Dog misscarage

Question
Hello my name is amber. I have 2 shihtzu Dogs one female one male my female just went into heat about 3 weeks ago. I decided to breed them. Every thing went great at first my female was eating more I saw her gain a little weight her belly grew little bit. But now She is not eating as often as she was and her belly is not showing. she is not bleeding or has any signs of fever. Have you ever seen any thing like this.

Answer
Hi Amber:

There are a number of possibilities. One, she may simply be going through a period very similar to "morning sickness" in women where she may go off her feed for a few days & even vomit some. At only 3 weeks gestation that's awfully early to be showing signs such as abdominal enlargement -- normally that doesn't really become apparent until around the 4th or 5th week. It's possible her body may have resorbed the fetuses, which is an unfortunate but not uncommon occurrence. I would recommend having your vet perform an ultrasound on her -- usually fetal heartbeats can be detected as early as 25 days gestation. This may give you a definite answer as to whether or not she's pregnant or if the litter has gone awry. If that's the case, you might discuss with your vet the possibilities & possibly look into having at least some blood work done, checking progesterone levels & such. It may help shed some light onto why the pregnancy didn't proceed, if that is indeed the case. You may need to find a reproductive veterinary specialist if your vet is unfamiliar with this area.
If you want to pursue some specialized testing, the following link provides a listing of veterinarians that specialize in reproduction.

http://www.whelpwise.com/testing/veterinarian-links.html