Question about False pregnancy in Border collie

Question:
 I posted a while back about my border collie possibly being pregnant. We took het to the vet at about 30 days to have her palpatated and the vet said she wasn't experienced in palpatating intact female dogs and couldn't say for sure. She said if she had to guess she would say probably because she felt thickening. We were told to wait and see and if she showed signs after 45 days bring her in for an xray. She had been looking wider and her abdomen had started to pooch a little and become hard but she wasn't popping out. About one week ago herteets began to hang down some and she became very snappy at our other dog. She even dug a den under the slide on our jungle gym. We took her in today at what would be about 56 days and they did an xray and said they couldn't find any puppies on the xray and she was having a false pregnancy. My only concern with this is my husband went ahead and had them give her a rabies and parvo shot since the vet said she was having a false pregnancy. I s there any chance that the xray could be wrong? I am just a little afriad that maybe she has one puppy hidden in her ribs and the xray missed it. What are the chances of that happening? If that did happen what would happen to the puppy with her getting her vaccines at this point. I guess I am just looking for some reassurance that there isn't a single puppy hidden in there and it has been damaged by the vaccines. I felt they should have waited for the false pregnancy to run it's course before the shots just in case. Can anyone help me out? Vic ???
Answer:
 I just feel so bad for her. She is miserable today. She is having a hard time getting up and layg back down. She has completely lost her appetite and won't eat. She has been digging out her den again today and has started a new strange habit. She covers her food dish up with straw to hide it. She will come over and uncover a small section and eat a couple of pieces and then she covers it back up. Her milk has also started to come in today. I notived some dried colostrum on her teets and when I squeeze them milk comes out. I know that has to make her miserable. Her belly is still just a smal pooch which leads me to believe the vet is right. I just can't help but wonder if she has maybe just one single pup up in her ribs soomwhere. In all the years she has had cycles she has never gone through this. It just threw us off that the first time she has ever been with a male dog and she ends up with a false pregnancy. I would have thought that she would have had at least one episode of false pregnancy before this since she has had many cycles prior to this. Is there anything I can do to make her feel better. It just seems so unfair of her to have to go through all the hormanal and physical parts of pregnancy and then have no puppies to take care of. Does this upset them when the time to whelp comes and goes and they have no puppies? Sorry for so many questions but we have never gone through this before and are a little thrown. Thanks. Vic
Answer:
 Without an dultrasound being done, there is no way to tell for certain if she is pregnant or not unless she is way past her date. It is very possible for a female to show NO SIGNS of being pregnant and then have a few pups. I have known personally more than one very experienced breeder years back who thought a breeding did not take and it really had. This is one reason why many are ultrasounding. It is also not always possible even with someone experienced in palpating to detect pups - especially if there is only one or two in a larger breed or the female is out of condition. I was very good at palpating pregnant rabbits - had been taught by an exotics vet. However, I had a very stressed rescue in that had spent weeks with a male. I palpated her, felt nothing as she was so tense and muscles all drawn up. She was actually pregnant. I did give her a nesting box just in case but she was so stressed froj her ordeal of being dumped in the neighborhood and stressed from trying to survive and then the capture that she aborted the litter early and on the wire so there was no chance of survival for the kits. I would still get an ultrasound done to rule out pregnancy. I would also consider a second opinion from another vet regarding this.