Pregnant or Not?

[Luke83]

Hi everyone,
I really need your advice with this:
Our 10 month old boxer has just had her first heat. We have a garden that has right of way for our elderly neighbors to take bins out. They are quite active and have a big, reactive dog. They claim it's a Rhodesian Ridgeback but I think they haven't seen one... They kept teasing us about having puppies with our dog but I made it clear she's not for breeding.

Now here's the important part:
When we went shopping, our 13 year old let our dog in the garden for a wee. That's when our neighbor, despite probably knowing we were out (they are very nosey and even have mirrors in front of the house to see everything) decided to trim the hedges that were growing into our garden. His dog followed and he did not immediately take him back. Both dogs started running and their dog attempted to mount ours but according to the neighbour he got him off before anything happened. Our child was struggling to get her in which is roughly when we arrived. She was panting heavily and her tail was hanging loose.

Several weeks later and she has enlarged mammaries and looks bigger but is still active. She's still a puppy and we are quite concerned, as well as upset with neighbours. We went to the vet's to spay her but despite reassuring over the phone that the procedure can be done, he said she may be pregnant when he saw her and told us to wait. The vet offered an injection to help her miscarry but it was more expensive than spaying and results were not guaranteed.
I am still upset just writing it but don't know if there is anything I can do.

 

[JudyN]

Ah... I only saw this after asking about your dog in your other post!

This isn't something I know anything about, but some others here have a lot of experience of breeding and should be able to help.

 

[JoanneF]

I think there's a blood test that checks for a hormone that only shows up if she is actually pregnant.

If she is, tell your neighbour he will be paying for all costs because he didn't keep his male under control. Some vets will do a spay/abort if the pregnancy is not too advanced.

 

[Luke83]

Hi Joanne,

I've read about the tests. They're supposedly unreliable when telling the difference between phantom and real pregnancy.
The neighbours will just say she must have mated with another dog...

 

[Hemlock]

How infuriating.

How long ago was this? There are procedures she can have to detect pregnancy, and cost is small related to the cost of either rearing a litter (horrendously expensive in time and money if done properly) or having pups euthanised and bitch brought out of hormonal changes (upsetting for all of you). Some people used to leave the bitch one pup to rear, but that brings problems too. Some vets won't euthanise, so if you are going for this, make sure your vet will oblige.

One thing to be less worried about is how your bitch will cope with pregnancy and rearing a litter if you choose that option. She should manage surprisingly well without health damage. I've known a number of bitches that whelped to their first season, and while not at all an ideal situation, they and their pups were fine.

If it were me, I'd have the pregnancy terminated, but ultimately your choice.

 

[Luke83]

Thank you, that's very helpful.

 

[Flobo]

This is an awful situation for you and your poor dog, I have no experience with this but when you say 'several weeks later', how many weeks is it?
Please anyone correct me on this if I'm wrong, but would an ultra sound not pick up at least pups heartbeats from 3 to 4 weeks if they are there? Or would you have to leave it longer? (or maybe it's not as simple as I think!)

 

[Luke83]

It was exactly 4 weeks ago.

 

[excuseme]

Did anyone actually see a tie. When dogs mate they remain joined together from 5 to 50 minutes in my experience. They can also have what is called a slip mating where no tie has taken place, this can still produce puppies but is much less likely.
We had a young border collie who was mated at 9 months, we were unaware of this until about 2 weeks before the puppies were born. She had her puppies quiet easily and naturally with no problems. We had some puppies put to sleep straight away but left mum with just 2.
There are times when it is safer for mum to give birth normally rather than have injections to abort.
My boss at one time who's bitch went roaming for a couple of days while in season had an injection to abort any pregnancy. She retained one puppy, which resulted with a huge single puppy complications resulted with a dead puppy and poorly mum.

 

[Luke83]

Thanks for your reply. My daughter and the neighbour are the only two witnesses. The neighbour plays everything down and my daughter is ridden with guilt, despite trying hard to get her home. I don't have a reliable source of information with regards to what actually happened but my child tells me there was no mounting and they mostly kept running until my bitch became worn out. I can see her on the cctv, walking into the kitchen and gasping for breath, with a tail hanging down like a piece of string.

 

[excuseme]

Mounting and penetration of some description has to take place for a pregnancy.
If this did not happen then she can't be pregnant

 

[Luke83]

I just hope that I have been given an accurate account of what happened...