Metabolomics: Why Canine Pregnancy Is a Complex and Dynamic Process

The extensive molecular alterations that occur during dog pregnancy have been studied by the Clinic for Animal Reproduction at the Freie Universitaet Berlin in Germany.

Measuring metabolites in pregnancy of dogs

(Photo : MARTIN BERNETTI/AFP via Getty Images)

The researchers establish metabolites showing specific changes in blood serum at various stages of pregnancy and lactation in their article, Metabolomics during canine pregnancy and lactation, which was published in PLOS One, as per Phys.org.

This establishes a baseline of typical metabolic alterations during a healthy dog pregnancy and delivery.

Female dogs experience a variety of difficulties during pregnancy and childbirth, including supplying nourishment for the babies' development, hormonal changes, whelping, feeding, milk production, and uterine involution.

Although this may be the case for all mammalian moms, the fast fetal growth in dogs causes pregnancy-related alterations in metabolic markers to be more pronounced in dogs compared to many other species.

Dogs usually give birth to litters of five to six puppies, although this number can go as high as twelve.

The average dog pregnancy lasts about 63 days. Laborious and sometimes exhausting, giving birth typically lasts many hours.

27 privately owned female dogs of 21 different breeds participated in the study.

They were sampled six times during heat, during early, mid, and late pregnancy, during the suspected peak of lactation, and after weaning.

Researchers used a technique used in human metabolomics studies on pregnancy to quantify 123 molecular measurements, including a thorough lipoprotein analysis, fatty acids, triglycerides, cholesterols, amino acids, glycolysis- and fluid balance-related metabolites, and a novel inflammatory marker glycoprotein acetyls.

Based on concentration patterns and metabolic connections among the metabolites, metabolites were then divided into five clusters: high in mid-pregnancy, low in mid-pregnancy, high in late pregnancy, high in lactation, and low in lactation.

A better understanding of the processes and causes of infertility or disease, as well as the relationship between these molecular changes during pregnancy and discrete biological events like embryo development and placentation, will support a better understanding of these conditions' processes and future treatments.

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Best way to keep pregnant dogs healthy

Two or three weeks after they've mated, you should take them for a prenatal examination, as per WebMD.

Your veterinarian will be able to respond to any queries you may have on changes you should anticipate as well as the kind of food pregnant dogs should consume.

The puppies may be seen developing by the veterinarian via ultrasound, usually at approximately 4 weeks.

While pregnant, ultrasound is safe. It simulates your dog's womb with sound waves.

Your dog's hormone levels may be checked by the veterinarian by giving them a blood test. Relaxin is a hormone that dogs produce in greater amounts during pregnancy.

Toxemia result in Unbalanced metabolites

A relative deficiency or modification in the carbohydrate metabolism is linked to pregnancy toxemia, as per Nexus Academic Publishers.

Due to poor nutrition or an inability to consume enough carbs to fulfill energy demands with an increased litter size, ketosis typically develops in heifers during the late stages of gestation.

Hypoglycemia in the blood and ketone bodies in the urine were used to diagnose pregnant toxemia.

Using ultrasound technology, the viability of the fetus was evaluated.

Pregnancy toxemia, which is especially common in Yorkshire terriers and Labradors, predisposes females with large litter sizes to life-threatening situations.