Blood loss during pregnancy?
I thought this might be useful information to some viewers. I know it has not occured to me and any of my bitches over nearly 20 of our own litters through the years. I have not had it reported from any of the many more stud dog litters I’ve advised on…. so its not ‘common’ but info I thought possibly useful to others.
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You think you’ve seen most things, till something new occurs. I thought I would share this experience, which may, or may not be over yet, but all now appears to be well.
Shiney was mated and all was going fine. Then at two weeks in, she started losing blood. Identical to coming back into season. Some sort of volume, not great pools but an almost constant drip ready to show if she sat down, occasionally a little more than that. Of course the instant thought is that she was aborting, so straight to vets, where he shrugged and said, as only he can, that there is nothing that can be done if nature had taken that route, BUT a course of antibiotics could help possibly. So onto AB’s she went for 5 days.
After almost exactly 2 days from starting, the bleeding vanished. She had, throughout been well, hugely active, eating brilliantly, blooming, fine and fiesty. Nothing remotely bad to worry about on that front. So a real mystery.
The emotional side of it I shan’t bother with as I’m sure you can imagine there were many sleepless nights.
Fast forward to week four… and what appeared to be an expanding Shiney and all the normal signs of pregnancy, and the bleeding started again, possibly slightly heavier than the first time. After a day of this I booked an ultrasound. Better to know than not know what on earth was going on even if there was nothing I could do about it. Again I had a hugely well dog on my hands with no sign of lethargy, pain or illness.
The ultrasound showed a healthy large litter growing well inside her. The bleeding is from two sites, one now fairly old and hard to spot (the two week bleed) and one with the last bits of matter clinging on but that will come out over the next day or two. Two reabsorbed puppies that broke down and came away over the course of a day or three each respectively.
Now, this may be common to others but its something i’ve never expeienced, even if a scan has shown signs of a reabsorbed site, there has never actually been bleeding associated with it, although when I think about it, maybe the bleeding is MORE logical as it has to go SOMEWHERE… but thought it might be of interest to anyone who experiences this in the future and panics, like me, that they are losing the lot. The reabsorbed pup at 2 weeks took 2 days to pass through. This 4 week old whelp has taken 4 days start to finish, to give an idea. There has been no ‘flow’ of blood just absolutely identical spotting as in a light to medium heavy season.
As it is Shineys 6.4cm, 28 day old pups are snug as bugs right now and patiently waiting till Easter sunday to make an emergence on treble vet time I’m certain 
Infact I’ve timed it SO well that whether she is 2 days early or even a day late, its all still bank holiday!
But on a serious note it has been EXTREMELY worrying and whilst its nice to pretend all is fine and sunny sometimes, its more useful to share this and possibly ease someone elses worries in time to come. My buyers are all aware of this firsthand, before I write this publically, never fear!
All the signs are that she will go on just fine now with the pregnancy without any of the other pups seemingly smaller than the others or looking anything other than strong in terms of heartbeat, but who knows sometimes what nature has up her sleeve for us.
Di – March 2011.