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Pregnancy
Planning to breed your pet
Today the only reason to intentionally breed a pet is if you are committed to improve the quality of the pet’s line by carefully researching the traits of the parents and investing in champion pure bred animals. All other pets should be spayed or neutered. The next step is to visit your veterinarian to review the health of both the male and the female. We make sure both are up to date on vaccines, blood work, fecal testing, and parasite preventative. We also recommend Brucellosis testing in dogs and FELV & FIV testing cats.
A word about heat cycles
Female dogs typically go into heat twice a year. Cats can have multiple heats throughout the year. When in heat your dog will typically but not always “show color” – meaning spots of bloody tinged fluid coming from her vulva. Cats will roam around your house yowling and look to go outside. Cats can have multiple heats in a year and will even become pregnant while nursing their newborn kittens. Heat cycles last typically about 10 days but it can vary.
Mating
As in most species the female decides when to mate. Allowing a male around a female that is not ready to mate can result in fights, bite wounds and further vet bills. If the timing is right, the dogs and cats handle this part of it just fine. A word of caution; do not expect the process of mating to seem very enjoyable to the cats or dogs. This is a purely hormonal driven event that from what I have seen appears pretty painful to both the male and female.
You think your cat or dog might be pregnant
However it happened, by mistake or on purpose, you may be finding this an exciting time or nerve wracking time for your family. It is important to know the gestation period (the time from mating to the time of giving birth) is typically 63-64 days for cats and dogs. After about a month you may note her belly is getting bigger. After 6 weeks her nipples or teats will start to swell. Shortly before whelping (giving birth for dogs) or queening (giving birth for cats) the teats will start to produce milk. To confirm the pregnancy a veterinarian can feel the developing fetuses by hand or see them on ultrasound between 20 and 30 days. By 40-45 days the bones are formed to the point that an x-ray can tell you how many puppies or kittens to expect. It is important to know how many puppies or kittens to expect so that you will know when you can stop worrying and know that the process of giving birth is completed.
Diet & Feeding
Diets are often over looked in expectant dogs or cats. As soon as you think your pet is pregnant until their puppies or kittens are weaned (stop suckling at their mother’s teat), the mother should be fed a good quality kitten or puppy food. I recommend Purina ONE. It is nutrient dense and full of extra vitamins and minerals providing for the mother and her growing offspring before birth and while they are nursing.
You may need to feed the expectant mother many small meals during the day later in her pregnancy because her stomach will be compressed by the puppies. After giving birth the mother should be free fed (as much as she wants) until she stops nursing to keep up with the heavy calorie demand of feeding her young.
Prepare your home
Cats need little special care. Typically, a few days to weeks prior to queening cats will find a quiet, out of the way place like the back of a closet or a dresser drawer to create a nest. Often owners do not know their cat is pregnant until they show up carrying their newborns out of the nest. Dogs typically need more help. There is a section on our Web site for directions on how to build a whelping box. This is a high, four sided box that provides a quiet place for the mom to give birth and it has a rail around the inside to prevent the mom from rolling over onto and crushing the newborn puppies.
What’s Normal
Labor in cats and dogs begins similar to humans with contractions starting 6 to 24 hours prior to birth. Prior to this you may notice nesting behavior, restlessness, and nervousness. Fortunately, the actual birthing is an easier process for our pets than for humans. A kitten or puppy should be born within an hour of heavy contractions and the placenta typically follows within 5 to 15 minutes after each birth. This continues until all the puppies or kittens are born. By instinct the new mom will clean up the newborns and eat their placentas. This is normal and not a bad thing. The newborns should be nursing within an hour of being born.
What is not normal - when is it a veterinarian emergency?
· If gestation runs more than 70-72 days.
· If you have a pug or bulldog or if a small breed female dog was bred with a large dog, the female will likely have a hard time passing the puppies and may need surgery to save the mon and her litter.
· If you see strong contractions for more than 45 to 60 minutes without a puppy or kitten being produced. This is why you want an x-ray in the 6th week pregnancy to know how many newborns to expect.
· If the contractions are weak and the first puppy or kitten is not born within 2 hours or if the litter mates do not follow within 4 hours.
· Any time the mom is in obvious pain.
· Occasionally there will be stillbirths – this is sad but not an emergency if the other kittens or puppies appear healthy.
· There is a condition called pseudo-pregnancy or false pregnancy where a female dog will show all the behaviors of pregnancy and may even lactate but her belly will not get large and she will not give birth – this also is not an emergency but you should check with your vet.
After all this your family is probably exhausted and it is time to make a plan to prevent it happening again – cats and dogs can be spayed when they have finished nursing which is typically when the young are 5 to 6 weeks of age.
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