My bitch is due her puppies on Saturday 8th and over the second half of her pregnancy I have been weighing her once a week.  I know a lot of you don't bother with weight but I thought it would be interesting and would help monitor whether she had a nice gradual gain.  She normally weighs 9kg and for the last few weeks has been putting on about 0.5kg a week, however in the last week she has put 2.5kg which has shocked me a little.  This puts her total weight gain at 4kg with 3 days until her due date.  I can still feel her ribs and feel her hip bones when I pat her bottom but she is very full and wide and her teats are very full.  Do you think she has put too much weight on?  Could this mean that she is carrying a lot of puppies or will they be really big puppies?  Is it possible she is carrying a lot of fluid with them?  I don't want her to get into problems trying to deliver them but when she went for a check up last Thursday the vet said everything was fine.

Can anyone help put my mind at rest?  Thank you x

Hi, my girl weighed 23.25kg 3 weeks before whelping. She got so big I darned take her to the vets or anywhere so don't know what she was when she had the c-section, but 11 pups later (but 2 died) (pups in total weighing about 4.5kg) she came weighing about 18kg. In the last week or so in her pregnancy I could hardly get any food in her - vet confimed and said that there was no room !

Don't know if this helps but if you can feel her ribs and hip bones she may finish off very skinny like my girl. Just get her on a very high calorie and high protein diet plus veg oil to help build her up again. (pro plan puppy for small breeds is very good).

Good luck.
ps my girl had a c-section cos the 1st pup was massive and couldn't even get into the birth canal.

Sounds pretty normal to me, most bitches during the last couple of weeks of pregnancy will put on an enormous amount of weight, some will balloon up so much that walking, sitting can become a problem, my bitch a few years ago with her 2nd litter, was so huge in the last 2 weeks I was actually contemplating a C-section for her as with a week to go still I felt the weight on her legs was too much, but after talking to my vet, all was well and fine and as soon as the pups were born she was lovely and slim again.

As long as your bitch is not overweight at the beginning of pregnancy, which yours does not sound to be i.e you could feel her ribs, (as an overweight bitch once the pups are born would find it difficult to clean herself properly and move round to clean her pups) then the weight gain is a mixture of water retention and the pups last growth spurts, it does not necessarily mean a large litter, though in my case it was. :-) All sounds very normal to me, but size and weight of the pups does not necessarily go with the bitches weight gain, (you will have to wait and see :-) ) glad that you had her vet checked, just relax now and good luck with the whelping. :-)

Many thanks Aimibobs and Carrington.  It sounds like I am probably worrying too much.  I must admit that I am watching her like a hawk at the moment for signs that something is going to happen.  She probably thinks I'm completely mad!  All I have noticed so far is a bit of clear discharge so looks like she will probably keep me waiting a bit longer...  I will keep an close eye on her when she actually does go into labour to make sure she isn't pushing with the first one for too long.  Hopefully she won't be having anything like 11!  3 to 5 is about average for her breed - the vet could only see 2 at 30 days but I know how unreliable scans can be.  She certainly looks like she is having more than that!

I will be fine once things get going, I just can't cope with the waiting and wondering!

One of my girls had ONE puppy last year and she was absolutely HUGE and gained a fair amount of weight, so you can't always go by weight and size, not much longer and you'll know for sure.

Hi Good luck with the puppies! My 8kg bitch put on 4kg in her last 3 weeks! Her 5 pups weighed a total of 1.3kg at birth. But she was back to her normal slender self afterwards.
My vet when she scanned my bitch said she could only see 2 pups (28 days) but she had 5! The vet that did the emergency section on my bitch was very surprised at nos 3,4,5 and when she asked the scanning vet she said she didn't want to say definately in case of repercussions!!(??) but as she had a section in the early hours and I had indicated 2 only she had only called out one nurse to assist! I will with future scanning point this out the scanner and ask for a more thorough scan with more specific idea of nos as I think it would have been disastrous if 8/9 puppies needed reviving(we only just coped with 5!)
Good Luck :-)
Angela

Thanks again - we will have to wait and see how many puppies she has.  At least I know she isn't too big now.  I keep asking her how many she is having (lol) but of course she just looks at me!  She shredded up the newspaper in the bottom of her whelping box overnight and her temperature is 99.3 this morning so it looks like she is gearing up for the big event.  She is still eating though but, as has been said before, dogs can't read and there is no such thing as average!

Hi all - just to let you know it was big puppies making up the weight!  They arrived yesterday (Crufts final day!) between 3pm and 7pm and there were four of them weighing 225 to 265g each (all over 8 ounces and Book of the Bitch says average is 4 to 7 ounces for the breed!).  So that is why she looked so big and wide!!  We did have to help her a little bit and she was so tired after the first 2 (2nd was the biggest) that she almost ignored the 3rd when it arrived but after a 2 hour break and some glucose water she was back to supermum for the 4th!

She is now looking pretty slim, aside from the baggy bits underneath, so we will be giving her plenty of quality food to build her up.  Mum and babies are doing fine and we've got past the vital first night so fingers crossed!

Glad to hear your good news.

My boxer girly was really really skinny after her c-section. Vet recommended "Pro Plan Puppy for Small Dogs" as it is very high in calories as well as protein (so good for weight gain and milk supply). Sure enough 11 days after starting to feed my girl looks 10 times better on it and has gained weight nicely and has plenty of milk even for her 9 puppies. We also give her a glug of vegetable oil in each feed.

Have fun x