Help.  My bitch was due to give birth yesterday (7th Jan).  It will be her second litter.  I have taken her temperature twice daily for the last week and it has been bobbing around 37.8 then 37.5 and even as low as 37.2 yesterday.  This morning it was back up to 37.6 and this evening to 38.0 and then 38.5 an hour later. 

Poor dog is probably fed up with me because I am now frantically taking her temperature all the time and she looks at me in horror every time she sees me approaching with the KY jelly and the thermomiter. 

Another 20 minutes later and the temperature is 38.3

She seems to be panting but more like she is hot panting than the panting when they give birth.  There is no discharge at all, not even the blob of vaseline stuff before they give birth (there must be a technical name for this!).  When I gently squeeze the breasts there is a little colustrum.  She seems fine in herself, tail still wagging.  When I hold my hand on her (enormous) stomach I can feel the pups kicking and moving around.  She has not eaten much the past few days.

I rang my vet and he did not seem concerned and said he has heard of bitches where the temperature goes up just before birth but I have bred several litters and have never noticed this before.  Has anyone please got any experience of this to try and stop me from panicing too much?  Any advice very much appreciated.

The dip temperature is generally 37.2  and below so she is getting there.

I think this is where people go wrong ( not saying your personally :-D) they see fluctuation above this reading and think this is the sign but it generally isn't when above this.  You have to get the prolonged drop.

for me when you say   She seems fine in herself, tail still wagging.   She is Ok.  :- Good luck.

Many thanks for that.  Today temperature down again to 37.2 so the rise to 38.5 must just have been something temporary, it was only up last night for about 6 hours and then it went down again.

I have to keep working it out in my head as I work in  old money with the whelping for some reason ( just a youngster too :-) )

37.2 is quite low but I would expect it to stay down there for 12 hours or so.  It may be she is on her way but she is bound to be if she is due :-D

Normally in the last few days the temp goes up and down like a yoyo.  Mine was down to 36.9 and then up to over 38 an hour later and then down to 37.5 etc etc.  On the day she whelped the temp did drop considerably and stayed there for about 6 hours.  We all start to worry a bit when it comes to this point.  Keep us up to date  and good luck.  I think she should be almost there.

That is reassuring - at one point I as blaming my thermomiter for being faulty!  Last night temperature dropped to 36.8 and I sat up all night with her breathing very heavily - if you do yoga she was doing the special breathing that I can't remember the name of.  This morning temperature back up to 37.0 but she is sleeping a lot and changing between her two beds that I have ready for her and does not want to go outside.  I think this must be it.  Also she is now 3 days overdue from the last mating (6 days apart) so they surely must come today.
She hasn't eaten since yesterday morning.  She is only a small breed and her head now looks like a pin compared with her ENORMOUS stomach.  I am a bit worried that if she goes any longer she will get even bigger.  Already I have to lift her up the step into the house.  Do you think I should get the vet in to check?

If she doesn't start today I would have her at the vet tonight.

If the temp dropped last night to 36.8 that suggests she is about to start so I personally would expect to start seeing something this evening.

It seems that she is now there.  Temp down for long time etc.  I would also maybe have her checked out though to be 100% sure.  Do you know how many are in there ?  Don't know if you have the experience to do an internal to see if the cervix is opening or is still closed.  It's not so difficult and I have always found that it doesn't upset them really.    Is she continuously wanting to relieve herself ?  Normally within 24-48 hours of these panting, not eating, relieving herself symptoms she should go into the contraction stage of labour.  Are the whelps moving a lot ?   Keep us informed and good luck !  Stay calm !!  I know its difficult..  Just don't let her out of your sight at this stage.

Just read your original post and notice that you have bred several litters in the past so of course you know all these things.  I know that evertime for everyone it becomes a bit of a panic again though...  Remember when one of my bitches gave birth about 3 months ago, I was still shaking like a leaf removing the cords etc. - unfortunately my breed can't manage on their own to do that..  Even though it was my third litter, I was still a nervous wreck !!

I am torn between dragging her out to see the vet and potentially upsetting her - just for my peace of mind against is everything still OK for her.

1.Millie is still undecided which of the two beds to use and moves between the two of them.  Other than that just lies and wags a lot when I go and see her.
2.Drinks water and licks honey off my finger but not very interested in food (half a sausage all day).
3.Have donned surgical gloves & KY and carried out a quick internal and (bearing in mind she is a small dog) one finger fits easily through the cervix, this did not stimulate any pushing motion but she was keen to check that no puppies came out when I removed my finger.  The reason I was checking was to make sure that there was no pup sitting there waiting to be pushed out.  I could not feel anything.
4.Temp 36.9 for last 6 hours.
5.Pups still very active inside.
6.No idea as to number but would guess a lot because she is so big.

Luckily my vet has an all night service so I could possibly give her a few more hours before deciding to go?  
I think that I would have to breed 10's or even 100's of litters before feeling more confident - it really is hard to stay calm isn't it!

Ah so you are saying that the cervix is full dilated ?  I think that if this is the case and she is showing no signs of contractions, I would be checking with my vet.  Try walking her.  This can stimulate labour to begin too as I'm sure you know.  Did you feather when you did the internal or just see if it was open.  I would also try feathering if it is fully dilated.  If that doesn't work and the walking doesnt move anything either then I think I would move her immediately.  Probably its only hours or minutes away but better to be on the safe side.  You're right.  I don't think I would be calm even after 100 !!!  It's really easy to make suggestions when its not your bitch but when you're sitting there looking at her then its another matter.

Checked again and I am sure that she is more or less fully dilated but I am not experienced enough to say if she still has further to go other than the space is bigger than when I felt during the night yesterday.

Feathering does NOTHING
(I have done this before on my other bitch when I could just feel the end of the bag with the end of my finger and this produced contractions),
however could this just be that Millie is not quite ready?

Just been for a walk around outside - lots of stops for a pee and one for number 2, so thanks for that, perhaps that will get her going.

thanks again,

Just rang the vet and they said not to be concerned and that she can stay fully dilated for quite a while.  They thought that she would probably start in earnest when the children have gone to bed and it is all quiet but would like to see her in the morning if nothing has happened.

hopefully it'll kick off, good luck either way!

Can you not call your vet out as would be less stressful for her :)

Being honest Lucy people often say this but I personally think it is really crazy to get a vet out incase the bitch does suddenly need medical attention.  Ie section etc by the time they come out and back to the practice get a nice out etc you could have lost half a litter or worse the bitch.   

AND :-) for whatever reason a car ride seems to get them moving along :-)     I have had a couple born in the car :-)

Looking back on your posts it appears to me the real drop was 5 pm ish last night or at least this is when you noticed if she is fine and you are happy to wait till the morning then do but if it was me and they pups had not appeared or at the very least progressive labour she would be off to the vet in the morning.

I don't think you are ever calm till the first one appears really and things start to move.:-)  This is the worst time for sure. I hate the waiting. In fact I hate whelping puppies at all :-D  sorry wrong time I guess to say this.

Being honest and I guess people will have different views any bitch of mine that has went to 48 hours past the inital drop below 37 has required a section. Only 2 but both had them. First was inertia and the second was a big stuck pup that took up one horn completely.

Thinking of you, and of course your girl, good luck sounds as though things may start moving tonight, ohhh how exciting!!! :) GOOD LUCK!
Get some sleep before hand x

Good news - started pushing 10.10pm and water bag burst.

Will keep you posted.

huge thanks to everyone for their support

Thank goodness :-)  I was just thinking to myself I hope they pups appear soon.

All is well at last.

Still no pups at midnight so first trip to the vet.  He thought that maybe the cervix could dilate a little more and sent me home for a few hours.  Still nothing at 2am so back to the vet.  He had a feel inside and decided that a piece of the cervix had dropped a little and was able to move it out of the way (or something maybe more technical but same result).  He then easily managed to feather the first big pup out.  Before we had even finished drying this one two more big pups were naturally born within 2 minutes of each other.

He thought that this would all now be OK so sent me home again.  I settled mum and got the pups feeding.  After 2 more hours the odd mild push but nothing much.

Again drove back to the vet (my car now finds its way blindfold).  He tried more feathering and was very patient but after about half an hour of trying to grab a foot or something from a pup which was head first (so no nice convenient tail to help it out with) he thought that it must be caught on something and decided to do a cesarian.

They found 4 more big pups inside but unfortunately one of them had drowned and was stiff (he said freshly dead because it had not decomposed but was cold).

A blood test afterwards showed that mum was low in calcium   I am cross with myself because there was a brief period when Millie was on his table when I saw her feet shaking but I was so tired by then that it did not register.  But the main problem he thinks was that she was just so enormous that the uterus just could not manage to contract.

Anyway the good news is that I have 6 very healthy puppies, 2 girls and 4 boys and at the moment they are all feeding greedily.

many thanks for everyone's help. 

Congratulations - pleased everything is OK now :) 

best wishes, Teri

Congratulations on the puppies. Keep us progress and their progress! :D