You should seek the advice of your veterinarian if your pet is ill as only he or she can correctly advise on the diagnosis and recommend the treatment that is most appropriate for your pet.

Pregnancy diagnosis can be both a scientific skill and an art. 

When you suspect that your pet is pregnant your veterinarian can tell you with a good degree of accuracy whether or not you are right, and in some cases how many youngsters you can expect ! 

There are plenty of tell-tale signs that your pet is pregnant including :

• Abdominal swelling
• Breast development
• Milk production and leakage
• Increased food intake
• Behavioural changes

However, you can be fooled if you simply rely on these signs because they can be caused by other conditions, including "false pregnancy" 

Your veterinarian can confirm pregnancy using several procedures (all days quoted are for dogs unless otherwise stated) :

• Feeling (palpation) the abdomen. From 21-30 days after conception dog and cat fetuses can be felt as discrete swellings in  the uterus. Skilled clinicians can tell how many fetuses are present with reasonable accuracy. Between 35-55 days the fetuses get bigger and are more difficult to differentiate.
• Listening for heart sounds (auscultation) Fetal heart sounds , which are very rapid, can be heard in late pregnancy by listening to the abdomen with a stethoscope.
• XRay examination can be used to see swelling of the uterus (from day 30) and calcified fetal skeletons (from day 45). However, XRay radiation does carry a potential health risk for unborn fetuses, especially  prior to day 45, so it should only be used as a last resort.
• Ultrasound is now commonly used for pregnancy diagnosis. Canine fetuses can be identified as 2mm spherical anechoic swellings in the uterus 15 days after ovulation. The embryonic heart beat can be imaged approximately 22 days after ovulation. Determining the number of fetuses is not easy using this technique, especially in late pregnancy.
• Hormone test . The only test that has been shown to be accurate for detecting pregnancy is examining blood for circulating relaxin concentrations.
• Blood tests for proteins From day 20 (in dogs) certain proteins including fibrinogen and C-reactive protein increase in the blood. They are helpful to confirm diagnosis but can also be increased for other reasons.

Occasionally pregnancy is diagnosed, but it turns out to be incorrect why ?

The most common reasons for incorrect pregnancy diagnosis are :

• False pregnancy
• Pyometra can closely mimic pregnancy in some cases
• Resorption of the fetuses...ie something goes wrong and the fetuses are resorbed
• Abortion - ie something goes wrong and the fetuses are lost

Updated October 2013