[txshopper73]

We have had to deal with the passing of our rescue pom, Valentino, a few days ago. Our second tragedy happened today. Even though I did not share it, London was pregnant. At 2 p.m. today, she delivered a small but strong little boy. I knew there was one pup left. After an hour, I started to worry. I could not find a vet here in town that was taking emergency calls. Even our 24 hour clinic is no longer open 24 hours. Several vets were out of town or weren't answering pages.

I finally located a vet about 45 minutes away. He agreed to meet us so I loaded London and her one pup (this is 4 hours since the delivery of the pup...also to add that after she delivered the male, her contractions stopped completely).

He did an internal exam and said there was no blockage. He gave her a calcium shot. He said that sometimes started the contractions back up. After about 20 minutes, he gave her an oxytocin shot. Her contractions immediately started back up.

After 10 minutes, he did another internal exam. We waited another 10 minutes. He did another internal exam.

He asked me if she had delivered the afterbirth from the first pup and I told him yes, she had. He said he felt afterbirth in there.

He got forceps and pulled out a mass of tissue..."afterbirth". The pup was still in her uterus. After about 15 minutes, he did an internal exam while pushing down on her uterus. Out popped this dead little girl with a lot of blood.

I was horrified. Her umbilical chord had been torn...no sack, no afterbirth. That afterbirth that he pulled out of London was this pup's lifeline. There was no sack when she fell out. When he pulled out the "afterbirth", he pulled everything off of this pup that would have normally kept her alive.

Mind you, this is all hindsight. At the time, I was too upset to realize what had happened. I did ask the vet, "the afterbirth you pulled out, did it belong to this little girl?" No answer. I also asked, "What about the afterbirth for this pup...will she pass it?" No answer. All he kept commenting about was how small she was and that she looked "shriveled".

She looked like a normal newborn pup to me. I paid my fee and left...like I said, looking back on it all, that vet killed that little girl. I know for a fact that she was alive when I left my house. I distinctly heard her heartbeat with my stethoscope.

It's been hell and hopefully, the little boy will be the strong fighter that he appears to be. He was only 2 ounces at birth but I keep "bothering" London by making sure he's nursing.

I am just horrified. Looking back, I've NEVER heard of a vet using forceps to pull a pup. Am I just naive on this?

My mom said that I shouldn't have paid that vet a penny. Knowing how things are down here, I knew that if I hadn't paid him, he would have called the S.O. on me for theft of service.

Sorry for the long thread...........................