I have a litter due in just under a week but mum is so tiny and slim you would never know she was pregnant at all.She has a tiny pot belly,absolutely no bulging sides whatsover but i have felt licks on just one side so there is definately something in there.Im concerned its a single pup so wondering if i should take her to be xrayed so im prepared.She was fairly small with her last litter but looked pregnant,not at all like this.She had 6 last time.

You obviously didn't have her scanned - but scanning is less invasive than an xray - I would go down that road.

No didnt have her scanned.My vet just called and is against xraying her but did not mention scanning,maby too far on to see anything? I just find it hard to believe there are anymore than just 1 or 2 in there but i have to wait until her due date then take her in if im worried

I don't understand your vets reluctance to x-ray.  I've certainly had pregnant bitches x-rayed when they've been having a difficult whelping.  Indeed, one of my girls was getting nowhere and it was the x-ray that prompted an urgent section. 

She had 2 pups jammed side by side in one of the uterine horns, and she would never have got them down by herself.  She would just have died eventually and I have never regretted having an x-ray.  At this late stage it's not going to do the pups any harm.

I have had bitches carry high up under the ribcage, and they have not moved down until the very last minute.

>but i have to wait until her due date then take her in if im worried

I don't know what  breed you have but I'm concerned at your vet insisting on waiting for her "due" date.

I have a breed that regularly whelps a week early and I have never had a bitch go to day 63.  If my vet told me that I had to wait until a "due" date, he would be my ex vet.

It's definitely breed-related; in my breed the 'due date' is the earliest you would expect them, with two or three days 'late' being perfectly normal.

and mine two days before being more common than due date, but no worries about a day or two over if bitch happy either.

In the USA and elsewhere many breeders routinely x-ray their bitches for numbers a week before the due date.

This is pretty accurate for head count, though the bitch my friend had a pup from showed 5 on x-ray so they were rather surprised when the 6th arrived.

For us, and we have had 2 small litters, one a singleton from the outset, the worst bit, pre-whelping, is sometimes they just 'sit', growing bigger by the day and so increasing the possibility of the need for a C.Section - such a pain for just one or two puppies!   I'd tend to suggest you let her go to 63 or 64 days, and if nothing happens, get her into your vet who should examine her, maybe x-ray to see if there's anything there, and if so, give her a shot to start things.   Be aware that occasionally a car trip does the same thing - so take a box with a warm pad in it etc.  And somebody with you to watch your bitch.

Post whelping having just one can be sad because once mum has done her bit, they look so lonely in the box on their own.   I carried one we had around with me and as a result, she was spoilt rotten.

I have never seen the point of scanning which only tells you there is a pregnancy, and only at the time of the scan.  X-ray, which is quite safe when done towards the end of the pregnancy, is far more accurate.

You may have to adjust the amount of food you are feeding if she just has a few puppies ...... I remember the other small litter, our first which was really a disaster - 2 puppies, one DOA.   As a result (and she did start to look for the dead one for a few days - heartbreaking) she really didn't eat anywhere near as much as I'd expected she would need to feed 'a litter' - according to the books.   Clearly nature knew best and her needs to supply him were very low.   He had a ball with the whole milk bar to himself - I did have to make sure he took from all the teats so she didn't run into mastitis - another thing to be thought about if you do only have a few puppies.

Having a small litter isn't ideal, but I don't think you need to worry unduly about that, other than the potential for a delayed whelping.

Add -   Generally speaking I'd suggest your vet isn't out of line by telling you to wait for her due date - yes, they do all differ, but provided she's otherwise fine, no nasty offensive discharge etc., why not wait until she should have whelped before pressing the panic button?

My bitch went over her due date(s) so my vet xrayed her as she had puppy movement but no milk lines, and no sign of labour. We saw 4 pups and a few other bits that looked like puppies but it wasnt clear. He decided a section was best so we had 4 live pups, sadly lost one but in her uterine horns there was alot of debris, which was 3 reabsorbed pups.

1 looked like it died 3 weeks ago, another 2 weeks ago and the last one, probably a week ago. Her temp was fine but her uterus is very inflammed due to the debris bits. He ummed about spaying her due to this but decided against it due to risk of haemorrage.

3 pups are being hand reared as she has no milk. Something hormone related seemed to go wrong at about 6 weeks so I'm glad our Vet went with his gut instinct as I could have lost all of them.

>why not wait until she should have whelped before pressing the panic button?

Definitely breed knowledge is the key.

If any novice is reading this, and has the same toy breed as me.   PLEASE DO PANIC.  Too many times I have given advice to newbies on this forum.  Too many times they have decided to "wait and see" - and lost the litter.

I've advised people with this breed to call the vet even if it is after midnight and they don't want the huge bill.  Too many times they've decided to wait until the vet opens the following morning.  I get so fed up of people losing pups of this breed because they just won't listen to experience in the breed. 

One size does not fit all.

If any novice is reading this, and has the same toy breed as me.   PLEASE DO PANIC.  Too many times I have given advice to newbies on this forum.  Too many times they have decided to "wait and see" - and lost the litter.

Taking pieces out of context can be very misleading.  I said "but provided she's otherwise fine, no nasty offensive discharge etc., why not wait until she should have whelped before pressing the panic button?"   Of course each pregnancy and whelping has to be taken as an individual.

Yes I totally understand that.  BUT, if anyone with my breed does actually wait until the due date they find that the bitch has inertia.  They just don't go 9 weeks is what I'm saying

> BUT, if anyone with my breed does actually wait until the due date they find that the bitch has inertia.

I think inertia has to be taken into account - while it doesn't affect all dogs or all breeds or all pregnancies, it's something else that can happen, and might be something not all vets are aware of.

It's certainly very high on the list of problems with Chihuahuas.  Very common in the breed and there are some of the top people actually going for planned sections.

In my experience the problem with singletons is that the dam does not go into labour normally as there's not enough hormone produced by just one puppy to kick start things. I would personally get her checked and scanned, if there's one pup it's likely to have grown too large to deliver naturally so it would be worth thinking about a c section if that's the case. Otherwise keep a very close eye on her, and if she seems to be going into early stage labour but doesn't progress, or even if nothing changes but she's on day 63, then I would be thinking about a c section to avoid losing the puppy.

>if there's one pup it's likely to have grown too large to deliver naturally

I do think that breed matters.  I have had a few singleton births and not needed a section.  One pup is not unusual in my very small breed.

Although I have been working on a self whelping line for a very long time.