Ultrasound

I took Evita to the vet for an ultrasound to confirm pregnancy and get an idea about how many pups she is carrying. I was happy when the vet detected an embryo as soon as she applied the ultrasound wand to Evita's abdomen. But I was not so happy when the vet could only detect a total of 2 - maybe 3 - embryos.

There are any number of reasons for why there are so few pups in the litter. The stress of air travel could have interfered with conception rate. The mating may not have been done on Evita's most fertile days. (Miles had to return to Canada two days after Evita arrived.) Evita's age may be a factor. It is not uncommon for females that have not had a litter at 2 or 3 to have trouble conceiving a first litter at 4.

On the bright side, Evita is happy, healthy and pregnant. Pups are due in about a month - due date September 19th.

Evita and Miles Rendezvous

Miles and Evita live on opposite sides of the continent. Miles spent a couple of weeks in California in June and Evita flew out to meet him. It was love at first sight and Evita will stay in California to raise a litter of pups. These two are very special Dalmatians. They are both LUA Dalmatians which means they produce Low levels of Uric Acid. There is a lot of information about LUA Dalmatians on the internet, so I won't go into a long explanation here except to say that I'm hoping that Evita and Miles pass the LUA trait along to their pups.

Miles lives in Vancouver, Canada