seemed fine. About mid-day I received a phone call from our vet. “How’s Gwen?” he asked. “Fine” I said. “She’s held her meals down and her energy level is great”. “Well, let me tell you what we have learned….” And the vet went on to tell me that they’d had a radiologist review the films and the radiologist had detected evidence of irritation in the intestines; remnants of string that needed to be surgically removed before they perforated the intestines. The fact that Gwen was less than 3 weeks away from whelping a litter of puppies only further complicated matters. Our vet felt unqualified to perform the surgery and had made arrangements for us to see a specialist about 50 miles away. I called my husband, met him at our vet’s clinic where I picked up x-rays and we made the drive over the hill to the surgeon’s office.
After a brief consultation, Gwen went into surgery. They would take precautions to try to save the puppies, but Gwen’s safety was the top priority. We went home to wait. It was a Friday night, the night my husband had planned on building the whelping box for the coming litter. Instead we watched the clock, waiting for the vet to call with an update - hoping for the best and imagining the worst. At 9:00 PM the phone rang. It was the vet clinic. Gwen had come through the surgery just fine. They ultrasounded puppies and heard heartbeats up and down the horns of the uterus. We breathed a sigh of relief. The first hurdle was over! We brought Gwen home the next
afternoon. She came waddling out of the clinic, tired but tail a wagging. She continued to make an excellent recovery. We went back to the vet for a follow up exam and x-ray. We discussed the pending litter. The x-ray revealed that there were 11 puppies. In spite of the litter size the vet was confident that Gwen would be able to have a normal delivery. We took his advice.
Gwen went into whelp right on schedule, and things progressed as expected. The first puppy was born with no problems, and then the second, and on we went till we got to the sixth puppy. Then things slowed down. This was a big puppy, stillborn, and it was a hard delivery for Gwen. The seventh puppy was born immediately on the heels of this unfortunate soul, screaming his way into the world. He was fine; we think he was just angry about having to work so hard to be born.
The story does not have a happy ending for the rest of the litter. Gwen’s labor stalled. We were in constant contact with the vet clinic, and after several hours of inactivity, we packed mom and the puppies up and went in to the clinic to deliver the balance of the litter. Gwen lost the remaining 4 puppies. We returned home that night with Mom and the six pups we left the house with, relieved that she was okay, but saddened by the outcome.
I couldn’t help but feel responsible for every aspect of what went wrong. If only I hadn’t put the rug down, if only we’d acted sooner during the
whelping process. Should we have done a C-section and not attempted a natural birth? It might have been different. I could have prevented this from happening. Perhaps, but do- over’s only happen in the movies. In real life, we move on. Gwen was a great mom; we had no further issues. We were finally able to enjoy the litter. We finished our first homebred champion from this litter, and yes it was the little guy who worked so hard to get here. As fate would have it he was the pick of the litter.
About a year later I learned of a service called Whelp Wise offered by Veterinary Perinatal Specialties. A few of our friends had used it and were quite satisfied. The service provides you with the ability to perform home monitoring of the whelping process. You begin monitoring 4 to 5 days before the expected due date. The service is available 24x7 so there is always someone to consult. I signed up for the service with our next litter and have used it ever since.
Would this service have saved the puppies in the first litter? It’s hard to know. What we do know is that the service has given us the ability to better predict the delivery of puppies, and to monitor the progression of the labor. I like the idea that there’s someone following the progress of the whelping with me and available to provide consultation into the wee hours of the morning.
E Bull Terriers |
www.ebullterriers.com
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