Tomorrow's X-Ray Day!

So, Renee is looking huge, definitely has some puppies in there.  Tomorrow we will be taking her to the vet for a check-over and to have an x-ray to see how many puppies there are in there.  At this stage the puppies' skulls and spines have ossified, which allows them to show up on x-ray film.  Later more of the bones ossify, and eventually you can see everything.  We take the x-rays at this stage so that we can count heads/spines and have a good estimate as to how many puppies we might expect come whelping day.

Want to learn more about pregnancy x-rays?  Check out this article about confirming pregnancy in dogs, and this article which has lots of great examples of pregnancy x-rays in the writer's Havanese dogs.

Renee has been doing very well so far, and is a super suck.  She always wants attention, and just wants to curl up (or perhaps stretch out) beside us.  We are starting to prepare the whelping area, and should have the pen up and ready by the weekend.  It's getting really close!

Usually the puppies are born around 62 days post-breeding, but they can come several days early or late.  We will be keeping a close eye on our girl starting very soon.  She will live in my basement, which has a walk-out to the yard, so she has easy bathroom access.  I get to sleep nearby, so I can keep an eye on the big girl.

We should have a photo of the x-rays to share for tomorrow.  Until then...!