How Long do you wait to verify pregnancy?
 

Good Morning all! I was wondering how long you normally wait to verify a pregnancy with your vet. I have been in contact with my vet a lot lately and thought I would spare them another phone call to ask them this question. I am going to be breeding this week and I will want to verify if this breeding 'takes'. Is it a blood test that tells this information? Thanks in advance.:animal-pa

I would say just be patient. Depending on how many puppies they are carrying, usually you can tell by looking at 5 to 6 weeks along. A vet can palpate at 28 days. I am not sure about the blood test. I just think it is too stressful taking them to the vet too early just to satisfy your curiosity. After you breed her just keep her on a healthy diet and keep her from getting too stressed. When she is further along, about a week before delivery you can have her x-rayed if you feel it necessary.

Thanks, I guess I just thought that knowing if she was or not early would help me to get ready for everything. (I am a total nerd about reading and learning stuff) I will wait until it's time for the x-ray. (that IS important to me because I will know when she is done delivering)

X-rays are not always accurate for the number of pups or the size of pups. It can give you a general idea but with large litters often they cannot see all the puppies. Sometimes the bitch will have more or less than is predicted.

You can never learn too much when it comes to breeding and whelping. I treat every female I breed just as though she was pregnant.

Here is a very good article that talks about birth defects in dogs.
Birth Defects in Dogs.
This is why diet and nutrition is important and also you have to use caution to not expose expectant mommas to chemicals. I think some people over supplement their pregnant dogs and that can cause problems.


Is this going to be your first Yorkie litter? How old and how big is the female?

When my female was bred (her first; my first & only so far), I highly suspected on my own that she was indeed pregnant by the 3rd or 4th week. She had some morning sickness, loss of appetite during that time, and even with that, I still saw changes in the look and firmness of her belly. Still, wanting to be sure that my eyes were not deceiving me, and with it being my first time breeding, I took her to the vet for palpatation around the 28 day mark to confirm. That's all they did was the palpatation and a general once over for health, then also gave me reading material about pregnancy in dogs, etc., and answered any questions I had. All worth the trip in my eyes and didn't notice any stress on my female; though could be more stressful for some then others I'm sure. What was thought to be a week before her due date we took her in for xrays (4 puppies), but she surprised us and had the puppies just 2 days later. Four of them all healthy & strong.

I hope to do it all again this spring with a different female (Halle). I will probably go the same route & do the palpatation visit, skipping it MAYBE only if she is very obviously pregnant to me. Though it will be my second time breeding, Halle is much smaller than the female I bred the first time, so I'm guessing it could be a whole new experiance all over again.

Good luck to you................and keep us posted!

I agree, I am pretty much a total naturalist. Unless meds and supplements are neccesary I stay away from them. I believe in Nature. I actually spend 10 dollars on each of my bottles of shampoo (and another 10 on the conditioner) for myself and my children because I just can't assume all those chemicals are healthy when your rubbing it all over your head! I even was milking my own goats to avoid buying regular milk from the store w/all those hormones etc. :cool: I do the same for my animals.

This IS my first litter. My Rosie is 2 years and 2 mos. old, she weighs 5.5 lbs. (We just went to our stud today as a matter of fact, it was crazy)
I was invited to try to attend a Yorkie birth in about a week unless I am tied up in class, it is my 'mentor's' whelping.

I'll bet it will be different in some way. I will certainly keep you guys posted, thanks for the advise. :animal-pa

Well, I hope everything goes well with the breeding and whelping We will be looking forward to seeing pictures of the hopefully expectant momma.

Do whatever you can do to be at your mentor's whelping, there is no better experience than being there first hand. Definitely take advantage of the opportunity if you can. As far as detecting pregnancy, I used to ultrasound but I stopped doing that, I just assume they are bred (I have fortunately never missed a breeding- I usually use progesterone testing which helps).

I really don't want to miss it. She is only 1 mile away so it should be no problem to arrive with plenty of time......