Dog pregnancy question about milk production?

Question

I have a Mastiff x Akita who is pregnant and due any day now, I was wondering if anyone can help me? She has 10 nipples but only 8 of them are producing milk, The ones that are producing the milk are very large and the 2 that arn`t are really small. Does anyone know if this means she will have no more than 8 puppies or can they have more pups than the number of nipples that produce milk. Any help with this would be grreatly appreciated. I could ask my vet as she is there in 2 days but thought someone may know, As I find in general the answers on this page are very informative. Many thanx x

Answer 1

my dog is the same way. She has milk in her back teats and then she has some milk in the three rows above that. I wouldn't trust counting the teats for how many she'll have in a litter. Anyways, I wish you the best of luck with your dog.

Answer 2

yes she may have more than eight puppies she could have twelve or more. The number of "spigots" have nothing to do with number of pups in a litter.

Why have you not have her x-rayed to see how many pups to expect? This is very helpful should one or more get stuck in the birth canal. And it is very common practice.  

Answer 3

The number of "full" nipples has nothing to do with how many pups there are.

If you want to know how many pups to expect, take the b*tch in to the vet for an x-ray... which will tell you how many there are, what size they are (and possible need for a c-section if there is only one or two REALLY big pups) and how calcified they are (which will allow a good vet to tell you when to expect them to arrive).

Answer 4

its not a problem,once the pups are born and on the teat they will start producing milk.and no each nipple doesn't mean how many pups she having,she may be a big dog and only have 2 pups.