By CCF Staff | CCF Staff
Lady’s Ultrasound – New Puppies on the Way
Today the vet team (Andrew DiSalvo, Emma Alfonso, and Liz Wood) performed an abdominal ultrasound on Lady, one of our Anatolian Shepherd dogs. We use ultrasound as a tool to detect pregnancy, and today’s results show that she is pregnant with her first litter! The gestation period (pregnancy length) in a dog is 63 days. Abdominal ultrasound can be used to detect pregnancy in a female dog as early as 20-25 days of gestation. Ultrasound provides a non-invasive way to check for pregnancy; gel is applied to the animal’s fur and skin to ensure good contact with the ultrasound probe, and an image of the structures beneath the skin appear on a screen as the probe is moved by the veterinarian. While Lady is in the early stages of her pregnancy, an embryo was visible today (the white dot on the ultrasound machine picture). We will recheck her again in a few weeks to see if her pregnancy is still on a healthy path.
Here at CCF, we breed Anatolian Shepherds and Kangal dogs as part of our Livestock Guarding Dog programme. These dogs are used by Namibian farmers to protect their livestock, thereby reducing livestock predation by local carnivores. This also reduces the conflict between farmers and cheetahs, which can help save the lives of wild cheetahs and other carnivores. This program plays an essential role in cheetah conservation, by addressing the concerns of local farmers and eliciting their help in protecting the wild cheetah.
We are very excited to have puppies at CCF soon! Congratulations, Lady!
Lady’s Pregnancy – Almost There!
At 45 days in to a dog’s pregnancy the bones of the puppies begin to calcify, meaning you can see the puppies on an X-ray. Below you can see some X-rays that were taken of our pregnant Anatolian, Lady, to allow us to get an estimate of how many puppies she will have. We believe we could see 7-8 puppies on the X-ray. However, this is never an exact number, but it allows us to be more prepared and make sure no issues occur during her pregnancy.
Lady will have her first litter in the next couple of days. At 9 weeks old these puppies will then be placed with Namibian farmers to begin their training in guarding the farmer’s livestock against predation. Research shows that these dogs have helped farmers see an 80-100% reduction in their livestock losses which is beneficial to the farmer’s livelihood and to the predator population. Everyone at CCF is super excited for more puppies so we can help more farmers as there is quite the demand for these guarding dogs!
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By CCF Staff | CCF Staff
By CCF Staff | CCF Employee
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