Volume: 54 Issue: 4
Year: 2023, Page: 1000-1004, Doi: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2023.54.4.1000-1004
Received: April 5, 2023 Accepted: Aug. 18, 2023 Published: Dec. 31, 2023
The present study aimed to compare foetal heart rate (FHR) variations and umbilical artery resistivity index (RI) in late gestation for whelping prediction. Six pregnant bitches with at least three foetuses were selected for the study and the FHR variations and umbilical RI were evaluated in the last three days, ie., -3d (72-48h), -2d (48-24h) and -1d (24-12h) before whelping. The mean FHR decreased and the gradient between maximum and minimum heart rate increased as whelping approached. The physiological oscillations in FHR were inconsistent in the dogs studied and only evident in a few foetuses during 72-48h before whelping and occurred in the majority of foetuses at 24-12h before whelping. The FHR variation progressively increased and the mean umbilical artery RI decreased as gestation advanced. 50 per cent of dogs showed an umbilical RI value less than 0.7 in all three foetuses during 24-12h before whelping. Even though both these parameters when used alone were not accurate enough for whelping prediction, the sonographic detection of the decrease in the umbilical artery RI and the increased FHR variations in the majority of foetus indicated the imminence of whelping
Keywords: Whelping prediction, FHR variations, umbilical artery RI
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© 2023 Thomas et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Thomas, R., Jayakumar, C., Paul, K.M., Aravind, A. and Gleeja, V.L. 2023. Whelping prediction using foetal heart rate variations and umbilical artery resistivity index in late gestation. J. Vet. Anim. Sci. 54(4):1000-1004
DOI: https://doi.org/10.51966/jvas.2023.54.4.1000-1004