Maltese Pregnancy

[Christina]

If she is not showing any signs of distress you can leave her for another couple of days without any worry.

There is nothing dangerous happening so nothing to rush to the vets for.

Very dangerous advice. In my breed they never go over their due date without it being due to a major problem. Primary inertia can happen in any breed so if they are not in labour by the due date they should be monitored by a vet and have a caesar at the first sign of puppy distress. It is always safest to ensure that you actually know if they are pregnant or not by ultrasound or x-ray. With modern vet practices, guesswork and risking bitches should be a thing of the past.

Its not dangerous at all to not rush to the vet if they don't give birth exactly on the first day 63 days after the 1st mating.

63 to 65 days is a common time frame for almost all breeds & that is an average guide not a set in stone day.

Your particular line of dogs may always do this but not everyones dogs or indeed all dogs of a specific breed whelp precisely to date.

For some dogs traveling back & forth to the vets, going in there, being handled & examined etc may be so stressful if they are that close to the day that its not worth putting them through it unless there is a problem or sensible reason to think so. They may start to give birth in a crate in the car & be so stressed.

Over many years mine have whelped at 59 days, which was alarming but she did that with 3 litters & all was well, through to 67 days for others & all was well too.

Ultra sound is fine if one must know but is not always reliable in numbers & they can absorb. Xray is only for a really need to do IMO.

Everyone does is differently but I can't see danger in going over 63 days. It is common & normal. Many vets wouldn't even say come in if it was day 64 & nothing was wrong.

[Salukifan]

I'm a little gobsmacked that anyone would trust the safety of their bitch to a bunch of stangers of unknown qualifications and experience on the internet.

As far as I can see, you can't know if there's a problem with the pregnancy or a phantom pregnancy unless you ultrasound or x-ray. Seems perfectly logical to me to establish what you're actually dealing with before deciding on a way forward. A non-professional diagnosis of a phantom might be uterine inertia - who knows? The short answer is no one does.

The only place you can find out what's really going on is with your vet. No bitch this close to whelping is going to absorb pups.

To each their own....assuming of course that the. Whelping due date has been correctly calculated.

Edited February 27, 2014 by Haredown Whippets

[cavNrott]

If she is not showing any signs of distress you can leave her for another couple of days without any worry.

There is nothing dangerous happening so nothing to rush to the vets for.

Very dangerous advice. In my breed they never go over their due date without it being due to a major problem. Primary inertia can happen in any breed so if they are not in labour by the due date they should be monitored by a vet and have a caesar at the first sign of puppy distress. It is always safest to ensure that you actually know if they are pregnant or not by ultrasound or x-ray. With modern vet practices, guesswork and risking bitches should be a thing of the past.

Its not dangerous at all to not rush to the vet if they don't give birth exactly on the first day 63 days after the 1st mating.

63 to 65 days is a common time frame for almost all breeds & that is an average guide not a set in stone day.

Your particular line of dogs may always do this but not everyones dogs or indeed all dogs of a specific breed whelp precisely to date.

For some dogs traveling back & forth to the vets, going in there, being handled & examined etc may be so stressful if they are that close to the day that its not worth putting them through it unless there is a problem or sensible reason to think so. They may start to give birth in a crate in the car & be so stressedOver many years mine have whelped at 59 days, which was alarming but she did that with 3 litters & all was well, through to 67 days for others & all was well too.

Ultra sound is fine if one must know but is not always reliable in numbers & they can absorb. Xray is only for a really need to do IMO.

Everyone does is differently but I can't see danger in going over 63 days. It is common & normal. Many vets wouldn't even say come in if it was day 64 & nothing was wrong.

The point is that the OP doesn't even know if her dog is pregnant or if it's a phantom so clearly this dog has not been seen by a vet at all. The dog has hardly been caused any stress by travelling, being handled, examined etc., by a vet.

Your dogs may have sailed through gestation and whelping without any problems but it's very unwise to assume the OP's dog, who you have never seen and know nothing about, will be ok. Why would you not encourage the OP to take the dog to the vet? You state there is nothing dangerous going on here. You can't possibly know that.

For some reason that I fail to understand, the OP appears very reluctant to seek vet advice irrespective of her not having a clue about her dog's condition. This to me is foolish to say the least. If there is a problem the dog suffers due to lack of vet attention. Why gamble with your dog's health by witholding vet advice?

To the OP. Keep your dog safe. Take her to the vet.

efs

Edited February 28, 2014 by cavNrott

[persephone]

If she is not showing any signs of distress you can leave her for another couple of days without any worry.

There is nothing dangerous happening so nothing to rush to the vets for.

Very dangerous advice. In my breed they never go over their due date without it being due to a major problem. Primary inertia can happen in any breed so if they are not in labour by the due date they should be monitored by a vet and have a caesar at the first sign of puppy distress. It is always safest to ensure that you actually know if they are pregnant or not by ultrasound or x-ray. With modern vet practices, guesswork and risking bitches should be a thing of the past.

Its not dangerous at all to not rush to the vet if they don't give birth exactly on the first day 63 days after the 1st mating.

63 to 65 days is a common time frame for almost all breeds & that is an average guide not a set in stone day.

Your particular line of dogs may always do this but not everyones dogs or indeed all dogs of a specific breed whelp precisely to date.

For some dogs traveling back & forth to the vets, going in there, being handled & examined etc may be so stressful if they are that close to the day that its not worth putting them through it unless there is a problem or sensible reason to think so. They may start to give birth in a crate in the car & be so stressedOver many years mine have whelped at 59 days, which was alarming but she did that with 3 litters & all was well, through to 67 days for others & all was well too.

Ultra sound is fine if one must know but is not always reliable in numbers & they can absorb. Xray is only for a really need to do IMO.

Everyone does is differently but I can't see danger in going over 63 days. It is common & normal. Many vets wouldn't even say come in if it was day 64 & nothing was wrong.

The point is that the OP doesn't even know if her dog is pregnant of if it's a phantom so clearly this dog has not been seen by a vet at all. The dog has hardly been caused any stress by travelling, being handled, examined etc., by a vet.

Your dogs may have sailed through gestation and whelping without any problems but it's very unwise to assume the OP's dog, who you have never seen and know nothing about, will be ok. Why would you not encourage the OP to take the dog to the vet? You state there is nothing dangerous going on here. You can't possibly know that.

For some reason that I fail to understand, the OP appears very reluctant to seek vet advice irrespective of her not having a clue about her dog's condition. This to me is foolish to say the least. If there is a problem the dog suffers due to lack of vet attention. Why gamble with your dog's health by witholding vet advice?

To the OP. Keep your dog safe. Take her to the vet.

cavNrott , I agree.

Without even knowing if the bitch is pregnant ..one cannot carry out a plan of action .

I hope by now she has had a vet check to find out if she is in fact pregnant or not :)

Learning about pregnancy/whelping is never-ending . There is always something new ..always something different! It pays to never be nonchalant. :)

[Loving my Oldies]

I've found the whole thing quite difficult to understand as well. The OP said in her first post that she wasn't one "to call the vet with every little question."

I would think that whether or not a dog is pregnant or having a phantom pregnancy was hardly a "little question".

The vet should be the first port of call.

[OSoSwift]

Yep without a vet check you may be waiting on a non-event, or a little heartbeat might be fading because one was not enough to set whelping in progress.

To me it is not worth my dogs life potentially.