Does anyone know of any local acanners in this area please?

I don't know about local but Domini Allday (Pet Scan) is in Milton Keynes. I'm doing a nine hour round trip tomorrow to take my girl to be scanned by her, she's brilliant.

www.findascanner.co.uk
There is also a FB page too for this.
Some scanners will travel further than the area they put.

I'm doing a nine hour round trip tomorrow to take my girl to be scanned by her, she's brilliant.

I hope you don't mind my asking about scans, simply for interest's sake and out of a desire to learn how things are done in the UK.  Here in Switzerland, basically every vet has his/her scanning machine (that sinister little TV screen on a chunky little affair on rollers), and they tell me the thing costs around CHF 70'000 (ca. 46'500 GBP). ....Just try to imagine our vet bills.....  Anyhow, basically every vet can do scans, and it would appear that these scans are sufficient for most purposes and that vets are able to interpret them correctly.  I know there is one vet located near Zurich who is said to be outstanding in reading scans - I guess for very difficult diagnoses or something -  but otherwise, I would know of no reason to make a journey such as you are doing today.  Are scanners in the UK scattered around the country, or are there specialists for scanning to whom you must all go when a scan is required?

There is a sheep scanner who visits Wey Farm Kennels KT16 once a week (wednesday) to scan and is excellent.

It's mainly that a lot of vets re just not very good at pregnancy scans, they seem more interested in ensuring dogs don't bred than being helpful to enable breeders to do so.  

Few have any real experience of breeding matters beyond  emergency C sections.

I was interested in the post which said that if one discourages the responsible breeders, such as the ones we have here, that simply makes way for the bad breeders.  I do wish that vets would consider this and help all of you who are so totally dedicated.  They, like most people, simply have no idea what breeding involves, especially in terms of CARING (and worry and hope and joy and tragedy and satisfaction and pride and and...)

I have not directly run into this attitude on the part of vets here in Switzerland.  Though I fully agree that they have little to say or contribute about breeding matters other than C-sections, as you say.  Indeed, one cannot expect every vet to have had personal experience with breeding in all its MANIFOLD aspects, so I can't fault them for that.

What I DO fault them for, though, is their general lack of interest and knowledge in quite another area:  nutrition!  I don't know how it is in the UK, but here in Switzerland nearly all vets sell Royal Canin (and I better not comment on THAT).  And that is the beginning and the end of their advice on nutrition.  I had a huge issue about this two years ago, with 7 dogs and months of problems (for which any number of Royal Canin products were prescribed, costing a fortune...), until I finally switched in desperation one Sunday evening (8-day old puppies crying with stomach cramps, mother with diarrhea) first to my own cooking - chicken and potatoes - (the problems were gone within 24 hours) and then to grain-free food.  Never had any problems since!  The vet was exceedingly nasty, so I changed vets as well, and I don't talk about nutrition anymore with any of them.

Canine Nutrition does not make up part of their training (to be fair they'd have to learn about every species then) at most they get a nutrition talk, and this is going to be someone from Royal Canin etc.

People need to stop thinking of Vets as experts in all aspects of animals.

Their expertise lies in the diagnosis (some better than others and a specialist is often needed) and treatment of animal ailments and disease, end of.

Your point is well-taken.  You are right, of course.  I STILL think, however, that vets should and could be more versed in nutrition.  I mean, this is why certain brands of dog food give the vets such enormous financial benefits.  They know perfectly well that if the vet recommends a particular food, people are going to believe and trust it!  I certainly did! Until experience taught me differently.  By the same token, it is to the vet that owners turn with any and all questions concerning what to feed their dogs.  And they really don't get the advice they need.  There are some do's and don't's out there which vets could and should inform about.

I do want to stress that I am extremely grateful for and respectful of veterinary medicine. What would we do without it!

Hi Nimue, you said " I would know of no reason to make a journey such as you are doing today". I wanted to see that particular scanner because she has 25 years experience of doing this, is very accurate with her numbers (many scanners won't go beyond confirming yes/no re. pregnancy) and she is very good in the way she does it (gentle, reassuring and so experienced that it's all done quickly and with the minimum of fuss).

To me, it was worth the nine hour trip to know for sure that my bitch hadn't taken. If anyone else had done it, I would still be wondering if they might have missed something. With Domini I know for sure that she's not and can plan accordingly. Our own vet scans but (a) I don't want to take a potentially in whelp bitch somewhere she might pick something up (we are lucky enough to be able to exercise on them on our own land) and (b) they say that they can't give any indication of numbers as they have been wildly out before (eg they saw 4 Rottie pups and the bitch went on to have 9!). I have also seen vet programmes on tv where they have greatly underestimated the number of pups on a scan.

Hope this helps, Marisa x

I also use Domini, she has been spot on with dates and number of puppies every time. She is also happy to come out and scan if you think your girl may still have retained puppies during labour.

I meant that I would know of no reason to make such a trip here in Switzerland, because, as I said, every vet here has a scanner.  That's why I was wondering why such a major undertaking in terms of travel is necessary in the UK.  I certainly was not questioning your wisdom in doing so!  I apologise if I inadvertently offended you in any way.  It's always so difficult to express oneself acurately in writing! 

So sorry to hear your bitch has not taken.  That is always a huge disappointment.

Oh no, no offence taken Nimue. I thought it was 50/50 whether Sunny was in whelp or not but a big help to have it confirmed. Not too disappointed as I now have plenty of time to bling up the new whelping box (have got some fabby pink puppy pen panels to go with it) and I can have a plan B in terms of the stud dog for next time. Thank you for your kind wishes.