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'that' Temperature Drop!


Heidii
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Our bitch is on day 60 of her pregnancy and I have been taking her temperature for the last couple of days but its doing my head in! Our vet recommended we take her temperature and as soon as we see that drop to about 36.5 we know we have 6-24 hrs etc although I have been told by a few experience breeders that the temperature drop isn't accurate and its hard to measure.

We had on Saturday

1:30pm - 37.6

4:00pm - 37.9

10.45pm - 37.2

11:00pm - 37.5

On Sunday

10:00am - 37.6

2:00pm - 37.5

5.45pm - 38.4

10:30 - 37.4

On Monday

8:30am - 37.0

12:30pm - 37.6

7:51pm - 37.4

10:45pm - 37.1

On Tuesday

8:30am - 38.1

12:30pm - 37.7

5:45pm - 37.5

There was a drop to 37.0 Monday morning and then Monday night it was 37.1 but now it back to around 37.5...im guessing this means nothing?

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It will be a significant drop compared to where she is normally, but you can miss it as it can happen overnight and go up again in the morning! Leaving you with the feeling it never dropped.

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Heidii, I was like you - a little drop and it was like oh no!! Then 1 evening I took her temp and KNEW that was the drop. I hoped to get 1 last night of reasonable sleep but just before bed time she started nesting and was very unsettled, first puppy arrived the next evening almost exactly 24 hours after I recorded the drop. I was warned by experienced friends though that while it helps to see the temp drop dont obsess over it as it is easy to miss.

Good luck!

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I had one girl temp norm at 8. 10.30 had dropped a bit, 12.30 was 36.3 or something,. at 2.30 was back to normal.

If i had taken temps twice a day Id have missed it.

Yep, I had a temperature drop at 10.00 pm went to bed beside whelping box and slept with one eye open, got up to make a cuppa at 5.00 am, temperature back to normal and first pup born half an hour later!

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My girls last 2 pregnancies there was no drop. I was taking her temp twice daily. So unless the drop was so quick I missed it!

The sign for me is nesting. She will start whelping within 24 hours.

Twice daily temperature taking is simply not enough!

I had one girl temp norm at 8. 10.30 had dropped a bit, 12.30 was 36.3 or something,. at 2.30 was back to normal.

If i had taken temps twice a day Id have missed it.

Exactly :)

Heiddi

From the temps you've given IMO your girls average temp is mid-high 37's and you'll be wanting a drop down into the 36's. But if you miss it, there are other signs that go with a temp drop (ie. I always find my girls are very restless during the temp drop and with that I find them much tighter in the stomach).

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Twice daily temps are fine about 3 weeks prior to due date...this gives you a baseline range for the individual dog. In the two weeks prior however, to be effective the temperature should be taken a minimum of 3 times per day, more if you are able.

First morning temp should be taken prior to the bitch eating, drinking or moving around too much and all temps should be taken as close to the same time as possible. This makes it more obvious when there is a temp drop.

And believe me, when you see it, you will KNOW it. Most people tend to get concerned and retest immediately because the reading will generally be THAT far out of left field so as to make you scratch your head and doubt your temp-taking abilities!!

You may also find it easier to plot the temps on a chart, rather than just relying upon writing them down...like they do in hospital for humans. Sometimes the visual patterns make more sense than just the numbers.

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I have never managed to pick up a drop in temp on my bitches and gave up doing it long ago. I found other sings much more accurate. Not to mention I dont particularly like sticking a thermometre up a poor preggy girls backside more than twice a day for weeks on end and the girls certainly didnt enjoy it either! :laugh:

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I thought it was codswallop initially. Could never managed to find the drop. However once I started to take it more seriously and time and chart things properly, it became really crystal clear.

And to be honest, without it,a couple of my litters may well not have arrived safely and I could have lost the bitches as well. Not so much for the benefit of knowing that I would have puppies within 12 - 24 hours (which was spot on with the onset of labour), but because the information that I charted during my temp taking was very useful to the vet with regards to certain aspects of difficult labours. My last Stafford litter in particular would not be here had I not been charting, got some signs and had a "gut feeling" that I needed to get into the vet for a c-section. As it happened, the bitch had complete inertia and was carrying 9 puppies. Another time, my obsessive charting saved a bitch with a traffic jam and subsequent torn uterus.

Charting, like many other things can be part of a really good overall "big picture".

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I found that the fact that I work night shift and have broken sleep during the day (I sleep 3 hours day and three to four hours evenings) gave me the opportunity to check several times a day in the last week. Up until then it's only three or four times a day.

When I got home from work at about 7.30 am

When I went to bed at 11.00 am

When I woke up at 2.30 pm

When I get back from collecting my daughter from school at about 4.00 pm

when I go back to bed at 8.00 pm

When I get up for work at 1.00pm

I use different colour textas on my chart to illustrate times of day.

I always use KY jelly as I think it would get annoying but my girls were good about it.

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I usually take the temp a few times a day when I think they are close - bought an ear themometer to help but was told by a vet that these are not acurate enough for this - she also told me that when taking the temp to hold the themometer either down or up in the behind as its possible for the result to be inaccuate is by chance it hits some poo - sounds a bit gross but I do follow this now - only problem is when the girls see the jar of vaseline and the themometer they want to get out of the way pronto - but I mostly see a drop followed after a bit of a peak.

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