# false pregnancy or not



## selzer

Nine weeks ago I bred Heidi to a young stud dog who has not produced any puppies yet. He is out of 2010 sieger Ober, and I am excited about possibly getting a litter out of him. He is not my dog. 

Heidi has not had a litter yet either. She was four in August. I bred her at three, but only got outside ties, and no puppies. We determined that she was much to small, so her next heat we did an AI. No puppies. 

I put her on amoxicilin as there was some strep in the vaginal culture prior to breeding, but nothing to be concerned with, and we did it only because we had no puppies last try. 

Both of these, Heidi gained weight and acted pregnant, and when I x-rayed her, no puppies. 

I decided that we have x-rayed Heidi enough, and unless we run into a problem, no x-ray this time.

Well, she is putting on an excellent case of a false pregnancy. I switched her to the whelping pen, and put together the whelping box, and she immediately started nesting. She is eating a lot, has gained weight. No mammary changes. two days ago, temp 101.8, yesterday, 102.2, this morning, 103.2. I called the vet, to tell them we may have a problem, but since she is acting fine, nose cold and wet, eating and drinking, energetic. We would wait out the day. Of course she is cleaning herself a bit.

This evening I checked the temperature again, as she has slowed down, is still nesting, and is lying around more. 100.8. 

This thermometer is one that has a cord and you can switch from rectal to underarm to head, etc. But over two degree drop in temperature???

Has anyone had a false pregnancy with a temperature drop like that?

I am certainly prepared for puppies, but I am afraid to get my hopes up. 

Any false pregnancy war stories would be nice. Thanks.


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## Allan

Did you do progesterone testing on any of the breeding?
That's the only way you would know if she ovulated.
Those temp you listed are in the normal range for a dog.
Most times a dog well be in the 99+ range a week before whelping.
.


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## selzer

Yes and no, we did target tests. So it was more of the shades of blue thing. This was not frozen or chilled semen, the dog was there, it was fresh. I do not target test or anything when I do a natural breeding. With shipped semen, frozen or chilled, you would want to be very precise with progesterone testing. 

Her sister's temp would go down in the morning up in the evening, but trend downward for a couple of days anyways.

like evening -102.2 morning - 100.8
next day, 101.9 , 100.2
next day 101.6, 99.6
next day 99.0 and whelping.

Heidi was 100.2 this morning. Her temp is definitely getting lower. 

I guess I will just wait and see.

I am supposed to babysit on Sunday. And of course she is going to keep me guessing. 

Jenna's last litter, I was supposed to babysit, I went into the room in the morning, she looked fine, I went in and got dressed, and heard a little rustling of the papers. I decided to check one more time, and there was a very small amount of fluid and I thought, no way am I going anywhere. A couple of hours later she had the first pup. 

Why do bitches pick the most inopertune moments to give birth? 

I am keeping a close eye on her though, (already called my sister), and will get her to the vet ASAP if anything goes wrong. 

I think they KNOW that my regular vet isn't IN on Sundays.


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## Rerun

Well, either way I hope things turn out well selzer. It would definitely be frustrating sitting on pins and needles waiting and wondering!


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## Good_Karma

opcorn:


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## ChristenHolden

:lurking:


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## Chris Wild

I personally think it a poor choice not to x-ray in this case. I think it very important to know for certain if she is or is not pregnant. If you are worried about additional radiation exposure to her, then do an ultrasound. It will tell you if she is pregnant, roughly how many puppies and if they are alive.

Her temp has not dropped enough yet to indicate whelping is imminent. And absolutely with a history of false pregnancies it is entirely possible that is the case here.

However, it is also possible that she IS pregnant, and as I said I think it very important to know one way or the other. The most worrisome would be with previous trouble conceiving that if she did this time, it is a small litter. Which could mean not enough pups to stimulate active labor, which can be deadly not just to the pups but to her if she has pups in there, and you don't know it, and she never whelps them, and you assume it was another false pregnancy, but it was not.


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## Miikkas mom

I don’t know much, or anything really, about pregnancy in dogs. However, I would think Heidi would get big and fat, much like a human female. No? 

Also, is there no test, other than x-ray or ultrasound to confirm pregnancy in dogs? You mean to tell me there is no “Clearblue” for dogs.


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## JakodaCD OA

mikka's mom, sometimes with a false pregnancy, they will exhibit ALL the signs of being pregnant, weight gain, lactating, just no puppies show up 

I would be kinda paranoid myself especially with her history as chris said. 

Ya know I don't know if clearblue would work LOL,,but I do know I would want a definite answer to see what's going on..

Hope she will be ok


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## DJEtzel

Guh. I went through a huge ordeal with my foster chihuahua and a false pregnancy. She had the whole nine yards (2 days before a scheduled spay) and her temp dropped to 98 (was prepared for puppies at this point), yet nothing came. She got spayed two days later and the vet deducted she was definitely never pregnant. 

GOOD luck.


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## RebelGSD

I, unfortunately, had three fosters for whom the vets said the dog was not pregnant - until two days before the puppies were born. Twice the vets claimed that it was a false pregnancy when it was a real one. For one dog the vet claimed that the dog had fluid in the abdomen from congestive heart failure and she would die soon. Well the fluid in the abdomen turned out to be 9 puppies. I guess vets do not see pregnant dogs very often.

Good luck to you!


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## selzer

Yes, I had one that they claimed hemangiosarcoma. I said she was pregnant. They said they needed an x-ray -- less than three weeks along. I did not know enough about hemangiosarcoma and let them convince me to go ahead. 

They said the spleen was enlarged and finally decided an ultrasound. I took her to Akron and did an ultrasound. No hemangiosarcoma, no enlarged spleen. she was pregnant. I still kick myself for that. The ultrasound was not able to count heartbeats but more than one. 

She made it to term, never gaining as much weight as she had in her previous two litters. Temp went down below 99, then went back up. No puppy. I took her in to get x-rayed. One puppy. Very large. Did a c-section. Lost the pup the next day. 

But that is not this girl. Temp is back up to 101.6. Heidi is crazy. She is playing around in the whelping box, but is not straining or anything. In fact, she is running outside, gathering icicles, bringing them in, burying them in the box and then finding them. Doing this with bones as well. 

I am monitoring temperature and condition/energy level. I will probably go ahead and get a picture on Monday. I am leaning toward false pregnancy. No changes in mammary glands yet. However, there is also the possibility of a small litter of large puppies and that would be dangerous with her being so small. So I will keep my eyes on her and take her in on Monday, earlier if necessary. 

pregnancy tests generally do not work because pregnant or not the hormones do the same thing, and you will get the same results pregnant or not. 

I have x-rayed after a litter to ensure no retained puppies before. I was hoping to avoid any extra x-rays. I do not trust vet-counts of x-rays, because they usually tell me six when there are eight. So if the girl runs a temperature afterward, I still want to look for a retained puppy. And having the vet palpate them afterwards, well, they palpated Arwen and did not feel anything puppyish, and later that night Babsy was born. 

Anyhow, thanks. We are running out of time anyway. sperm only lives for up to seven days, if she ovulated two days after the sperm was put in, she could still have puppies tomorrow, or maybe Monday. Not impossible. I just watched Hutchison's DVD again, he says not to worry until 68 days post ovulation. 68 days??? Yes, I think Monday we will do pictures.


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## Lesley1905

Good Luck to you and Heidi! I hope everything works out!


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## Allan

This is why progesterone is so important. you know when they ovulated.
So then you can tell when she should have her pups + or - a day.
64 to 66 days pass LH surge or 62 to 65 days pass ovulation she should have her pups.
If no testing was done you can be way off the whelping date.

I would not count on sperm living 7 days, most breeders only count on it living 48 hours.
I would take a x-ray to make sure.
Never take an x-ray tell after 55 days into pregnancy.


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## EJQ

Chris Wild said:


> If you are worried about additional radiation exposure to her, then do an ultrasound. It will tell you if she is pregnant, roughly how many puppies and if they are alive.


I have to agree.


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## Smithie86

We do the same as Allen re the xray.

We do the specific progesterone to know when the female is to ovulate. Even though there are guidelines when the perfect timimg is, the females can go slower or faster... That is why more than one. 

You can you a very quick and un-invasive blood test after day 35 to confirm if pregnant or not, xray pre-whelp.


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## shadow mum

Selzer, any update on Heidi?


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## selzer

No puppies.


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## shadow mum

. I was looking forward to Heidi's baby pictures.


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## selzer

Here are some of Heidi's baby pictures, she was four in August, I do not know if she will ever have a litter of her own:


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## Holmeshx2

oh the blue puppy eyes are just too much very cute


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## shadow mum

They are sooo cute. I remember vaguely when Shadow was that small....Thanks for posting them. Needed my puppy fix.


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