okay so from 3rd mating my girl is due today.

just a couple of questions please to all you old hands at breeding.

I have been checking her temp since monday, it has fluctuated between 37.8 down to 37.1 and back up today to 37.8. She is showing no signs of nesting or digging. Her nipples at the middle of the week where very engorged and she was leaking milk in little pools when she sat down. yesterday she only ate breakfast and refused the next 2 meals she was 33 inches round the middle on wed today she is 31 but her nipples are not so engorged and almost look a little wrinkly. Am I panicking over nothing? I keep dreaming horrible things and my mentor came to see her on tuesday and wednesday and said she looked fine to him and bigger than the expected 3 that the scan saw at 28 days. My vet said if she is settled then not to worry and call back on monday if nothing happens. I am just a little paranoid that from the 1st mating she would be a week overdue on monday, and this litter has been 2 years in the planning. It is her first and mine so very anxious about all going wrong. Especially as unusually recently there has been a high number of C sections happening in our breed. /she lost a mucus plug on thursday morning
I know a watched bitch never whelps, but its the look as if she has lost weight thats worrying me. I am pacing and on edge.....but the dye has done great for my grey!
thanks

Often they look a bit thinner because the pups have changed position. As long as they're moving strongly there's no need to panic yet.

I usually know when whelping is close as my girls change shape as the puppies move down, this may account for the slimmer look.

Next time, if you get the girl prog tested it will give you very good idea when to expect pups.
So good for mating at right time but even better for avoiding the anxiousness of when the pups will be due :-)!
I very much test for the second reason as know I would get anxious if I had a massive window of when my girl will deliver.
If you are really worried, I believe you can get a bloodtest that will tell you if she should be giving birth...

we did prog testing lat time and she missed!

this time we took her to be swabbed.

Anyway.

after a very traumatic day on saturday dee had an emergency c section at 1730, she had 3 live pups all who are doing quite well. she also had a mummified pup that was stuck across the way out.

She was eating, drinking and being normal...like nothing was happening to her. no panting, no digging and no sign of labor. she woke up sat afternoon and black goop started to drip from her back end.....trip to vets and £1350 later she had the beautiful babies that are now known as queeny, edmund and Baldrick.

Vet said that as a pup had died a while ago her body had decided it wasn't pregnant anymore and had not delivered the signs to her brain that labour was indeed a good idea. The mummified pup was a third of the size of the live ones and had started to decay. unfortunately she had gone from having pools of milk last week, to virtually nothing. So we are putting pups on her and also supplementing with whelpi in the hope that puppy stimulation will bring in the milk.

So she had not read the manual on how pregnancy and labour should be........but decided to really make my first time very trying!!

sleep is very overrated anyway.

Loving those names :)
Sorry you had a traumatic time but glad your girl and the pups are doing well. Hope you manage to get some rest at least x