Anxiety…
So Nina’s progesterone test that we drew Monday (because of the nesting I noticed that morning) didn’t make it to the lab (I had a meltdown about that). We drew another sample today (Tuesday), but won’t have results until morning, and she nested for two very brief periods (literally into the box, shuffle some bedding around, out of the box) tonight…so now I am sitting here at 1 in the morning, trying not to panic, trying not to be angry about the first test not getting done (it’s water under the bridge now), and mostly worrying about Nina. I called the more-likely-to-help emergency vet, and they were no help whatsoever, they clearly don’t have a vet on who does much repro. Dr. Hutchison can’t do much until we know the progesterone, and I don’t know if I’m panicking over nothing or something.
We came downstairs to sleep where it’s cooler (it’s crazy hot here), because Nina was panting upstairs where the small a/c can’t compete with the heat. She dug once in the whelping box for two seconds when we got down here, and is now lying quietly at my feet snoozing. I took her temperature and it’s 99.4, which seems low-ish, but then some of the repro vets say it’s normal to be low-ish in the last trimester. There is usually a drop to 98-ish when labor is imminent. and 99.4 seems far too close to that number for comfort.
I asked on the awesome Facebook Canine Repro group about it, and most of the breeders who answered said their dogs nest throughout the pregnancy, or at least in the last few weeks, and that this is nothing to worry about, she’s just an experienced dam getting her ducks in a row, one said it could be a sign that her progesterone is dropping early (which can be supplemented if caught in time), one said her dog nested early and then whelped early and she lost the litter. I am scared, and I keep thinking about a Vallhund breeder friend who lost a litter (also a frozen semen AI) because of a too-early progesterone drop recently.
There is nothing I can do right now it seems except wait (and keep checking the lab’s web page for test results). There is nothing else unusual going on with her, no discharge, she is eating wonderfully (demanded a bedtime snack tonight), acting just fine (she enthusiastically did some low-impact clicker training today), but the nesting worries me. She isn’t restless now that we’re in the cooler part of the house, she ate a cookie with gusto as her reward for the indignity of having her temperature taken, she doesn’t seem stressed or anxious…I hope it is nothing.