Pregnant female, anyone experienced this? - Page 1

Pregnant female, second litter. First litter went fine, no problems. No problems with mother, all good whelpers.

Female is huge. Day 58 is starts to nest and pant. Temperature dropped to 99.1. Next day back to normal, no nesting or panting. Day 63 rolls around. Temperature normal, no signs of delivery.

Day 64 passed and today is day 65. Temperature normal, no nesting.

Please post if you have some experience with the situation. Please refrain from posting; take her to a vet immediately.

Thanks

I will wait to see what more experienced posters have to say, but MY first reaction is: GET HER TO THE VET, NOW!!

Either a very large or very small litter can often cause problems. Often with a singleton pup, not enough of the right hormones will be present to trigger labour. And with a large litter, the uterus may be stretched so much, that it suffers from inertia, and can't contract enough to deliver the pups.

Either way, your bitch could be in BIG trouble. I know from my nursing studies, that the placenta starts to deteriorate if the baby goes too long past its due date, and I'm willing to bet the same thing applies to puppies! (Of course, deteriorating placenta=dead baby or dead puppy.)

I forgot to mention her cycle was a little strange. She was bred 3 consecutive days a week after her first breeding. She hasn't milked up yet, and her stomach hasn't dropped yet. It's starting to look like the second breeding is the one that got her pregnant. She's just so big and nesting, I thought it was the first date.

Hi,thats your problem,she probably got pregnant The following week,so shes not 63,she is 56 or so. This is why you check for cornification and do Progesterone,so you know which is the day; If you had, then probably the begining breeding She was at 1 or 3 , which tells you not to breed ,yet. Good luck,

Randy,
I had a similar experience with one of our GSD, a few years ago.
Day 64 from 1st breeding...nothing. Temp had fluctuated up and down for about 4 days....she too showed signs of nesting.
Took her in on day 64 (1st breeding), and had an ultrasound done.
*In this case...all puppies looked normal and were alive*....she delivered next day (4 puppies).
HOWEVER....the vet said...in many cases, after 65 days...the chance of viable puppies starts to decline immensely...unless the breeding actually "took" on a later breeding date....ie..2 days later.

I agree with progesterone testing for breeding. Then you know when ovulation occured and when to expect pups. Do you have a stethescope to listen for heartbeats? This also helps to know if she stll has any live pups in there during whelping too. You can also get one of those little doplar things (I dont remember what they are called). Kinda like a little ultrasound machine. I believe 59-68 days is normal gestation. With out knowing exact day of ovulation, you dont know what her actual due date should be. As long as you are taking her temp, a couple times a day, you will know if she gets a fever. That would be your first sign of a problem. Can you feel puppies moving? If they are not, that is a problem. That early nesting behavior, could have been a fetus dying, so you may get a stillborn pup. Be sure to contact your vet and let them know when she does go into labor, hopefully they have a vet oncall incase you have an emergency. Good luck with the whelping.

i would not worry too much till  its been atleast 65 days from last tie, as said you dont know which tie took. and i did have a female that went 2 nd tie 65 days , so i would not worry just yet , she will have them when she is ready. as said anywhere from 58-70 is normal.

I would at least take her in for x-ray and progesterone test.  The progesterone level will drop drastically when she is ready to whelp.  As someone already said, very large or very small (single puppy) can cause problems with labor.  And one stuck puppy could shut everything down in a very short time (were you present 24/7 that day she was nesting,  you know for certain she never had any contractions?) -

as I said, I would at least go get x-ray and progesterone and consult with the vet about natural whelp or c-section options.

molly

i my expereinece nesting  can start a week before whelp, depends of the dog.

I had a similiar problem a few years back, bitch was only mated once though 61 days(which is when  aGSD should whelp if mated on right day) she did all the right things temperature dropped made a nest ect then nothing she was huge, and had had no problems before hand. the owner didnt want me to take to the vet went 63 days 65 days then i did anyway ultra sound live pups 11 from memory vets advise go home cause she only 65 days and they can go 68 bklah blah, wasnt happy but not my bitch, next day nothing so back to the vet insisted on a ceaser. first pup out almost dead, green discharge(nothing from the bitch at that time) every singel pup was only just breathing and we basically had to help each pup breath for ages before they were ok, my advice take her in for an xray but i would be doing a caeser NOW as long as the pupsare 57 days from the last mating they will survive anyway, and if they are from one of the other matings well get them out asap, uterine enertia is something i have had a lot to do with, again not my bitches but it better to be safe then sorry, had i listen to the vet pups would be dead and posssibly lost the bitch as well