pregnant bitch between 51-58 days - Page 1

Hello, I just started taking my dogs rectal temp yesterday since she is getting closer to whelping. This is her first litter and I have been reeding up on temperatures and hers is lower than average, when I took her temp yesterday evening it was 99.2, I took her temp this morning and it was 98.0 from what I have been reading the average is between 100-102.5. I havent seen any discharge so far, no signs of milk showing, she is still eating normaly and her bowl movemnts are normal as well, she doesnt seem to be going into labour and she is not nesting very much. She is not as active as she was 3-5 days ago, that is the only difference. Is she going to be going into early labour? is this normal?

Hmmm....are you SURE you got the due date right?

That does sound awfully low!  Are you sure you had the thermometer inserted far enough to get an accurate reading?

You might want to try taking the temp again.

I am positive of the date, the first time she was caught was on day 10 of her heat, I live in an appartment building where the other male dogs are fixed but one neighbor has an unfixed male dog who comes to visit ans I was not expecting to see him. the second time the same male caught her exactly 7 days after so around day 18, again I asked that they let me know when he visited but they failed to tell me and it was another accident, which would make her between 58-51 days.  I just took her temp a little farther in, it reads 98.6. I just noticed that she is asking for more attention and when i was giving her attention she was whimpering very softly. She looks really sad, and she just ate a whole bowl of food.

Most bitches...let me emphasize...MOST...go off their food before delivering, so I think you've got awhle to go yet.

She could prove us wrong, though!

Most females don't ovulate before day 10-13 of their cycle, so I think you are likely right about her due date.

Am I right in assuming this is an unplanned litter between two (likely) unregistered dogs? And that these dogs may not even be of the same breed?

Please get your female spayed after this. Have you any idea how many PUREBRED dogs wind up in shelters because they can't find homes? Some of these dogs even have pedigrees and titles.

Am I missing something here? I always thought it was more like 63 days, give or take a day depending on the female.
And for most of my females that have had pups, I usually don't see them "nesting" much sooner then within the hours of giving birth. Dogs can go overdue a few days with no problem, like people. But, unless like I said, unless I missed something in your post, you, are a few days early.

Kitkat,

63 days from day of mating?

This was an unplanned pregnancy as she is still very young, we do not want to have her spayed just yet because we would like to have a scheduled breeding in a few years so i coud ckeep a pup, and so far all the pups she is having are spoken for. She is a German Shepherd/Rottie mix, the male is a German Shepherd/Black Lab mix. I just checked her temp again its back up to 99.6. ill keep checking it every day and every 6 hours or so. She seems back to normal, ill keep updated thanks

I used to do the temperature thing and it wasn't reliable for me at all, and I'm a registered nurse who knows how to do temps.  I've had females surprise me in the morning with pups when her temp at midnight right before I went to bed for the night was 101.   so I'm not completely sold that its completely reliable. I prefer to keep my females close, and watch their behavior.

Pups are usually whelped 60-63 days  They will stop eating all together a couple of days before
they deliver.  How old is your female ?  Their milk can come in between a week to a couple days
before hand.  If she doesn't even have milk yet then she's not ready to deliver.  As far a nesting
they will do that  a few days before.  but they always will stop eating.

i think your thermometer is off & most bitches do go around 62-63 days.
pjp