To Ultrasound or Not Ultrasound – That Was Our Question

By Pilar Kuhn

Shakespeare posed the question in his play Hamlet, “To be or not to be.” This fall the spin on that question in our household was, “To ultrasound or not ultrasound.” This past January, we were devastated to find out via ultrasound that our Scottie bitch “Lara” did not get pregnant after using fresh chilled semen. Rod had never done ultrasounds on his girls in the past, but the unique circumstances, trials, and tribulations getting our girl bred prompted us to rely on the equipment and expertise of David Klang of “Scan In A Van.” With no embryos to be found, we prepared ourselves for this breeding insanity attempt again in the fall. Our house, so lovingly nicknamed ‘Casa Fairview’, would potentially become the Puppy Preparation Pad for Fall 2012, but not just for Scotties.

You see, we also had plans to breed our Bouvier bitch, Danica, upon passing her required health tests over the summer. She’s young and we would like to campaign her so when a progesterone test confirmed she was ready for breeding, we did just that. And since Mother Nature loves creating hormonal chaos when more than one bitch lives in the same house, Lara the Scottie came in season three weeks earlier than we had anticipated. Our fall animal husbandry plans took a jolted jump into warp speed.

After a month of hormones gone wild and breeding after breeding, Rod and I knew both girls were successfully covered. Mother Nature was taking her course. The four-week waiting period before an ultrasound could confirm if puppies were on the way seemed to drag on forever. I kept asking the question, “To ultrasound or not ultrasound?” Rod kept responding, “I’d rather not. I’d rather save our money and spend it on x-rays to know how many puppies we’ll be expecting.” I wasn’t sure that was the right route to take. I loved his optimism, but I hated not knowing. And I hate waiting.

My husband also pointed out that an ultrasound wouldn’t confirm how many puppies we’d be expecting, just that we were expecting. And both girls would start to show obvious signs of pregnancy between weeks five and six. That would mean waiting another week or two after we could have an ultrasound done. That would mean more waiting.

I truly wanted to know if we had puppies on the way, but I also hated the disappointment from earlier in the year. One way to avoid more disappointment was to bypass the ultrasounds. And as one recent unfortunate circumstance proved, a positive ultrasound does not always ensure puppies will follow five weeks later. A colleague’s bitch had, for some reason, absorbed the embryos she’d seen via ultrasound. She found out, when she took her bitch in for the x-ray a week before she would have been due, that no puppies fully formed. So I chose to respect my husband’s wishes and wait.

Both of our girls had some behavioral changes within a week of being bred. Danica’s jumping up and bumping the bottom of her food bowl as if we were starving our girl, asking for “cuddle time”, and belly rubs gave us early indications that Bouvier puppies could be on the way. Lara, usually ravenous, went off of her food for weeks and slept more than usual. If we picked her up and rolled her on her back, she was more cuddly and snuggly – a behavior her mother displayed with each of her pregnancies. Scottie puppies could be on the way, too.

Several colleagues shared their thoughts about whether to ultrasound or not. One Norwegian Elkhound breeder said she always went “old school” and waited the last week to do an x-ray. A Longhaired Dachshund breeder said she always did ultrasounds and x-rays. A fellow Bouvier breeder said she only did ultrasounds and never did x-rays.

My husband was hopefully right. We’ll find out soon enough how many puppies we’re hopefully expecting. And Shakespeare may have influenced our initial question, but Mother Nature will always influence the eventual outcome.

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Posted by admin on Oct 4 2012. Filed under Featured, Health & Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.