[lmperez]

Originally Posted by smartpuppiepets

wow, what a mess.
Shihtzus do look pregnant after the heat ends, for a while the nipples are big and belly distended. So hopefully this is the best case scenario and you will not need to worry .
pseudo pregnancy is another possibility. it lasts for a while and the dog gets unhappy and withdrawn. Nothing you can do to help that besides keeping her happy.
Now the last possibility: If she was picked up on the 26th of June, She was either just bred or she bred after she was in the rescue/shelter. Dogs pregnancy last usually for 63 days from the first "tie". You would be feeling puppies moving around a lot already if she was pregnant just prior going to the shelter. If she got pregnant at this shelter, and it sounds like a very disorganized place, anything is possible. Your best bet is to take her for Xrays and if there is anything in her belly they will be able to see it by now, even if she was just bred as you picked her up by July 10, you already have her for 40 days, puppies can be seen on Xrays at 42 to 43 days into pregnancy, accurately at 50 days into pregnancy. A Good vet will be able to tell you roughly give or take 5 days about how far she is based on how the pictures look if she is indeed pregnant.
Another possibility is if she was in heat and actually has PYOMETRA, this is a very serious condition, it is a severe infection of the uterus and require emergency attention and spay . it is not a very uncommon thing, it happens more commonly in older females that were never spayed, the uterus fill with pus, it is a mess. Deadly if surgery is not done in time to remove the infected uterus, if it ruptures the infection will spread and that is it !!!
Actually someone else lost her adopted female yorkie not too long ago, she is a Yorkie Talker, and she thought her female was just sick from eating something, she did not knew how to take the temperature to check if she had a fever... the worse came too fast , she did as much as she could but ended up loosing her dog.
i hope that will give you some "light" but honestly, i believe your best action now would be calling for a vet visit. If it turns out to be nothing you can go ahead and take advantage of the visit to schedule the Spay and have peace of mind.
I am crossing my fingers to you !

XOXO

Thanks for all the info. I did look up the signs and symptoms of pyometra and she does not have the symptoms, but I will be watching for them.