So I have a small breed bitch, mated 21 days ago on day 10 and 13, a week ago she had a mucousy discharge with blood in, reddy-brown colour, she's fine in herself eating drinking urinating normal but I took her to the vet just incase, she was given antibiotics but the vet said that she doesn't think it's an infection, she thinks she's re-absorbing the litter and it's highly unlikely she'll be pregnant anymore. I thought they're weren't usually any signs of re-absorption and it often goes unnoticed? She still has some red coloured discharge a week later, its not constant and it's the tiniest amount, it's usually not there but I would say I notice a drop once maybe twice a day and she's not a "licker" so I know she's not cleaning it up herself. Now to me she's acting very different, I feel as if she is pregnant, she's a lot more chilled out and  affectionate, her teats are definitely enlarged, and she is ever so slightly thicker around the waist, nothing you'd notice if you weren't studying every inch of her!! I'm just wondering if anyone has had a similar experience? I also want to mention she's had the canine herpes vaccine 9 days after first mating, don't know if it's relevant but it is the first time I've used this, this will be my bitches first litter. Thanks in advance for any info x

I have had a bitch that reabsorbed at least 2 litters (scans done at 28+ days proved she was pregnant) She was getting big until the 7th week when she just seemed to deflate, no other outward signs at all. I have no experience of a bitch reabsorbing earlier, to my knowledge.

Fingers crossed that all is ok for you.

the discharge is not uncommon, my friend was worried sick by her vet saying similar things, that she probably wasn't pregnant, but worse wanting to have her in to spay, as they tried to say it was early Pyometra.

Fortunately she consulted BREEDERS and was reassured (though did get AB's just in case, to much shaking of the head and forecasts of gloom).  the bitch went on with a trouble free pregnancy, and had a litter of 6 (average for the breed) and has had no issues.

I had a reabsorption one ( before CHV jabs as had not heard of it ).
Was told I had a large litter ( prev 11 ) but knew at 7 weeks something was wrong as said earlier, she just got smaller. We went on to actually deliver at the vets just 3 dead puppies. The others clearly reabsorbed..
She did go onto have another perfectly normal if not smaller litter of 7. I have had the jab done after that as a precaution. The only puppies she lost were those in that litter.
Hope all is OK with yours. I have had discharges and antibiotics for bitches in the past and not had a problem with the pups so hopefully yours is OK too.

Hazenaide, Did you have the CHV jab for the second litter, or since.

My Inka absorbed recently and I have been wondering if I should have the CHV vaccine this next time.

As far as I am aware I have not had previous bitches re-absorb, as others said mine was obviously pregnant and just got thinner from 7 weeks and a scan confirmed the presence of remnants/sacks from absorbed pups.

I have never bothered with the jab before this latest litter. But as we were going overseas and I wanted to give the best possible chance we had it done. I had no problems at all so it is hard to say if it helped or not. I would probably have it done again as prevention is always better than cure.
Aileen

>as prevention is always better than cure.

Well this is the things.  From what I have read it sir likely that most of our dogs that do not live in a vacuum have been exposed to CHV.

So it only becomes an issue if the virus activates during pregnancy whelping etc.

Now as this doesn't happen with most litters, then why does it happen with a few, and should we actually be doing something to help the issue.  Are we in danger of breeding in a weakness/pre-disposition, which of course I'd rather avoid.

My breed has always been a natural hardy breed who have natural mating and rearing behaviour.

From abroad mainly the US I hear of more bitches unwilling to mate, C sections, small litters etc etc.

In the UK in the past litters of 10 - 14 pups were not uncommon, yet looking at the progeny details of many sires and bitches my own average over 21 litters of 5.9 pups reared (range 3 - 9) seems to be better than average???

Now some of this may be due to the fact we tend to not breed from our bitches until they are generally nearer three than two, and many bitches are closer to five with a first litter, and males get very few mating opportunities, so am sure that must affect fertility as they age.

Disappointing and sad as it often is, should we be letting nature take it's course more????

Sorry - just to clarify, I had my early litters and had never even heard of Canine Herpes so no jab. I gather it is more common in a kennel situation which I do not have BUT, I am a dog groomer working from home and I have been led to believe that I could even had carried it indoors on my clothing unwittingly.
Subsequent litters I have had the jab except one bitch for her 2nd litter as I was aware she had funny seasons and might not have a good size litter ( we had 2 live pups). Can't really remember making that decision as it happens.
So now I do not take a chance as I am a high risk individual anyway. Apart from the one bitch I have had good size litters with very low birthing problems.
I did have 15 with one still born ( not unreasonable in a way) and I had one puppy from a litter of 12 that was born with a defective kidney. My vet could not seem to say one way or the other whether this could have been caused by the jab. Luck of the draw in his opinion so could happen either way which of course i accept that is life.
It nearly put me off having the jabs again, just in case , but then I remembered the horror of that litter and it probably wasn't the jab that caused the problem anyway.
We are a hardy breed but infection can come from anywhere so don't think it is going against nature, just helping things go well. We do it with people for known diseases so why not I say.

But CHV is something most dogs have had contact with and will have no ill effects, it is only some individuals that during the stress involved with breeding have a flare up.  It is this tendency that I worry about encouraging, as most dogs just deal with the CHYV issue as a matter of course with their immune systems.

I don't know what percentage of dogs overall have this jab. If you have not had a problem, like me before, I guess you would not be bothering and indeed not be aware of it. Mine is a good numbers, self whelping line in a hardy breed and cannot see me having the jabs with my small number of litters can do any harm overall and see it simply as additional protection while in the womb which is a big part of it. I can't really see, in this case, that it would have long term effect on anything else but your numbers of surviving puppies may be increased by nature of the job of the vaccination in this case.

Because the cover/protection it offers is a very specific period of time.

Thank you all who replied, just a quick update- vet called shortly after I posted on here, cilla did have an infection, another 5 days on antibiotics has cleared it up, clear discharge now and she was scanned this morning we saw 3 pups with heartbeats, so very pleased. Thanks again x

Didnt think heart beats wher picked up that early in   scan..? But congratulations :) x