Chloe’s early pregnancy scan

Chloe the Labradoodle lives in Petts Wood, Orpington. She was scanned today at between 28-31 days. The gestation sacs were very small – we measured them at 1.6cm. We saw three clear sacs with live foetuses inside, and could clearly see their heartbeats even at this early stage. Chloe had 8 puppies in her last litter, so it will be interesting to see how many she has this time.

It was very difficult to scan these two, which were hidden right up against Chloe’s spleen, which you can see at the top of the picture to the right.

Even though the foetus is so tiny, it is amazing how clearly you can see its heart pumping:

In the clip below, you can see the two puppies beside Chloe’s liver more clearly. There could well be many more behind, but I would have needed to push the probe under her rib cage to find them and I didn’t want to put any pressure on her at this early stage of pregnancy.