Hi all,

We tried a new professional scanner who does in-home scans for our maiden bitch - 5 seen.

However, my friend also booked her husky in - her husky's breeder suggested someone else but they weren't able to travel so she ended up going with the same guy as me and my partner. Booked for the same day and did it all at our house.

So!
The husky was 32 days from the first tie, 29 from the second tie - no test so she doesn't exactly know when ovulation happened, went off her bitch's breeder's advice for the days to breed - 2 very good ties.

Anyway, when scanning my bitch I noticed the scanner was focusing very low in the abdomen and he wanted the bitch laid down on her back? I am used to them standing the bitch (using gravity to the right advantage) and for them to check up higher towards the ribs as first-time bitches carry them high.
I couldn't really see much and I have experience with this process so know what to look for, when he was counting the 5 he saw for my bitch I could hardly see anything - so I don't think the machine was all that good?

When it came to the husky bitch, same thing.
Had her laid on her back, scanned very very low - saw nothing but coming back to check another day at a later date.
Bitch is showing all the usual signs - but obviously this could still be a phantom. Could also be earlier than counted since no progesterone test done.

Can I ask what would others do here?
My friend is a bit bummed as you can imagine, she has been planning this pairing with her bitch's breeder for some time and put so much into it. She doesn't want to get her hopes up that there may still be a chance but she also doesn't want to not explore the avenue if it is there and others think she needs a better scanner.

All I can say, as ever, is regardless of the outcome of a scan, it only means the bitch is in whelp, or not, AT THE TIME OF THE SCAN.   It does not mean the bitch will carry to term.

Again, as I've said many times before when this subject comes up here, I never bothered with scans, preferring to wait it out but I suppose I was lucky that I had no need to know ahead of time.   I feel lif I had gone with scans, as so many do today, even if I'd been told there was no pregnancy, I'd still have been looking come the due date!

I never bother with scans. Even if they tell you there are no pups there, they can miss one if it's hiding up in the ribs. You'd be very silly if told there were no pups just to conclude your bitch isn't pregnant and not be looking out for possible labour around due date.

Equally, as mamabas says, if they say there ARE pups there, all that tells you is there were pups there at that time. Bitches can reabsorb pups after the scan and you'll be none the wiser.

Plus there's the stress for the bitch... I just don't do them.

I'd want a scan done properly - as you say, with the bitch standing up. It's always important to me to know whether the bitch has taken or missed - there are so many things done differently which way it is! You wouldn't want to treat an 'empty' bitch - or manage your life - in the same way as you would a pregnant one.

Would you really be able to accept for sure that a bitch scanned empty really was 100% empty, Jeangenie? I know I couldn't, I would always want to ensure I was home around the time she was due and I would want to be prepared, just in case. In which case, nothing changes really. I only increase food the last 3 weeks but I probably would feed less if she were scanned empty, but that's about all...

Onetwothreefour, if a bitch scanned empty at 4 weeks post-mating, I would rescan 2 weeks later. If still no signs (and at that stage you can see the bones of the whelps on a scan) I would know that she'd missed, and I could continue to enter her for shows, or take a holiday, or do all the things I would normally do if I didn't have a litter imminent.

Wow, I definitely wouldn't. I've known bitches be scanned empty go on to have singletons...

> I never bothered with scans, preferring to wait it out

Same here.