I guess you have 2 choices,wait and see or take her to the vet and have an ultrasound.My pick would be wait and see.Why spend money for an ultrasound/vet just to know for sure.And yes,if she was in heat,yard or not,a male dog will find a way to get to her.In fact,I have a 5 ft. chain link fence around my yard and my little 5 lb.,short legged Chihuahua got out to visit the neighbors Cocker Spaniel behind a 6 ft. wood fence! Those were the cutest little puppies!LOL
Ruthie and georgiesmom are right.Could be a false pregnancy.I had a little daschund/beagle one time that had a false pregnancy.She even gained weight and went through "labor".She found a little squeaky frog that belonged to one of the kids and carried it a round like it was a puppy.She would put it in her bed and lay down beside it,then root and nudge it till she got it right where she wanted it and would put her head over it and go to sleep.It was really kind of sad.I felt sorry for her! it took her a couple of weeks to figure out that she didn't really have a baby!LOL She had a couple of litters after that and was an excellent mother!LOL
I think there is some kind of shot the vet can give her if it is a false pregnancy.

Oh heck yeah they can do it through chain link..It amazes me how "skilled" dogs can get. LOL

I'd agree if she was in heat at Mother's Day..she's just about ready to go.. it's like 60 days gestation.

I'd start adding some puppy chow to her food...

She was just at the vet a few days before going into heat. Vet said it's about $100.00 to find out for sure. Just don't want to pay it. She is really not very broad, but has grown a little. I think she may only have a couple of pups if any. I have been feeding her burger and rice once a day.

But your saying puppy chow? Sounds like a good idea, thank you! Can't hurt right? I think I will get some tomorrow. Is this good for her after giving birth too? Then I will just buy a larger bag. I know she will love puppy chow, just don't want her getting too fat.

If she is pregnant, but not large, she may have a small litter. Trouble with a small litter is you are more likely to need a c-section to save her life and the puppies, as well. And by the time you find out that she is in distress, it's an emergency. C-sections cost from $500 to $1500, depending on the emergency services in your area.

I'd spend the $100 now so I could know what to expect.

If she's preggers, then a couple weeks before delivery is a good time to start feeding her high-protein type foods like the puppy food. With our tundras, gestation was 64 days. Smaller dogs may not take as long. And yes, you would continue to supplement her regular diet with puppy food or other additives (heck, hubby cooked a ROAST for Mysti when she delivered! LOL!) to keep her healthy. Feeding the babies will take a LOT out of her, and the extra special food will only do her good.

Don't forget to share pictures!

Oh ... and BTW... Woofman *ate* the chainlink fence when we were keeping him and Mysti separated during a cycle. Yes, he grabbed the chain link and chomped here and there until he had a hole big enough for his big ol' head to get through. We caught him with one leg in her pen. LOL.

I appreciate all the advice, thank you so much! If she does have puppies, I will show them off with pictures!

We once had a dog climb over a 10 foot chain link fence into our back yard. This dog was a Jack Russel Terrier, so it is very possible that your doggy had some company come to visit.

fluffy used to go VISITING when I was a youngster :o)

I wouldn't spend the money, either - dogs have been having puppies for a few million years without much trouble, so she should be just fine even if there is a big size discrepancy.

This isn't going to address your question and will probably be unpopular, but here goes...

Why wasn't your dog spayed? Why was a young spaniel mix dog even able to get pregnant? Unneutered male dogs will do anything to get to a female in heat. This is exactly why pet overpopulation is so out of control - people not being responsible and allowing their pets to reproduce and add to the problem. Shelters are full of dogs/cats that are unwanted, will never find homes, and will end up being euthanized. There are more unwanted pets than available homes. You've just contributed to the problem by not spaying your dog. I hope you plan on keeping the puppies or have found people who will adopt them. Also, female dogs have less chance of ovarian cancer or uterine infections if they are spayed before their first "heat." Each cycle they experience increases the chances of illness greatly, as much as ten times each.

Yes, I volunteer at the Humane Society. And yes, monthly statistics are maintained as to the number of dogs/cats euthanized because no one adopted them.

This is a sad, preventible situation that can be prevented.

Google "Pet overpopulation" and read the statistics. It's heartbreaking.

*shakes head*

Here is a link that might be useful: Pet Overpopulation

There's one reality. If she's not pregnant and continues to be allowed outside, unattended, whether in a fenced yard or not, she will be getting pregnant before long. Fences aren't very good birth control. I won't go into how it happens except to say jumping a fence is easy or going under it, depending on the dog(s). How often is a gate left open? If you don't want puppies, you need to get her spayed.

Adding to the reason to spay.... Mammary tumours!

I second Holly. I had a Siamese cat for a short time. She was 5 when I got her. She had 2 litters. She was being picked on by the dogs in the family so I rescued her.

A few days later she came into heat and howled from 7pm to 7am. I was afraid she'd wake up the neighbours. Rushed her in to get fixed.

She was undoubtedly the most loving, stick-by-my-side cat I've ever had. Completely opposite to what I've always understood Siamese to be. Anyway she developed a lump in her chest a year or so later. It was breast cancer and she had to be put down.

The vet said that cats and dogs are sucseptible to breast cancer when they are older before they are spayed. What a loss, I still miss her to this day and it was a couple years ago.

Sign my name to what Sephia wrote. Many Humane Societies even give out discounted or free spay/neuter certificates.

I knew this was coming so I am done with post. I was pleasantly surprised with all the nice responses I got before I received all the negative. I want her to have a litter of puppies, just not at such a young age. Bash all you want, I can take it.

We not bashing so much as crying when we see and try to save all those dumped cats and dogs and can not because people have been irresponsible and taken the easy way out. Yes .... I am a volunteer for animal rescue. It is a heartbreaking job. I am glad you can take it. I am completely frustrated that no matter how hard we try, the need keeps escalating beyond our ability to cope. If we hear "just one litter" again.......
I just hope that people will love and care for the offspring as much as you have for your dog. In fact more - that they spay and neuter!

I agree. It's not about what you want but about the fact that every puppy your dog has is adding to the horrible overpopulation. . If your dog has only four pups exponentially this will increase the population many times over. I just rescued a purebred Dachshund from WVA where he was turned in because 'we have too many dogs'...Some people will never learn, hence the problem.

I'm sorry you feel you were bashed - BUT - spaying is the HUMANE treatment.
Dogs and cats are not emotionally fullfilled when they produce litters, their owners are. However, their owners don't get to see the suffering and abuse a lot of these animals are subject to due to overpopulation.

Sure, puppies and kittens are cute, pictures of puppies and kittens are a guaranteed "Oh my goodness, how precious!" or "So Cute!" response on forums. You don't see the overcrowded shelters.

Pets aren't disposable either, if you have a pet, you have a moral obligation to care for it. If you can't afford care or are not willing to spend money on care - please don't have a pet - you are actually doing them a favor.

You may not like the answers you have received from posting a question - but hundreds of other people - unseen by you, have been given information they may find useful.

I usually don't involve myself in discussions of spaying/neutering, and I have ALWAYS spayed and neutered my own dogs; have adopted many rescues. But the other day I was thinking of something.

If it was mandatory and a law to spay and neuter, where would we get all our lovable, unique looking and most often healthier mutts? Would we only have the choice of purebreds, some of which are so interbred that they have loads of health issues? Save for one Great Dane, all my dogs have been mutts.

Yes, I've been to shelters and yes I avoid going on a Thursday - the day the vet "visits" - it's heartbreaking. Mandatory spaying/neutering would be so difficult to enforce, how would that be done I wonder?

Good-May I ask a question without you feeling that you are being bashed? That isn't my intent at all and I really don't think anyone else meant to bash. My question:Why do you want her to have a litter of puppies? Especially with the high risk of her developing mammary cancer after having puppies?
I know there are many reasons for not having a pet neutered or spayed and nobody but you knows the reason.I had a cat that I didn't have spayed until she was almost 4 years old! A lot of people couldn't understand that either and thought I was a horribly irresponsible pet owner! But I had a legitimate reason.She was NEVER outside and wouldn't even go outside.You couldn't even push her out the door.LOL I saw no reason to have her spayed at the time.She never had a rabies shot either.The ONLY reason I finally had it done was because she was having a heat cycle a couple of times a month and driving me crazy and had developed a peeing/spraying habit that was ruining my furniture.Resolved the howling problem but not the other.

There was a time when people believed it was bad to spay a female before she had her first litter. Most of us now know that isn't true.

What I think would be great is if RESPONSIBLE BREEDERS that seek nothing but to better their breed would take a couple years off and give their time to seeking forever homes for the homeless purebreds of their preferred breed.

Moonie, most responsible breeders DO work with rescue. We all take in and foster homeless dogs, support our rescue group financially, recommend rescues to prospective homes.

There are, of course, breeders who are not responsible in this way, but you need to remember that responsible breeders do support rescue every day. Breeding and rescue work are not mutually exclusive.

sushipup - If I were a chihuahua breeder, and even if I only bred 8 puppies in a 2 year period, then that is 8 chihuahua pups left in the shelters. Multiply that by all the breeders in the world. Just a thought.

I surely wasn't trying to bash responsible breeding.

Sorry... this has gotten waaay off topic.

Puppy chow is really good for her so I'd start feeding it.
If she is pregnant, and all signs say she is, she should whelp in the next day or two. Continue feeding puppy food after the puppies are here. It takes a lot out of a dog to feed pups. Most like you will be able to place your puppies.
As it's been said, many if not all shelters offer a deeply discounted, sometimes free spay and neuter. Of course if you choose to do this with the puppies, you would have to keep them until three or four months but it would be a good way to handle this unfortunate event, which I think it is.
I also think you are handling this very well (do I hear a little excitement in your voice?) and I'm sure you will do what's best for your dog and her puppies.

That said, my Corgi, Holly had a false pregnancy after her first heat. She swelled up, made a bag and her nipples filled up and her vagina swelled too. No puppies though. However, our bearded Collie Gabby was bred and was carrying puppies at this time. I don't recall Holly showing any interest in the Bearded Collie puppies but since then their heat cycles are in sync with one another.

Good luck!
I want to see some pictures when they get here!

Lori

good36 said she was through with this thread when she got some responses she didn't like, so I doubt she's reading this anymore (some posters stop reading when people start to disagree with them). But I agree with the above posts about spaying and neutering. At one time (before we evolved, I dare say!) people thought it was good to let an animal have one litter before it was spayed. What bunk!

I'm not saying that that was good36's reason - she just said she wanted a litter.

But another thing that always angers me is when someone says about their dog or cat who has had puppies or kittens, "It's Ok, I've found them all good homes". Well, two things about that - - - that's more animals already in shelters that won't be adopted. But even more annoying is that there is no guarantee that all of the new owners will spay or neuter those puppies or kittens when the time comes. How many of THOSE will have "just one litter" or accidental pregnancies? That's just MORE adding to the tragedy.

So - just because one finds homes for the immediate litter doesn't mean that the problem is mitigated.

Irresponsibility is inexcusable, in my opinion, regardless of what it is.

I think most of you are being a little harsh on good36..if you go back to her 1st post, all she asked was 'I wonder how this could have happened' and if her dog is showing signs of pregnancy. She didn't ask your opinion on spaying and neutering...I imagine her intent was to have it done, but oops, things happen! And all of you got off the track!

So she's going to have some puppies, maybe she'll fix the pups before they go to another home or make arrangements with the new owners. Did you ask her that?

I consider myself a responsible pet owner..have had dogs and cats all my life and they've all been fixed...I may not do everything by the book, but my animals are happy and healthy til the day they leave this world.

Soooo, give good 36 a break! And don't be so negative about everything! I wouldn't be at all surpirised if she never asked a question again!

Whew, there...I feel better!

I admit I am trying to figure out.....how do
you decide who to bash?

A cute little puppy has received wonderful words,
other litters have been praised in the past.

This dog may not be pregnant, but the owner is about
to be burned at the stake.

missmaggierock - I was thinking the exact same thing!

You are right. For me, sometimes I comment and other times I don't. I love cute little puppies as much as anyone, but that doesn't change my opinion about the tragedy of overpopulation and my wish that people would try to help end it.

"think most of you are being a little harsh" ..... "the owner is about to be burned at the stake."

I don't see any post where I would have considered the OP as being "bashed". There has been lots of responses and perhaps one or two that were slightly harsh (or informative) but you have to expect that on such a touchy subject. For the most part, I think everyone has been very well behaved.

And, if good 36's dog -is- pregnant, I bet the pups will be adorable!

Oh, whimzikl, she did say that she wanted to have a litter, just not now. She didn't intend to spay her.

I don't see any bashing, either, just hypersensitivity, perhaps, at facts. These forums are full of people who are hypersensitive to facts and just want to feel the love, as it were. It's naieve to think that an unspayed female will NOT get pregnant, or that an unneutered male will not roam. If Good36's dog has pups, I hope she has them all spayed and neutered BEFORE she gives them away.

Good36, I hope you get over your hurt feelings and will return with pictures if your dog has puppies.

If I really wanted to bash, I would have questioned why this dog isn't getting prenatal care/diagnosis. True, dogs have been breeding for years but some die from preventable conditions needlessly. Just like humans, healthier puppies get good prenatal care. I am glad that the diet will be enhanced.

"It's naive to think that an unspayed female will NOT get pregnant" Not really! I had an UNspayed female for 10+ years that never got pregnant!*S*

Hunh. Perhaps your unspayed female was infertile for some reason. Or perhaps you never, ever let her out by herself, not even in a fenced back yard. I don't know what the pregnancy rate of unsupervised, unspayed female dogs (and cats) is, but I bet it's really high! It's probably much more reasonable to expect a pregnancy than not.

I think those of us who work closely with animal shelters do get a little more "harsh" because we do see all the animals that are euthanized and it does make an impression on us that is hard to forget. If you don't frequent the shelters, you can just imagine that all of those cute dogs and cats are finding homes, when the reality is quite the opposite.

You can keep an unspayed dog and it not get pregnant. My mother had a little dog that she never had spayed and she never got pregnant, but it was extreme diligence on my mother's part, and since dogs' heats last so long, it is much more of a convienence to get them spayed.

Maybe just maybe if it was a little more affortable to have a dog/cat spayed/neutered, more people would do it!

I understand some people can be pretty passionate about their convictions and what they deem to be the "right thing" to do! But that doesn't give anyone the right to push their convictions off on anyone,question their choices and expect them to explain why they've made the choice they have! One of my convictions is that more PEOPLE should be spayed/neutered and not allowed to reproduce..but that's just MY opinion but I'm pretty passionate about it!

^^ It IS expensive, but many places have free or reduced-cost spay/neuter certificates. Also, several people I've known personally who neglected to spay/neuter had lots of money for entertainment, cigarettes, beer, eating out, etc., but hated spending money on their pets.

I do agree that many people would benefit from being spayed/neutered. :o)

Other than the supposed expense (and I agree that it can be expensive, that more affordable options are available, etc.), I'd be very interested in hearing why someone would opt to not get a pet spayed neutered if they were not choosing to breed. Why in the world would someone want to put up with, and put an animal through, repeated heats? It's a genuine question: if you opted not to spay/neuter an animal, didn't plan to breed, and other that your perception of expense, why?

My Winnie isn't spayed, when we started fostering her my Saint Bernard Bear was neutered, so we didn't worry about Winnie. Bear kept everything out of the yard..including most humans. LOL
But then Bear passed and we got Tank who isn't neutered..when Winnie came into heat, she became a house dog. She got walked on the leash in the front yard away from Tank and with one of us at all times. There were times we would put Tank in the neighbors yard and let Winnie in our backyard once again on a leash..
I would love to have Winnie spayed and I plan on it, but its not cheap and no where around here offers any discounts. Until we can afford it then she will become a house dog and will be kept far away from Tank until she is safely out of heat.
To clarify..she started life with us as a foster and then got dumped on us by the so called shelter..

I understand why this issue is so heated..I spent a couple of years volunteering at a local shelter. I am so sorry that the o p felt that she was being attacked..

Things happen in life that we don't or didn't intend..Hopefully her little girl is only having a false pregnancy, but if she is having puppies I want to see pictures!!!

We just got two poodle mixes from the pound this year. $150. each. The pound had to do all of their shots since they were three years old and had never been to a vet. They had their first grooming at the pound and they were also neutered. All that plus they got microchipped and got their annual license. Agreed the pound gets a deal for mass spay/neutering but really in the big scheme of things spaying isn't really all that expensive. Add up all the dog toys/treats/food that you give a dog and the ongoing flea treatment/vaccinations/food and spaying is only a small cost. Have puppies and your cost skyrockets. In the long run, be honest...which is cheaper spaying or puppies?

Kijiji adds are full of ads from backyard breeders that want exhorbitant prices for their mixed breed puppies. We are very lucky where I live. Our shelter has gone to a no-kill one. We support them financially because they do their best for all of the animals.

Littlebit, it looks like there are some low-cost spay/neuter clinics in your state:

Here is a link that might be useful: Tennessee clinics

OMG.. excuse me.."why didn't I have my dog spayed?"
Because I choose not to. Is that not my choice as a citizen anymore?

Perhaps you didn't read the entire thread, gemini. Responsible pet owners have their animals spayed or neutered, unless they are prepared to assume full responsibility for all offspring that occur. Do you disagree with that?

Oh I know there are clinics in my state...Nashville Memphis Knoxville etc..but I am no where near any of those areas. My county doesn't offer anything, the county over (where I used to help with the farce of a shelter) offers a low cost program but you have to live in that county.

As soon as I can I plan on having her spayed. but other bills and things come first.

How do you folks define "being a responsible pet owner"?
Are monthly heartworm and flea/tick preventive treatments included in that?

Just where is your pet on your family ladder? Some people treat their pets like children, others as an outside "working" dog to act as a security guard. I am just perplexed at this conversation--I have always thought spay-and-neuter was a given, unless you're a professional breeder dealing with purebreds. (Or running a puppy mill.)

Pets require emotional and financial commitments, no? Again, this is just another lesson for some of us, how priorities differ from person to person.

gemini, I don't know if it was my question that got your goat, but mine was a genuine, out of curiosity, wanting to learn question. If you choose you can go back up and read it. So far nobody has responded to it.

Briefly, my question is - other than perceived expense or desire for a litter, what is the reason a person would choose not to have their pet neutered? I'll answer it for myself in reverse. I choose to have my pets neutered because I don't want any litters, it is healthier for the pet, it is more happier for the pet, it makes living with the pet easier (not going through those heats of a female or frantic humping by the male). I believe it's ethically and healthwise the better choice. So that's why I choose to neuter my pets.

I really, really am interested, without judgement, in hearing what factors people who choose not to neuter considered and what kept them on the "not neuter" page.

"Because I choose not to" doesn't answer that question. Can anyone?

Suzieque I would very much like to know too!!
And to this idea that some people have of "I want her to have a litter before I get her fixed" I say WHY??
I don't understand people who have dogs that they "let" get pregnant every time they come in heat. Their response is often, but I have found good homes for them all.
Maybe they have, but would they have got a dog from a shelter if that cute little puppy wasn't available?
Just my opinion, but, responsible pet owners do EVERYTHING to take care of their pets. And top of that list is spay and neuter!

Suzieque- I've always neutered/spayed my pets before sexual maturity but I have a neighbour who has not spayed his female dog. The reasoning was a personification/identification of his own sexuality. He would not want it for himself. I think that is stupid at his age and yes....their dog at age twelve never had pups but did develop a rather large mammary tumour.