I'm hoping someone may be able to help - I've searched for all the threads on here but not found an answer.

I've accompanied my friend this morning to have her bitch scanned and now I have a question for those of you who are experienced in having your bitches scanned. I personally never scan for these very reasons! :)

This bitch is 32 days from the first mating, first litter, medium sized breed, not heavily coated, not clippered by vet, ultrasonic gel used, bitch standing up.  He located the bladder (full) and the kidneys and possibly the liver, then a couple of times we saw a couple of oval shaped black blobs that had a grey blob in the bottom half - the vet said he wasn't sure if these were fetal sacs or not as the black area appeared to pulse like the gut does.

Can anyone tell me if you can see the gut's peristaltic action on an ultrasound and can it be mistaken for puppies?  Or puppies be mistaken for gut movement?  I've never seen a scan before so have nothing to compare it to!

There was a mix up with the booking of the appointment and this was the vet's first time scanning a pregnant bitch since he was qualified and he was very upfront about it, so as a goodwill gesture for the inconvenience of the mix up, he offered the scan FOC and then a return visit (also free) if he couldn't see anything.  Under any other circumstances I'm sure my friend would have walked away but I think she just thought "I'm here now, let's have a go". She's now having to wait until Friday when the Senior Partner is back from a course and can scan her bitch for her.

Any thoughts on the gut movement?

when my bitch was scaned earlier this year you could see peristaltic action of the bowel. At first we thought puppies but movement was changing all the time.

No puppies seen and indeed she had missed.

Oh dear.  Doesn't sound good then does it?

I'm sorry your girl missed.

my vets pretty much said the same.... I was not convinced that she isn't as there have been too many signs saying that she is. I just felt that the vet wasn't confident enough in the scanning, although she said that she was ;-) My bitch has another 2 weeks to go and has in the last week turned into a walking barrell so I will eat my hat if she doesn't produce anything!! I will keep you informed, but I am pretty positive now :-)

Good luck Emz, the guy who scans my females has beeen scanning for 20 years plus, my vet doesnt even have an ultrasound machine, vets ae not experts at everything, we use a different vet for different things, we travel 1 hour away to get our hips/elbows and DNA done.
Sounds like your female is in whelp to me

Lots of luck Emz I'm sure your girl is in pup.  It does sound very similar - her girl is showing ALL the signs and has done for a while - even I can see a difference in her and swore I could feel a couple of pups when I had a feel of her tummy.  She's increased in size and shape, plus she's very clingy and not normally so.  I think things look very positive for her but my friend is very doubtful - I know most breeders are like that at one time or another so I suppose only time will tell :)

Thank you all for your stories :)

Yes it hard to tell early days. our female mated 4 weeks ago exactly, i would not like to bet my mortgage wether she is in whelp or not, im so scared to get her scanned yet, this is the most important exciting mating to us, top European dog, my mind she will miss, she not eating at the moment not much anyway, but it not so unusual for our breed, i not cleaning her kennel, think she eating poo, her mum does this when in whelp. she been sick couple times, no weight gain, but if she not eating proper she cant gain weight can she?
Her teats at rear pink but not massive (she tiny teats anyeay)  OMG i sound novice, but i so want this litter, want a daughter off her, then 3 generations with us.
Please keep your fingers xd guys/

Like I say Xena didn't really show till the last week and it pretty much came up over a few days! I'm sure I can feel movement too, but not 100% This mating will be very special to us also fter travelling to europe to find a fantastic stud to compliment the line...... I just can't wait to see what they produce it is a very exciting time :-D only got 13 days till due date. Good luck Anastacia I have everything crossed for you :-D

Thank you Emz, good luck to you too, it is so nerve wracking travelling to Europe to a dog isnt it? and rare litters because not many are prepared to do this, i have my fingers crossed you get your litter. Let me know what happens, have you had your female scanned?

I scanned my girl at 3 weeks and saw this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/crazycockers/000111_045035.jpg

Then again at 4 weeks: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v194/crazycockers/000110_020235.jpg

She went on to have 9 pups!

That's really interesting Sharon! You just can't find ultrasound photos when you search on the net (well I can't!).

This thread has been very useful to me too - thank you everybody.

> Thank you Emz, good luck to you too, it is so nerve wracking travelling to Europe to a dog isnt it? and rare litters because not many are prepared to do this, i have my fingers crossed you get your litter. Let me know what happens, have you had your female scanned?

hi annastasia,
i went and had my bitch scanned on day 31 but the vet didn't seem to know what she was looking for saying that she wasn't sure if it was pups or intestines she could see! so i never went back for a re scan as i thought it a waste of money to spend there on something that they weren't sure of The travelling wasn't too bad as i done it all in one day, very tiring though, but Xena was great company and didn't complain at my singing all the way there and back lol. I wouldn't hesitate to go back either if she hasn't taken as we can't seem to find a good all round dog that compliments my bitch without going over the water. 

thanks for showing us your pictures sharon, unfortunately i never got a picture with our scan so don't really have anything to compare it too. all i can remember was the picture being very fuzzy. But only 13 days till due date so no doubt time will tell.

With the first scan from a litter a few years ago we had this at 31 days...

The litter due this time had this at 30 days with a better, more modern, ultrasound machine...

So what you see is dependant on the type/sophistication of the actual machine and the experience of the vet scanning.

Fingers crossed for a positive outcome!

[Mod= pics removed ..please refer to the Terms of Service thanks]

Hi Emz, how many matings did they let you have? we were only allowed 1 which is the norm with the VA dogs in Germany, we have taken the mother over and had 2 matings because they were friends of ours, i will wait a few more days she is 28 days today, she has a bit of a tummy as she is usually firm and tight, cannot get her to eat much, im keeping everything crossed, good luck again with your babies.

This morning we've gone back - another more experienced vet confirmed the pregnancy by looking round and round and round for 15 minutes plus, then saying only 2, possibly 3 - much disappointment from my friend as her breed has very large litters (usually 11 or 12) and they're on the vulnerable breeds list so more puppies born the better for the breed as a whole.  Then in comes the Senior Partner who knows my friend - he apologised for the mix up earlier in the week and asked if everything was ok.  My friend said it was but as the SP knows her and her breed and is just as excited about this bitch being in pup, my friend expressed her disappointment at the small number of pups seen, very respectfully the Senior Partner asks his colleague if he would mind if he had a look too - the 1st vet is absolutely fine with it and while I would have been mortified if one of my colleagues had taken over like that, this vet just didn't seem to mind and was more than happy to be proved wrong.  The 1st vet said he will leave us to it - all very amicable and no bad feelings between them.  Then 2 or 3 minutes later, the SP says "well multiply the number you were just told by 5".  He could see at least 10!

Both vets have been scanning for 15-20 years - how can they both come to totally different conclusions?  The SP called his colleague back in and used it basically as a training exercise (with permission from my friend).  It was really really helpful to hear him talking about how they actually scan and what they can see!  He said because she was a large bodied breed the puppies would be very high so he had to put the probe in a different postion to a smaller bodied breed and follow a different route so as to not miss anything.

I suppose only time will tell, we'll only know for sure when she whelps!

Good luck with the litter.