yorkie pregnant

Question
QUESTION: Our female yorkie of 4 pounds just turned one year of age on november 29 and we believe she just recently went through her first heat cycle.  Around 3 weeks ago her vagina had swelled tremendously and of course she started bleeding.  She was bleeding for a strong 10 days until it started to reduce to not really of a milky pinkish substance like you all speak of but more of a thin watery blood that seemed to seep out a few times a day.  throughout her first few days of her bleeding the nipples had started to get larger in size. within the last 5 days or so her nipples began to swell underneath the skin and built up a hard tissue like area BUT her vagina actually decreased from what size it was BUT not to normal size. What we are concerned with is that we do have a 2 years age Maltese that is around 7.5 pounds. We never actually found them mounted together but he did of course go crazy over her for around 2 weeks and was real aggressive towards anyone that got near her.  Since the bleeding stopped he now is back to normal and doesn't really seem to care about her.  What we are worried about is that she has 11 nipples that are formed and 6 of them are getting huge!! What does this mean as far as pregnancy or a fake pregnancy?? because she has not gotten any bigger around the stomach although it is real early for her to any ways.

ANSWER: Matthew,

Did you do anything to keep them apart when she was in heat?  If not then I would put money on her being pregnant.  It is also possible she may be having a false pregnancy but there really is no way to tell unless you take her to the vet.  It is not too soon to do so and I would suggest you take her and find out asap.  If she is pregnant you may want to consider having her spayed right away to avoid complications she would surely have if she has to deliver the puppies.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Following the question i did ask of you about my yorkie, we did keep the maltese and yorkie separate as much as possible!! when leaving we put him in the bedroom and the yorkie in the cage and so on.. but yes we did let them both go free when we were home and kept and eye on them as much as we could and yelled at them if they did do anything wrong.  but thank you for your comment and i will take her to the vet as soon as i can..
Matt Hicks

Answer
Matt,

It only takes a second and they can get pregnant.  In a matter of a few minutes they could have gotten tied and separated again without you knowing about it.  Don't feel bad though because dogs will be dogs and if they can they will find a way.  My only concern is for your female.  At just 4 pounds she is already too small to breed and top that off with a male that is 7 pounds I would be very worried about her carrying the puppies to full term.

She can be spayed even if she is pregnant but the vet may charge a little more than for a normal spaying.  It would be worth the cost however, to be assured that your baby will be ok.  Thanks for writing me back and answering my questions.  You appear to be a very responsible doggie parent and I hope it all works out for you.