Pepsi was in season at the middle of January and we obviously did our best to keep her well seperated from Sam our entire dog.  Well about two weeks ago I noticed that Pepsi did seem to be getting rounder and her ribs have expanded although she is still quite lean everywhere else.  I took her to the vets to have her checked out just in case somehow they might have got together and the vet could'nt feel anything and suggested we scan her to be sure.  She could find nothing on the scan and suggested we get her in for spaying at some point.  She was booked in for last Thursday but there was something niggling me still and I decided to cancel for the time being.  Pepsi is still looking quite round in her rib cage and her spine is really promonent and sticking out quite alot.  She now is producing milk and licking herself alot.  She has gone off her food though she is eating a little at a time and this morning she has been sick.  Because I am still very worried about her I have been back to the vets this morning and she is quite sure there was nothing on the scan last week but suggested if I was still worried in a week, to take her back for another scan.  I have estimated that if Pepsi has been caught out then she would be on day 49/50 today.  Do you think it is possible she could still be in pup or am I just being paranoid.  Your views would be much apprieciated.

It is possible, I suppose.  A bitch that one of my dogs mated was scanned and nothing found - she had 8 pups. 
With regards to the sickness, when mine have had "morning sickness" it's been around 3 weeks. 
I would be concerned about the possibility of pyometra but I'm sure that the vet has examined her and considered this.
Whereabouts are you?  Without meaning to insult your vet, perhaps it would be possible to visit a scanner with a lot of experience.  When I lived in Wales, I visited a sheep scanner, and she was brilliant.  When I last had one of mine scanned by a vet, I'm sure that I interpreted the scan better than she did!!

Sam is Pepsi's Father isn't he?  Didn't she have a litter last May?  I thought that you were going to have her spayed last July?
This could be a phantom pregnancy but either way, my view is that it's a shame you didn't let her be spayed.

No Sam was the father of Pepsi's litter in May.  I was thinking of getting her spayed last year after her litter but I'm one of those people that has niggling doubts about the whole thing and I know it's probably stupid but I really have needed to take my time about the decision and know that the time is right.  It's such a big decision to make and there are so many pros and cons.  If this is a phantom, then  I have read that it is better to let it take it's course before making the decision to spay as if you don't then it can prolong the phantom even longer.  She did have a phantom once before but it was nothing like this and she mainly started to collect toys in her bed and got really lazey.  She's not like that this time but I may be reading things into it. 

I agree it's a big decision and I don't have my bitches spayed but then I don't keep males. 
Nothing in life is perfect, but I think that if the owners can't guarantee that they can keep males and females seperate, then spaying is the way to avoid unplanned pups.
You know what she's like pregnant and you know what she's like with a phantom.  Nobody knows their dogs better (even the Vet!) than their owners.  But when they drop and show a prominent spine, it's normally during the week before they whelp.

   By pepsi mum Date 15.06.05 19:02 GMT
I would'nt be able to show this pup as you can't show white puppies of this breed any way.  He would be purely a pet and be brought up with pepsi and her dad, sam.

This is what confused me "pepsi and HER  Dad, Sam"!!

Could this male pup be the sire?  I suppose you couldn't know if you didn't see the mating?

No.  When I wrote back in June 05 " He would be purely a pet and be brought up with pepsi and her dad, sam" what I should of typed was "She would be purely a pet and be brought up with pepsi and her dad, sam", meaning Sam was the father to the white pup.  The white pup was a girl.  Typing error on my part. 
The only thing that was seen back in January was when my son came running in from the garden to say pepsi must have pushed her kennel door and the latch had sprung and she was then in the garden at the same time as sam and he (my son) came running in saying that sams thingey was hanging out but he had'nt actually seen them on top of one another and they can't have been together for very long at all as Jake was out there with them cleaning sams kennel out.  I rang sams breeder for advice and she said that she would never ever use the injection even if they had mated as this has quite long lasting effects on the bitch and really upsets them for a long time after.  She advised me to wait and see.  When I look at her today, she does'nt look quite as round as last night but more deep under her chest but that's prob because she has started to produce milk a little. Maybe I'm reading too much into things. 

If you didnt want the injection, which is better to cope with than another litter, then perhaps having her spayed there and then would have been a better idea. It sounds to me a great possibility that she is pregnant, they don't have to tie to get the bitch pregnant. there may only be one or two, placed high out of the way of the scanner, so if i were you i would prepare myself for a litter, to be on the safe side. She must have been unobserved for a while because no one knows how she got out, and your child was the only witness, and only saw them playing together. therefor I would say there is time missing in which they could have mated.If you don't want to spay the bitch, and can say with honesty you will make sure no 'visiting males' can get to her when in season, have the dog done. Far simpler op (sorry lads lol but it is ) just remember the bitch carries the pups so needs to be well secured next time she has a season.

I rang sams breeder for advice and she said that she would never ever use the injection even if they had mated as this has quite long lasting effects on the bitch and really upsets them for a long time after.

Absolute rubbish, the hormone they give is spread out over 2 doese and has nowhere near the side-effects that it used to have.     When I had to get one of my bitches done, one vet (The young female kind :rolleyes:) painted a blacker than black picture of the injection luckily I spoke to a vet I could trust at the same place who gave me a lot of reassurance re: strength & side effects.    All I found was she dropped her coat completely and blew up for a couple of weeks.

Likewise, I have never heard or any particular problems associated with these injections I wonder if she has confused it with the injection that prevents a bitch coming into season which I think many of us have heard connected to incidents of pyometra.

I have to beg to differ on this one - had to use it on one of my bitches when she opened the door and let the boys out and was subsequently mated.  The vet warned me that there was a strong possibility of pyometra, sadly he was right and she ended up having to be spayed.

Thing is a bitch can get a pyo after a season too, so she may well have ended up getting a pyo anyway?

Well there you go :)  Mating itself brings quite a risk of introducing infection into the womb though so a little harder to attribute it than the other sorts of injection and probably still better that a missmate that can also bring dangers in the whelping.