My girl was mated on a Monday and Friday. (she was due to be mated on the Wednesday but the stud dog owner had a family emergency so I took her on the Friday thinking she had probably gone over, but both dogs were very keen). On day 31 from first mating the ultrasound scan was inconclusive, as gestational sacs could be clearly seen, but no embryos. Due to possible re absorption worries she was rescanned five days later and at this point embryos were clearly visible.

Having discussed the scans with my (very experienced) scanner it seems the pups development shows the conception was definitely a result of her second mating and she ovulated quite late.The pups were potentially conceived 7-9 days after the first tie. Having never been in this situation before my question is this....

Do I count her pregnancy as being Day 1 from the first mating or Day 1 from her second mating? Or do I take into consideration the point at which ovulation occurred?

As timing is so important for worming, exercise, diet change, temperature change, due date and so on I feel totally lost !!!! Please help.....

I had something similar with my last litter. The vet who scanned said she was certain the mating that took was one of the later ones -we did 3, but it seems the first was just dog and bitch being too keen and she wasn't actually ready, dog then showed no interest again until several days later. So I counted from the second mating and that turned out to be correct.

I had similar situation when I travelled abroad 3 mattings every other day and she in fact whelped to the last mating giving birth 63 days from the second which would have been ovulation, as bitches usually whelp 62 - 63 days after ovulation.

Worst thing was she had me thinking she had gone into labour for about 4 days, little mare.

Thank you for the response..

It seemed reasonable to count from the second mating, but your confirmation has helped soothe nerves... Letting a girl go to 69 days post first mating before being concerned can be a huge leap of fate can't it, so it is great to know these timings worked for you and your litter.

Thank you Brainless,

They love to keep us guessing don't they....

I also had one bitch start a season straight after one of the others, went for mating and the dog was just not interested, but finally mated her, and the dtud owner brought her back after just the one mating.  Her season was longer than normal.

I duly took her at 28 days to my vet who is good at palpation.  He confirmed pregnancy but said eh felt the pregnancy was not that far advanced more like 23 days, and she whelped 4 days late to the single mating, so he had been right.

Had he not said this I'd have been having kittens waiting to 67 days as ours tend to whelp 61 days from mating.

This is one good reason for having pregnancy confirmed, if the vet can date things better.

Hi, i am in a similair situation and also don't know quite what to do.

My girl was mated on the thursday, but both parties were very uninterested and then did eventually mate/tie. However, my girl was boarded with the stud dog owner and was mated again on the monday, where both dogs were incredibly interested and much more eager/excited than at the first mating, we achieved a longer tie.

With there being 5 (possibly 7 days if ovulation happened a day or so later) between matings i am at a loss what to do.
It is such a pain when you work to try and work out when you should become sleep deprived!

My vet could not really give me an indication of timing/age of pups, he just said they looked like typical 4-5 week pups when i went for the scan, and then had her re scanned 5-6 weeks and they were more visible.

My question now is how do i know when to panic - what signs should i look for? i have read a lot about inertia etc but have never actually experienced this myself.
This is a breed what whelps usually day 60-61

Does your vet keep the in-house pre-mate test kits in surgery, or is able to get progesterone lab results same day.

If so the drop of progesterone levels to pre ovulation levels indicates that birth should start.

Brainless,

I am contemplating asking my vet to order these tests in so that they are available for my girl nearer the time. Can you offer any advice with regards to the best timings considering my circumstance, and how long does it take for a result to be available? Any information you can give would be greatly appreciated..

With the in-house tests the results should be available in a couple of hours.  They have to centrifuge the blood to get the serum, etc.

You would want the opposite result to when predicting ovulation.

As to when to use that is very breed dependent, in breeds where Inertia is a bigger possibility sooner, ditto with toys.

Thank you for the information Brainless. It was a good starting point when chatting to my vet regarding my concerns over my girls whelping dates and we both now have a clear whelping timescale in mind. In-house tests are available and we have agreed when these will be completed to stop me turning into a blubbering wreck...

Great sounds like you have a vet who isn't as anti breeding as many seem to be and is prepared to be supportive with a client doing properly planned breeding.