How to tell if your dog is pregnant

Finding out if a dog is pregnant can be frustrating, with wrong assumptions standing as costly health risks for wrongly diagnosed dogs.

Though it’s often advised to have your pets neutered, there are cases when accidents do happen, and the processes and challenges of telling if your dog is pregnant would then take a spot, center stage.

Here are some signs to help you tell if your dog is pregnant.

Pinker, Erect and/or More Prominent Teats – perhaps the most well documented tall-tell sign indicating that your dog is pregnant, erect, pinker and more prominent teats often occurs in expecting dogs due to the increase of blood supply around the dog’s nipples. This condition typically happens within 25 to 30 days after mating.

Mucoid Vulval Discharge – typically, this occurs a month after mating, and is also a known sign indicting that your dog is pregnant.

Increase in Body Weight – this is generally self explanatory, and an increase in body weight for pregnant dogs often occurs 35 days after mating and onwards. At times, a pregnant dog’s weight may go as high as 50% than usual.

Behavioral Changes – pregnant dogs also exhibit behavioral changes, ranging from signs of depression to the drop of appetites, which could prove to be a problem given the dog’s pregnant condition. Upon nearing the birthing cycle, pregnant dogs will exhibit “nesting instincts”, along with increased restlessness.

In most cases, the signs mentioned above happen a month after mating, which makes it tricky to tell if your dog is pregnant before after a month. However, vet-inclined tests/indicators are available for those who can’t wait for a month.

Should your dog happen to be expecting, do well in minding her activities and what she eats. She’s practically eating for a litter now, and doing all that you can to help her give birth to healthy pups is the best you can give as a “baby shower” present.