I have a bitch in her 49th day of pregnancy. Does anyone know of a RELIABLE, experienced person that I can take her to in Herts or NW London?
Many thanks!

Hi most vets do ultra sound scanning if you ask your vet he/she will know of one that does it if there surgary doesnt.

mike

Most vets here in nort herts will scan, also our vet told us our bitch was pregnet by feeling her, he should tell us how many but he thought she had between 4 and 8, and she had 5!  any good vet could do that so you wont have to travel miles, have you asked your local vet yet??

Rox

Thanks for your replies! I have actually visited the local vet, it cost L80 but she could not tell how many pups my bitch is having. (??????????) I do not think she has enough experience with scanning!My bitch  had only 2 pups last time which were born dead as she could not contract due to  lack of stimulation. I only would like to know if she has enough pups this time, this is why I asked for an experienced vet.

Hi an ultra sound can not tell a vet how many puppies are in the uterus they can only give you a rough estimate to find out how many she is having she would have to have an x-ray done at around 45-50days after mating as this is when the puppies bones start to calcify.

The death of the puppies may not have been down to not enough stimulie as my uncles dog only had 2 and her puppies where fine and healthy so sounds like something may have gone wrong during the last weeks of pregnancy.

Contractions are Caused by the puppy pushing down towards the vulva and if the bitch's calicum levels are down this will also effect the utrine contractions and cause her to tire during labour

This is what I exactly was looking for: a rough estimate just to have an idea of having 2 or more pups. I was only told that my bitch is pregnant, which I knew already!

I am 100% against X-rays in pregnancy, so that's not an alternative.....

Last time the pups were fine, round the due date the bitch was examined daily. According to our vet the death of the pups were caused by the lack of stimulus.... I am neither a vet nor an experienced breeder.

I would not want to go through last time's experience again. It was terrible for  all of us!!!!!!!!

Hi An experienced breeder ort even a vet can usually palpatate her abdomen and usually make an accurate diagnosis of how many pups are in there.
Or the other alternative is when your bitch starts her labour take her to the vet who will be able to give her an oxytocin injection to stimulate the uterus to contract properly and should result in live healthy puppies are you can ask about a C-section.

mike

Nobody can palpate a bitches abdomen & say how many pups are in there. Vet, breeder, reprodution specialist. Not even the queen.  :)

I'm sure that the Queen can't Snoopy1, but certainly an experienced Vet or breeder can!!  At 4 weeks the foetus feel like a string of pearls and are easy to count.  Unfortunately most Vets have very little knowledge and experience in the mating and whelping and husbandry of bitches, and it's Vets that novice breeders rely on.
In years gone by, the old breeders didn't have technology to help them out and so they developed hands on skills.  Many of these oldies are now long gone, but thank heavens that some passed on their knowledge and experience before they went!!

well I've yet to meet one.  :)

That's fair comment Snoopy1!! :p

Thats correct because the foetus are in a line like beads makes it easy for an experienced person to feel the number of pups. There is a vet and breeder website that she talks about how she can tell how many puppies her bitches are having which is very interesting

I'm still not convinced. Do you know the website address? I'd be interested to have a read. :)

This is the website http://www.debbiejensen.com
She goes through everything from mating to aftercare of the bitch and her litter

I would have thought that oxytocin can only be given when the cervix is open but can be dangerous if there's a pup blocking the way....

It's too late for palpation in our case as my bitch is in her 50th day today!

I was advised to find a farm vet for scanning .... Does anybody know one????

Thanks!

Thats what i mean when your female goes into labour if you take her to the vets they will keep an eye on her and if needed will give her the injection so that things should go smoothly not saying give her it before her labour starts fully taht can be dangerous.

mike

A good vet can certainly palpate the bitch's abdomen and give you a rough guess at how many are there at that time. They cannot tell you how many are going to be resorbed between then and birth. I've known nine whelps to be palpated, but only four born (no sign of any remains of the others).
:)

But JG could it not have been that there were only 4 pups all along?  What stage of gestation are we talking about for palpating?
Thanks for the website Mike - I'll take a look now.  :)

No there were definitely more because not only did he feel them (like marbles) and showed me too, we scanned for the fun of it (no extra charge - he was a brilliant vet who was keen on education!) and there were at least 7 heartbeats on the scan. This was on day 31 after the first mating (day 29 after the second).
:)