Pregnant Dog Care

Video Transcript

"Hi, my name's Pam Nichols, I'm with www.utahanimalcare.com. I would like to talk to you about the proper care of a pregnant dog. First of all, before your dog becomes pregnant it's really important for her to become current on all of her vaccinations so that when she is having puppies she delivers the proper protection vaccination production to those babies. So, before she gets pregnant have her checked out by your veterinarian, have her vaccinations current. Once she is pregnant, at about day thirty, you can have a blood test done to confirm that she is actually pregnant. By day fifty-five, gestation in a dog, by the way, is fifty-eight to sixty-five days, by day fifty to fifty-five x-rays can be taken to determine how many puppies she's going to deliver and how big they are. In some breeds c-sections are very common so if puppies are extremely large your vet might offer you a cesarean section. Throughout gestation regular checkups are kind of important for your mom, you want to have a chronological history of her weight to ensure that she's gaining proper weight and a chronological history of her body temperature because just before delivery, her body temperature will drop, pretty drastically, and that will give you an idea that she's about to deliver. I'd like you to make sure that your dog is on a good quality puppy food. My two favorites are Iams Puppy Food or Eukanuba Puppy Food and Eukanuba is very specific to the breed that you're feeding, which is really nice, it eliminates a lot of hassle. When your puppies are about three days old, you'll want to have your mom checked and you'll want to have the puppies checked and, at that time, anything appropriate, with the puppies, can be done either de-claws can be removed or tails docked or anything else that needs to be done and your mom can have a general physical examination."