There are no words to describe how much I was looking forward to Šaj’s litter. And than it all went so horribly wrong. I was expecting puppies anywhere from 11-13th of April. I had everything ready but Šaj looked like nothing is happening. There was a moment on Saturday, when I actually thought she would start to deliver (she just started to breathe a little bit faster), but than nothing happened and she calmed down. By Sunday I was getting a bit worried, so I did an UZ that showed that not all of the little puppies hearts are beating. So we went for a C-section. And the nightmare started. There were 9 puppies inside, 4 looked as they were dead for a while. The remaining 5 were very tiny, skinny and looked almost as if their development was not completely finished. We were fighting hard to bring them to life, but only 3 started to breathe.
Luckily Šaj had no problems during the operation and she woke up immediately. She seemed fine but didn’t want to have anything to do with the puppies. The little pups were so tiny and weak, that they didn’t know how to feed themselves properly and they needed 24hours care. Luckily I have the best friends on the whole wide planed who helped me push through those first horrible nights.
Right after I was able to put aside what happened at birth and focus on the three little remaining souls, one of them started to loose his battle. He just didn’t start gaining weight properly, despite everything I tried with him. So the little guy passed away on 17th of April and my heart broke to pieces. I can’t remember the last time I felt so bad. Trying to figure out what went wrong, what could I have done differently while trying to keep the remaining 2 boys alive.
In a few days, they were able to feed themselves, but I had to be there with Šaj because she refused to feed or clean them. They started to gain weight rapidly and after a week they finally started to look like a normal newborns. And it took 9 days, but finally Šaj started to accept them as well and it brought me some hope.
So the remaining two boys are called Ross and Joey, and they are getting cutter every minute. It is fascinating to see how different they already are at this point. Ross (green) is a happy go lucky guy who just want’s to sleep, eat and cuddle. Joey (yellow) however is food obsessed and have all sorts of complaints when the food is not there in time or the flow is not fast enough for him. I hope their won their battle and we only have good moments ahead of us!
I’m sorry for poor puppies and you, of course. A number of unfections can cause poor development, death, miscariage… The most frequent is a herpes virus infectio. It’s transmited during the coitus. It can be prevented by vaccination. Maybe next time it can be done and you’ll enjoy a healthy litter 🙂
There is a very slim chance it was a herpes virus, but don’t worry, I will never ever have a litter again. 🙁
I’m so sorry for everything that has happened. I know how much you love your dogs and what a good Mom you are to them. I can’t wait to watch these little guys grow up, I’m sure they are going to do very well! Hugs to you and kisses to Saj and the puppies <3.
Thank you.
Such sweet andadorable little fighters. With this much spirit and strenght in them I can imagine whatcharacters they’ll be when they grow up 🙂 Lots of hugs to you all!
Thanks. 🙂 I really hope they will turn out healthy and crazy, like their mother. 🙂
Thanks for that info! Makes me feel a tiny bit better about my two guys. Although I am afraid there was more to Šaj’s story than just a complication during birth. She actually stopped getting bigger in the last part of her pregnancy, and the puppies were really tiny. It is true there were many, but they were born with cca 120g – they looked freakishly tiny and underdeveloped. I don’t really know what went wrong, but she had a horrible diarrhoea one week before she was supposed to give birth. It was really the worst I have ever seen… Read more »
Very similar to what happened to my Malinois, Havoc. She was ENORMOUS when she was due, couldn’t even really stand up by herself at the end. She looked like she was going into labour, and finally had one puppy, but then things just didn’t progress. Of course on a weekend. So when we finally got her in to the vet they immediately did a C-section and huge puppy after huge puppy was brought out and all the hospital staff was rubbing down different puppies, trying to get them to breath. But some had been gone for a while, as they… Read more »
Oh, they are soooo sweet lovely boys !!!! …..spezial boys!!!! ….every day is a magic present <3 …wish you the BEST !!!
Thanks. I really hope so!
They are great! Lovely fighters <3
Thanks!