Is my female yorkie in labor?

Question
QUESTION: Hi I have a female yorkie and I have been taking her temperature for the past week.The lowest I seen it drop was 99.2.Today she's 60 days pregnant,I checked her temperature this morning and its was 97.7 than I checked it 2 hours later and it rised up to 99.0. I don't know if she in labor! She has been hidding in the closet but I havnt seen any discharge or nesting. Can  you please help me.

ANSWER: Hi Kristy

I'd hide in the closet too if you were after me every couple of hours to get my temperature!

The thing with doing the temperature is you have to know what her body temperature is normally.  When she's not housing a litter of pups.  All kinds of things can cause her temp to fluctuate, if she's eaten or drank, if she was laying in the sun, if she just came from outside and so on.

You need to get her out of the closet and into a whelping box.  If you don't have one you can make one with the bottom of a vari kennel, or a rubber maid container.   Line it with old towels and sheets and let her have a quiet, safe place to birth her pups.

You want to watch for a loss of appetite and nesting.

Good luck

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

QUESTION: When her temperature went down would she go into labor forsure? Also much long would it take for her to give birth?

Answer
The hardest part is the waiting.  Her temp can go down then spike, then level off.

Honestly you have to let Mother Nature do her thing.  It could take her three hours to delivery  8 pups or 36 hours to deliver 2.   Each female is different and each delivery is different.

Depending on her age, if this is her first whelp, how big the male was, what food she is on, her mental and physical shape, all will contribute to her whelping experience.