Someone that has used my dog has just been scanned by her own Vet with (probably) only one pup. She was scanned a week earlier and told that there were no pups! However, what is everyone's thoughts on the reality that she will need a caesarian as her Vet has suggested. Never had this before so am interested in people experiences of one puppy births.

I have a friend who's FCR was scanned for 5-6 puppies but she reabsorbed all but one, which the scan showed.  The pup was born by Caesarian on it's due date after it looked like the dam may not be able to whelp her naturally.

I've had 2 litters of single pups that have been delivered 2 days late with no intervention and no problems at all.

My breed are often considered to be a high risk for needing C setions, but I have had several singletons born naturally, conversely have also had 3 C sections after pup no. 3 or 4 got stuck coming out.  Play it by ear, and tell them to be very vigilant.  Also, remember that scans are not all that accurate.

My girl had a litter of 2 about 4 years ago and delivered normally. Then last year she had a singleton litter and didn't go into labour. My breed doesn't go over its due dates so I was straight down to the vet at 63 days, which was a Saturday, I do trust my vet so let him have his way when he said to wait till Monday as I could hear a heartbeat and my girl was fine in herself, and we had the C-section on Monday morning. My girl was looking a bit unhappy on the Monday morning so I wouldn't have waited any more. Bitch & puppy both fine. :-)

We have just had the same scenario, and we were advised by other Breeders and also the Vet to go for a C section on her due date, as more often than not the puppy is bigger than normal and might be difficult to pass, plus there is nothing to help push puppy out and the Bitch and unborn pup can get distressed during labour .

Mum was never interested in the puppy and after 3 days we had to resort to hand rearing her.

It's been a tough few weeks, and at one stage we thought all our hard work was going to be wasted as puppy developed a lung infection from ingesting milk onto the lungs from the bottle, but it's paid off and Puppy is now 4 weeks old. She's slightly behind on her developement, but should catch up now that we have started to wean her onto solids.

With your breed I wouldn't be in a panic to be honest.

I have a toy breed that has a reputation for C-sections.  All my singleton pups have been delivered by the bitch with no intervention.  I am always puzzled when I hear people say that they limit food to pregnant bitches carrying one pup, as they want the pup to be small.  I always feed to appetite in the last couple of weeks, and I've never had a problem.

Even without a scan, I find that I can usually feel that it's only one pup.

I've had 2 litters of singleton pups. One was born on due date (took a lot of pushing though) and the other bitch had her pup 2 days early which was a surprise.

I had a singleton puppy last year (gundog breed) - it was the bitch's second litter and I gave her every opportunity to go into labour herself despite others advising sectioning straight away, but tbh I reckon you could have put a bomb under her and she would have done nothing.  My vet and I agreed 48 hours over, then we sectioned.  I have known of quite a few belonging to others, far more than the occasional singleton where the bitch did go into labour.

Any more than 2 days over and you run the risk of the puppy dying inside and needing a section anyway!  My bitch has since gone on to have another litter with no problems :)

I am always puzzled when I hear people say that they limit food to pregnant bitches carrying one pup

I've always only fed my in whelp bitches very little extra food while they're pregnant.  Perhaps a very small breakfast in addition to their normal evening meal.  They've always been active, fit, healthy and easily produced average sized but not large healthy whelps.  From the time they have whelped they have been fed as much raw and complete food as they want to eat.  This routine has produced me good sized pups at 8 weeks with excellent bone.  The dams have been back in the ring in great condition at the same time as their 6 month old pup.

I would use the bitch's temperature to let me know if the whelps need to come out. 

Thanks for your experiences. Her Vet has told her that the bitch will not produce enough hormones to kick start labour so will need a caesarian. It is nice that at least I can now give her some positive comments. Okay, so she may need a caesarian but at least she will be able forewarned. I have already explained about the temperature drop so she can be aware approximately when pups/pup is due.

I suppose it depends on the breed had Pom's over the years have singleton's perfectly finely.  With my SWD's one of my girls was 4 days late and had the pups naturally I did not take her to have a c-section as the pups were moving around no problem.  She did only have two as she had her litter after.  This last litter she had three and ended up needing a c-section on her due date!

One of my Ridgies had a litter of one many, many years ago - she went into labour and delivered him perfectly naturally :)

I have 2 singletons here, large gundog breed. The first needed help by use of an oxytocin injection, but the 2nd was a breeze, being born without any help at all. Personally I would wait until past the due date and then go for it. I have also had a litter by caesarian, not something I would want to go through again if I didn't have to.

i wouldn't worry about a bitch being able to deliver a singleton pup, the bigger worry is without the uterus being stretched there may not be enough hormoan's produced to send the bitch into labour. If it were my bitch carrying a singleton i would have a c-section the day the pup is due (I had my bitch booked in, and she whelped at 11:30 the night before)

From my experience a fit bitch stands a 50/50 chance of whelping a singleton puppy naturally. If only one or two puppies are expected the vital thing to know is the point at which the bitch would have whelped naturally. The way to know this is to start progesterone testing three or four days before the expected due date. Then the caesarian can be planned to take place in normal working hours if the bitch goes over her due whelping point by 24 to 48 hours.

The progesterone level will drop slowly until about three days before the due whelping date. About 24 hours before whelping is due there will be a quick drop to under 2ng/ml. and whelping should happen within 24 hours.
So past that point a caesarian can be planned.

By making the effort to test I have felt in control and not had the anxiety of wondering if my bitch might be going too far over the point she would have whelped naturally. This is especially important when the bitch was mated two or three times, so conception could have been over several days.

I know at least 3 people who have had singleton pups in the last coupe of years and each one decided to wait and let the bitch try and deliver the pup. Unfortunately in each case the pup dies and in 2 cases the bitches need emergency C sections. :(
If it was me I would be very tempted to go for a planned c section.

My bitch had a c-section last time for 7 chunky pups, this time I knew she was only carrying 2 pups so the chances of them being a bit larger than normal was pretty high, she got to day 65, vet checked her over and we both agreed that should she not whelp by day 68 (it was Friday then) that we were booked in for a c-section at 9am on the Monday morning......early hours Monday morning  1am and 3am both pups arrived naturally alive and well, both lovely chunky little things. well not particularly little, but both very healthy and without assistance. 

I've had 2 litters of singletons - I never scanned so I didn't know until they born that they were onlys - whelped on time and with no trouble (medium size Spitz breed which rarely has problems whelping).

>early hours Monday morning  1am and 3am both pups arrived naturally alive and well, both lovely chunky little things. well not particularly little, but both very healthy and without assistance.

:-)  :-)  :-)

I've just whelped a small breed singleton.  She went into labour for a few days before, some digging at night time and yesterday very quiet after a night of digging.  Didn't expect her to go when she did.  I couldn't see labour contractions like my other girl and it seemed lazy.  Only very apparrent wjen bum squeezing/pushing.  placenta didn't come for hours, which worried me, it all just stopped.

I had a bitch who when first bred had had one puppy, I didn'tt know it and did not scan her because she was huge. Anyway the pup was born dead. My vet did say that she looked as though she was pregnant with at least three pups hence no scan, but he did say singletons are more likely to be born alive if they are delivered by caesarian. Having been assured it was highly unlikely she would have another singleton I mated her again but once again she only had one pup she was smaller than the first time, so we did scan her. This pup was delivered by caesarian and he lived. So for me there is no question now if there is only one or two pups I do not let nature take it's course.

I think this thread just goes to show  the very wide differences of opinions and experiences people have on this issue.  I don't know if it has been of use to the OP but certainly interesting reading.  I wonder if it is at all breed or size dependent?  Are small dogs more likley to deliver a singleton without intervention and large ones more likely to need a C section, do you think?  This is just a thought form a quick scan through the responses.

I would think in breeds where 6 or more pups are the norm in a litter that perhaps a single pup will not be enough to start labour, but with toy breeds a single pup may be to large to deliver, but be enough to start labour as a normal litter would only be 2 to 4 pups.

My breed averages 9 to 10 pups in a litter. My bitch did give birth naturally but the pup was dead on arrival. The second time she had the op and all went well.

>  Are small dogs more likley to deliver a singleton without intervention

That is certainly the case in my experience, and in my breed.  I have never had a singleton too large for normal whelping.  And, oddly, never had a bitch with inertia when carrying one pup.

All singletons born fine here.

I would think in breeds where 6 or more pups are the norm in a litter that perhaps a single pup will not be enough to start labour, but with toy breeds a single pup may be to large to deliver, but be enough to start labour as a normal litter would only be 2 to 4 pups.

My breed goes from 2-3 to 6-8.  My girl had a singleton and i was worried that inertia would occur, my main worry was that i would miss it, this being only my second litter.  I watched her like a hawk from about day 55.  She did a lot of digging the night before so i did wonder if that was an indication of labour being able to kick in ok.  When she did go, it looked weak compared to the other litter, only two on that one but there was very strong waves down her body.  This one I was releaved to see the bubble and bum pushing. I think i was lucky but you could be right about it maybe being down to breed size.  That would be interesting.

I used Colaughlilum 30 (sp) on both whelps so I hope that diverted any problems.

Wondering how the OP has got on, if a c-section was needed

My bitch had singleton after first mating. She went 2 days over (only one mating) and 2 vets felt the puppy and listened to the heartbeat and both thought it felt big. They progesterone tested and she showed no signs of delivering naturally, so on their advice I agreed a section. Surprisingly, the puppy was not big. It was a very sad ending as the pup only lived 3 days.

Same bitch went on to deliver a litter of 7 (mated to a different dog) naturally and very easily, 2 days early, with a very happy ending.

She is a medium sized gundog.

Well, my breed, Rhodesian Ridgebacks, usually have pretty big litters (my most common litter size is 11), and my singleton arrived normally. It was a first "litter" for the bitch.

There were two litters in my breed this year where there was just a single pup -normal litter size 8-10. One was one of my breeding. Both bitches ended up with c-sections and a huge dead pup. Most likely because the sections weren't carried out soon enough -in the case of the bitch I'd bred the scanner had said she carried TWO pups so the breeder didn't worry too much, and we both felt they must have been wrong as such small litters are so rare. (I was once told one or two pups for a bitch that gave birth to ten, and that bitch was the litter sister of this one, hence the assumption!)

I didn't actually realise that my bitch was only carrying a singleton, she was a reasonable size. This was back in the late 1980s. She did whelp on her due date. It sounds like I was lucky!

And she did go on to have a normal sized litter (12) after this.

I have read all the responses and intend to link this thread to the person having the litter. I have no experience of a singleton and feel that she should be able to see that there is a chance of a natural birth but to be vigilant. This is her first litter and so just being aware is the most important thing. Thanks for all the responses. I knew this Forum would come up with the answers.