I have a bitch who is due Wednesday, February 11th. I like to do a head count x-ray around day 56-58, which would be February 4th-6th, but my vet is off on the 4th and 5th and I am going to a dog show two states away on the weekend of the 7-8th and will be leaving on the morning of the 6th. (So no one jumps on this piece of the information, my husband is on puppy watch and is very capable of whelping a litter on his own if for some reason she whelped early).

I can get an appointment on the 2nd or 3rd, but that's only 54/55 days after ovulation (the day the progesterone went over 5.0ng/mL). I may be able to convince a teenage daughter to run her to the vet after school on the 6th, but with teenagers, I just like to pick my battles! LOL.

So my question is this, is day 54/55 too early to see pups? Thanks!
Cathie

My litter that was whelped the 21st of December we did a head count x-ray on day 55, saw 10, got 12.

Not too early. I have done rads at 50 days and can count accurate numbers of puppies. My vets are very accurate, and I am always there to count, too. Many heads together beats one person's opinion!
Calcification of the skeleton in the fetus occurs at around day 45, but just to make sure, I always go 50 days or more.
What has helped me is my vets always count spines as well as heads. The skull can look like too many other structures reading the xray, but since the spine is so long, it is hard to miscount, especially when you account for each spine and skull together.
The proper settings on the xray machine also are important, for the xray beam to penetrate the abdomen without having the xray come out too dark.
Also, do not feed the bitch for several hours before you go in for that pregnancy xray so the food in the stomach and intestines does not obscure what's in there. This is something that I forget EVERY TIME and they always laugh at me at my vets, but manage to count accurately despite me!