 15 - 20 minutes) in her first litter, not quite so bad, but still screamed briefly as she passed the first couple in her second. 

With her last litter the fitrst pup was born on her way back from a pee, calm as you like, she barely noticed, and I caught her before Mum got to the whelping box.

Unfortunately and hour later that the bitch became panic stricken (definitely not acting normally for her) before the second, Oxytocin didn't work and the rest were born by C section.