my bitch is 4 weeks pregnant, we had it confirmed by our vet earlyer in the week. last night she was sick all over my kitchen floor an there was alot, then i noticed that her vulva wasnt swollen any more, it is how it was before her season, could she have lost the pups or is this normal?

well i want to bed one nigth and keep my girl in her whepping room at nigth and i woke up to a smell and went down stair and she was sick and it was smelly i phoned the vet and they said it was ok mybe she eat something that did not agree our maybe just pregancy sickness but she is still big back there and big in her belly and her nipples are big to with milk so i think it was ok i dont know a lot about dogs but i do know what my dog did how far long is your dog and was there any traces of blood any were?

You will have to talk to the vet for this one I think

no blood and didnt really smell, she had not long before had some food but none of that was in the sick, it was mostly brownish water with afew bits of grass in there, wont be able to get here into the vets now untill tuesday at the earlyest with bank holiday. is the swelling going down a bad thing then? i wasnt worried about the sick as i know dogs can be sick when pregnant but the lack of swelling now is my worry

> wont be able to get here into the vets now untill tuesday at the earlyest with bank holiday

   

That is what out of hours call outs are for!

> i dont know a lot about dogs

And you're breeding?

i have to agree with jean, i can say i feel knowledged about dogs but not so knowledged in experiance with regarding to breeding
but have learnt alot  and always wanting to learn but if your really worried there are out of hours services available i have the 24/7 vet number on hand should anything go wrong
if in doubt look up the rspca for your area ect im sure they can point you in the right direction good luck

>wont be able to get here into the vets now untill tuesday at the earlyest with bank holiday.

Your vet will have an out-of-hours service; either a vet at the practice will be on call or they'll use vets from a separate out-of-hours practice.

she is fine within her self, no change at all and hasnt been sick since, so i think rushing her to an out of hours vet while she is ok is a bit extreme, i dont mean that i wouldnt be willing to if there was an obvious problem though!

all i wanted to know was if this lack of swelling could mean she has reabsorbed the pups? i have asked my breeder and my stud dogs owner and both dont know :s

my vet do a sat morning sugery too .

The thing is if you go today during the day it will be cheaper than tomorrow and monday and even cheaper than a night call!

When you say brown do you mean  dark brown or yellow which is bile.? in which case she may need smaller meals more often so she doesnt have an empty tummy.

If she is over 28 days a lot of vets can scan and put your mind at rest....otherwise you will have to sit it out and 'hope' she is ok I know what I would be doing , I would be happy to pay... to come home and say there was nothing wrong as long as my girl was ok, as her health comes first over puppies.

it was mostly water, dark yellowish/light brown in colour, was a bit of jelly in it too and a bit of grass but no food that she had ate a hour or two earlyer :s i have been feeding her egg and tuna on alternate days so maybe this iratated her stomach, this happened thursday night and she has been her happy lazy self since, if there are any signs that she is unwell then i wont hesitate to take her to an out of hours vet but at the moment i dont see anything wrong with her apart from the lack of swelling

Think that perhaps it is the linking of the bitch being sick with the fact that the vulva has reduced in size is confusing people. Both are normal and should be considered separately.

The vomiting could be for any number of reasons and if it only happened once and the bitch is well I would disregard it.

It is as far as I know normal for the vulva to reduce in size after the season whether the bitch has been mated or not, happy to be told it does not always happen but most certainly it can and does. The said organ does not so much swell in whelp as become slack and relaxed but that does not happen until whelping is imminent.

Of course, anyone who is worried or concerned about their charges should see a vet, in the UK all vet will have a 24/7 service and although you have to pay for unsocial hours you can rest assured that service will be available.

thanks nova, she is 30 days gone, i wasnt worried about her being sick as i know it can happen around that time, she was checked over on wednesday by the vet who told us he could feel 3 pups but there could be more, he didnt want to push too much on her stomach to find out, i might book her in for a scan next week just to put my mind at ease, poor girl will have to have her tum shaved :( will shaving her ruin her coat as the breed has a double coat as are from a cold climate, but if it has to be done then i dont mind

LOL, whelping will ruin her coat, well for a short while, she will almost certainly throw the lot after the pups are born so a little shave now is neither here nor there. It is usual for the bitch to be back in coat around the time the pups are ready to be shown, that is about 6 months.

i know she will blow her coat after the pups are born, it is normal for her breed to blow there coat twice a year but with her breed we are told never to shave them, you dont know what to do for the best some times do ya lol i think i will bite the bullet and have her scanned though :)

I have a double coated breed and no way do  the vets need to shave for a scan...if you ring Keith Shea I am sure he will tell you that too, he has scanned in my living room!

I have had this argument with vets in the past to scan for other problems , it just makes it easier for them , I was told once by a vet that they had to keep my pregnant bitch in for a day so they could scan her, after a heated conversation I told her I would be sitting in the waiting room while she did it and she brought her out to me to take home (apparently i couldnt be present as the scanner was in a different part of the hospital)

Roni

Me too, my  ex vet wanted to admit her in the morning ( with sick animals!!) shave her (if she hadn't been in whelp she was due to a show the following week!)  and then they would scan at some time during the day, I was not allowed to be present. This is one reason they are my ex vets! I found a lady on the internet and went to her home, no shaving, confimred with pictures in 5 minutes.

That said, it will do the coat no harm to be shaved, when those particular hairs grow, if they do before she sheds , they will feel blunt but once shed the new hair will be fine (OK not thin & soft) as shaving does not cause any problem to the hair follicle.

yes but in my breed the coat is around 12 inch in length imagine how long it takes to re grow!

well she has just lost some really thick discharge clear to light yellow in colour, i take it that is a good sign? i worry so much, this is my first litter and just want to do everything right

Not sure, did not think there should be any discharge at this stage, could be wrong, does it have any smell?

no it didnt have a smell i wiped it away with a bit of tissue

Have you checked her temperature?

no, i havent gotten round to buying a thermometer yet :s its on my to do list with the whelping kit

i have just done a serch on this site and it does seem to be normal when pregnant from reading the other threads