Hey, I have posted recently for advice and people here have been great.

My friend's flat coat was mated 2.5 weeks ago (18 days from first mating to be exact). Obviously they don't know if she has taken yet but had 2 good ties 48 hours apart.

She has jumped on a rock on a beach today and slipped, hurting her leg/hip area.

The vets are undecided about an x-ray because she may be pregnant.

What are the risks here? She obviously wants to make sure her dog is not in pain and if she is injured it tended to correctly.

But what if she did take? I know in the USA they x-ray later in pregnancy to count numbers, but what damage could be done 18 days if she is pregnant? Her pain is in the top of her leg close to her hip so they would need to x-ray the leg and the hip. (to add she is hip scored so it is not like she had bad hips that are playing up before that comes up)

She doesn't have an account here but I am sending her this link to read your replies.

Update.

The vets have decided to go ahead and x-ray tomorrow if the owner agrees.

Well one thing's for sure, she can't go through a pregnancy hobbling around, and in pain!  I think your friend just has to go with what her vets feel lis okay for her, given her current status (pregnant or not).

FWIW, I've never had x-ray done until past the due date if nothing has happened by then - to confirm or otherwise whether she's empty or not.   And that was when in Canada, and back here in the UK.

I'm not sure how long the bitch has been like this for, but I wouldn't x-ray unless I were to use Alizin to abort the litter. X-rays during pregnancy have been found to cause birth defects in the puppies as well as predisposing them to higher rates of cancer, and in a breed like flat coats with already a very high cancer risk, you certainly don't want to go putting x-ray through them whilst in utero... See: https://www.avidog.com/how-badly-do-we-need-to-know/

You'll also need to be very limited in terms of pain medication - meds like metacam and anti-inflammatories can't be given during pregnancy either.

Your first post said that the accident happened 'today' so it really doesn't sound very long at all. Why not give rest a chance and see if things get better that way for a good many days?

I would definitely x-ray.  A bitches health is more important than having pups.  Abort the litter.

Hi all sorry for the delay in replying to you all.

I called her this morning and the vet is the one who refused the x ray, they said her leg pain could be 'anything' and not worth risking the unborn potential litter if it was not anything serious.

I had a long chat with her and told her my thought, she agreed with me for the most part. She went to a second vet explained, asked for the alazin injection and got her bitch x-rayed this evening. She has a very very small hairline fracture.

Obviously, my friend is sad about the potential puppies. But she agreed with me that there may have never been any puppies anyway because how is she to know the litter had taken or not. Her bitch comes first.

right thing to do.  the bitch can now recover properly without strain of pregnancy or pup rearing.

So very glad that your friend has done the right thing for her girl.