Could someone please tell me how far into pregnancy does a bitch have to be before being scanned, ie what is the minimum term to get an accurate result? Also if a bitch is under 4 weeks by a few days would a scan give a true result?

My Vet won't scan before 4 weeks.

I wouldn't scan before 4 weeks, one of my girls was scanned on day 25 (due to a heavy discharge) my vet showed me the scan and said that she was aborting her pups, there were 3 pups floating freely, he said it was debris of failed fetal material!  This wasn't the case at all. :)  When we went back for a re-scan I refused to pay for it, especially when pregnancy was confirmed!!  My vet agreed not to charge me.

min of 28 days after mating.
My girl was 31 days when scanned and all you see if she's pregnant are black grape shapes..

Thanks for the replies. My girl will be at the least on day 26/27 today. We had her scanned by a sheep scanner and nothing not a sausage BUT she is showing signs of pregnancy, fur getting thinner round the nipples, an inch or two on her waistline and sleeping ALOT but all we saw on the scan was a big black hole. Is it possible for puppies to be detected this early?

Lady that did mine said earliest she will scan is 28 days.
My girl who was 31 days when scanned you could just make out
little black grape sized objects..

She was lovely with her and said she made out 8 grapes, but that it looked
like no 8 was much smaller than the rest and we could lose it.

I will have her re-scanned in 2 weeks time just to see if she's still got the 7 larger grapes.
As a precaution she's on antibiotics as the scanner advised she may need them.
So we visited my vet, who wasn't too amused that I'd had her scanned elsewhere.
But to be honest I'd far rather trust someone that scans every day for their living..
they tend to get it right diagnosis, inc litter size ;)

This 'expected' litter is far more worrying as the stud dog owner desperately wants a dog puppy...
ARRGHH the pressure is on...and I feel more anxious than 6 years ago when the only person I had
to please was myself...

sperm can live for a few days so it may still ne a little early, maybe you should try again in a week.  My mums fried had her dog scanned and was told there was no pups and she went onto have 9 :rolleyes:

Thanks again. I have calculated the minimum she could be with the sperm living for 5 days and day 28 would be tomorrow evening Tuesday morning but if its only a day early would the scan lady not have seen something? We thought there was something but it turned out to be her bladder. Im a little disappointed she has missed but I always have next season to look forward to

we were recommended to have a scan 5 weeks or later- the scanner refused to tell us how many she was having but did confim she was definately pregnant and even provided us with scan photos

its possible she is having a phantom. One of mine has a full phantom including putting on weight, an udder and hair loss even without being mated!!!! However what is even odder is that the bitch I mated & was convinced was not in whelp, has heaps of pups on the scan........and since the moment she was scanned she has gone into pregnant mode...its as if she needed confirmation from the vet!

i had my girl scanned by Pat Hawker at 28 days from first mating, Pat said there were at least 9 but that there may have been 10, and that my girl had taken from the second mating as they were small................my girl went on to have 10 pups.

A phantom is very likely as she had one after her last season (we didnt try to mate her then) and we expected that if she was not pregnant this time we would be faced with a phantom.

try not to be too disapointed, will the stud dog owner give you a free mating if she has missed? what days did you get her mated?

Off the top of my head I think it was 10, 12, and 14. Yes I do get a free mating in fact I have paid nothing as they are taking a pup as payment. They are a fantastic couple and have been very supportive of us we are very lucky to have their backing.

maybe you could try a pre mate test, i'm not sure how good they are but i've read about them, i wish you luck

We did premate but we were faced with doing the test on a Friday then not being able to re-test until Monday and my girl was showing signs of being ready. So we bit the bullet and mated looks like it was too early but never mind like I said theres always next time to look forward to but next time I will use the Idex premate.

I didn't have much faith in the Mate Tel to be honest, but with our last litter we took her to stud on day 11/13 (without doing a test) only had a mating on day 11.  Checked her with the Mate Tel on day 15 and we had the positive mate within the next 24 hours reading.

Going by a scan we had done at 30 days from 1st mating, vet said he is certain she caught on the day 15 tie...when the MT was telling us she was ready.

Definitely something worth thinking about, at least you have it at hand, weekends included.

Thats not a bad idea. The problem with our girl is she is a big flirt so her body says shes ready but the tests say otherwise. Any experiences with the different pre mate tests available I would be really grateful if you can share them with me so we can choose a test best suited to our girl. We didnt get a tie with this mating either, I know a tie is not essential but she was holding him until he dropped off to the side

Can anyone advise me on the mate tel test? Have you used it and is it any good?

We used it and got a litter of 6 from the positive reading, so I was happy with that.

Thing is that your likely to be 85% successful when mating a bitch without using anything, so would be very hard to prove if it really works, or is just happy coincidence.

The problem is my girl is a BIG flirt from around day 9 but as this last mating proved with her we cant go on the signals she gives out alone, we are going to use the idex test next time but as she is due in season around xmas time and you need to post the blood sample we cant rely on the British postal system alone and would like a back up.

I also didn't have any luck with the Mate-Tel - although I bought a 'human' version as it was half the price.  Very, very difficult  to read results and I have a large breed with sufficient saliva.  I also had blood tests done and went by their findings and mated on day 16 & 17 with a litter of 9 as a result.  If I used the Mate-Tel I don't think I would have ever mated her!!  I will always use bloods in future as she may not be as late as days 16/17 next time.  Can't your vet take bloods?  I started this bitch really early and had several tests done over the New Year/weekend - they do give you advice - e.g. re-test in 48 hours etc.  This bitch is also a flirt and would readily have mated from day 1 I believe!

We did test but our vet just gives a yes or no there werent any indications as to how far off she was we also started testing early. I know the idex works on a point system calculating the hormone level in the blood so you know by the number roughly how far off the bitch is and this is the test we will use in future as our vet was not much help. There are no others in our area with sufficient experience in pre mate testing. I would not be using the mate tel as my only source just thought it may be useful as a back up. I just know we will get the ready to mate result on xmas day

Shame about your vet - perhaps you could speak to him/her the next time you have to visit and see if he can use a different lab to do testing - anything has to be worth a try.

Thanks Ells Bells but our vets has their own lab and he said to send it to an out side lab it would take two days to get the results back. We have made the decision to have her spayed after her next season if she dont catch as shes having a phantom pregnancy for the second time as its not fair to put her through it after every season.

Mate tel wasn't any good for me - a complete waste of money.  If you have a large drooling breed it may be fine, but for my tiny tots it was useless, I couldn't get enough saliva to give a reading.  You seem to need bucket loads before it works.

I have a Draminski ovulation detector and touch wood so far it has never been wrong, takes a bit of getting used to but my terrible wanton girls Que up when I get it out to see who is getting tested, and I am now very used to the technique so get pretty good readings, it gives me a days notice and I can make arrangements then, I wouldn't be without it. Not cheep but it has made it's money back easily. And no it is never lent to anyone else....we like to keep our bugs to ourselves!!!!
Aileen