My pregnant dog is due today, won't eat, no labor. What should I do?

It is quite common for dogs to become anorexic in the 24 hours prior to whelping. Be sure that Sweetie has a whelping box ready, or a quiet area in your home with plenty of soft towels and blankets, but keep in mind that these blankets may get ruined during delivery! In the 24 hours prior to whelping, some dogs may also become more restless and may hide or try to be alone. I hope that all goes well!

Poor girl. 5 days is a long time for a pregnant dog to go without eating. At this point the best advise is to take her in to your vet to get looked at. Something could be wrong with the pregnancy and she needs to get tested to determine if an infection is present or what the case may be, and then treated. I hope your girl Kiki is going to be ok. Take her in asap for further testing and treatment to hopefully ensure her health and the health of her puppies. Best wishes and take care.

I would recommend taking her to your veterinarian to have her examined. It's possible that she has gastroenteritis, an infection, or any number of other diseases. Your veterinarian can take her temperature and may recommend an ultrasound to check the puppies' heart rates and make sure they are not in distress. I typically recommend feeding a high quality puppy food to pregnant dogs, but your veterinarian might recommend trying a higher calorie therapeutic diet. Good luck!

You are definitely stuck in a pretty difficult situation here. Obviously as a pregnant bitch, Jenny really needs to continue to eat in order to be healthy enough to carry her pregnancy. If she is ill, she might require medications to make her feel better. The main problem with this is that there are very, very few medications that are considered safe and effective for pregnant and nursing animals. There is only one oral antibiotic in America that is readily administered to pregnant dogs, and it is called Clavamox. It is a penicillin based antibiotic. My assumption is that your vet likely gave a penicillin based injection. If this has not helped at all, she should probably be reassessed, placed on some fluids, and have her fetuses' viability checked with ultrasound. An ultrasound should be able to detect fetal heart beat, so if they appear weak or not present at all than this could be an indicator of an infectious process causing abortion. If your current vet does not have an ultrasound, you may want to go to a clinic that has this modality to give your dog the best treatment possible. Hope this helps!

Poor girl! I would offer her a home cooked meal of plain boiled chicken and rice to see if this helps to entice her to eat. If she after a few days of being on vitamins and she still isn't acting right then I would contact your ve to do additional diagnostics. If your vet hasn't already I would ask them to do a fecal to check for intestinal parasites and blood work to make sure everything else looks ok. If she is close to the end of her pregnancy this could all be normal in preparation for labor. A lot of dogs will have a decrease in activity and appetite in the last 3-5 days of pregnancy. The normal gestation period is 62-63 days. I hope this helps!

Hi. We don't have access to your previously asked questions. Any time a dog is ill, there is a risk of pregnancy loss. The best way to try to prevent it is to provide good supportive care and help the patient recover as quick as possible. If Cookie is ill, it may be hard to tell when she is going into labor. Ideally, the puppies would have their heartrates monitored several times daily by ultrasound to watch for any signs that they are dropping due to distress. She should also be monitored regularly for temperature drops or contractions.

Hello. This very well can be the first stages of labor, & this can last 24-36 hours. Once you start to see her having contractions ( can see her actually pushing ), she should start having puppies in the first 15-30 minutes after observing this. If she starts pushing & no puppies are delivered within an hour, you may need to have her evaluated by your veterinarian, but it sounds like she is progressing nicely for now. You may have puppies very soon! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.