Pitter Patter of Tiny Paws – Part 8 – Pre mate blood test take 3!

The Story so far…..

For those of you that have been following the blog, you will know that we are in the middle of breeding our lovely black labrador, Tilly. So far, we have done all the necessary health tests and have had good  results. Even with all the best planning, we could not have anticipated Tilly coming into season right in the middle of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations. Normally, we would have been able to establish the correct day of ovulation by having blood tests done from about Day 9 of the season, but unfortunately at the critical time, the Laboratory has closed for an extended bank holiday, so we have had to second guess the ovulation dates.  We have been advised to have another blood test after the first mating, just to check that Tilly has ovulated.

So, once again, we are back at the vets having yet another blood test taken…..  This time, we need to know if she was ovulating at the time of the mating. If she has not ovulated, then we need to take another trip to the stud dog.

One day later……

The results are back and the vet has confirmed that the best time to have mated Tilly was the day AFTER we actually mated her. The progesterone levels were such that the "day after" would have been perfect. In his words, "we would probably be alright, but to be on the safe side, we should take her back to the stud dog and try again".

So once again, we all pile in the car and head up the motorway to the stud dog………

This time, it goes a lot smoother than the first time, and the stud dog owners are happy that Tilly is not likely to snap at their dog and she remains unmuzzled for the whole process.

We are now in the position that we cannot do anymore and have to let nature take it's course.

The vets have offered to do an ultrasound scan in 28 days time, but to be honest we're not sure if we will do this. All it will prove is that she is pregnant but we won't know how many puppies with any certainty. So now, we just have to take care of our dog, in the hope that she contains a precious cargo of soon-to-be cute cuddly puppies!

From conception to birth is about 63 days, so we anticipate the pitter patter of tiny paws around the first week of August.

Any ideas for puppy names????