question for breeders concerning ultra sound - Page 1

How acurate have you found ultra sounds to be?

Ultrasounds are very accurate as far as telling whether or not the dog is pregnant.  Most repro specialists are excellent at being able to count the pups as well.  That is a harder skill to learn. 

exactly what Rezcat said - my "normal" vet can ultrasound and say "yep, pregnant" after a few minutes of "looking" around -  my repro vet can ultrasound, and the moment the probe touches the dog say "yep, pregnant" and then proceed to check each puppies' heartrate and give an accurate count, within 1 puppy, at 28-35 days.

molly

You all have better luck than me....the bitch is about five weeks pregnant, and this is the diagnosis "there's maybe five pups  but I think I probably counted some twice, not a big litter", the bitch then proceeded to have nine puppies.  "Nope, not pregnant"....then she had one very large puppy, with me really lucky that she did indeed whelp, as some bitches with only one pup are not stimulated to go into labor.  Veronica

I stopped doing xrays (8th week) for that reason.. never the right count and why expose everyone if the results couldn't be more accurate... not sure if its my vets xray machine or how they overlap or what .. now my repro vet can ultrasound at 25 days and determine pregnancy and get a good count!!

me too - I've done x-rays with the purpose to count puppies twice, both times there was a completely "off count" so for me, no more x-rays for that purpose, only ultrasound (with a vet who knows how to use the equipment and who has good equipment to use)

molly

We've had excellent results the times we had a vet that is an expert do the ultra sound.  Our normal vet calls in  a specialist.  She was right on each time, can could tell how many pups had been absorbed also.  She said that's quite common for one, or two, to be absorbed.  She could also tell within a day of where they were gestation wise.  A good thing to know when the bitch was bred over a few days time, you can narrow down the delivery date.  Not all can get the same results.  She even gave us pictures of each pup last time.  As Molly mentioned 28 to 35 days.

The xrays have been right-on for me so far.  The problem with Xrays is that doing it kind of creeps me out, my kids are getting radiation before birth!!  So I wait until the last moment to get the whelping xrays.  A couple of bitches were not pre-whelping xrayed because they whelped a little early, but I xrayed them afterwards to make sure all the puppies were out.  Xraying after birth doesn't creep me out.  Veronica