How To Tell if Your Dog is Pregnant
If you are a veteran on dog breeding it is easy for you to detect because of the usual signs that you encounter throughout the years. You can see some changes on your Dam on a few weeks of pregnancy like morning sickness and some personality changes. Few more weeks and you will see some swelling, loss of tuck up and weight increase. Feeding should be increased a little or some do change their kibble into puppies.
Darkening of the nipples, shedding of the abdominal hair and milk during the end of the pregnancy may occur but all these signs are still are not yet the confirmation of a pregnancy unless you bring your dog to a vet or an ultrasound technician to verify the pregnancy. Some mated dogs also experienced these signs but ended up not being pregnant and it is called pseudo pregnancy.
Ultrasound is the non invasive means on looking at the puppies, but be sure that ultrasound technician schools are highly qualified to perform this procedure to get the right results of the test. The ultrasound tech or your veterinarian will administer the ultrasound test and will see if how the puppies are doing, if a cesarean procedure is needed and how many litters to expect. The most accurate time of doing this procedure is between the 18 to 28 days of pregnancy.
But if you want to lessen your worries as a dog owner and does not want to go through all this mess of having a pregnant dog and having you deliver her puppies, you can opt to spay your dog ahead of time. But if you decided to be a breeder be sure to know all the necessary things that your Dam needs throughout her pregnancy. Have a qualified veterinarian checked your dogs, update their shots annually, multivitamins are important, grooming and love and care from the master.
