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Originally Posted by Lady of Yorkies  My "mentor" isn't much of a mentor. She used to breed and show dogs and apparently somewhere in that time she learned to jealously guard her knowledge and only drops a pearl of wisdom about once every 6 months. I am very frustrated with her and I have met a new couple who have bred Yorkies for 20 years. They have been out of breeding, I don't know how long yet, but are wanting to get back into it in a small way. They have one female and are buying one of my males.
My wonderful new vet gave me a tip, I think as much as I like my old vet I will be staying with this new guy. He said not only should dogs be given a yearly booster injection for the puppy shots, but that one would should be given at least 3 weeks before breeding. He said that it would help when the mother passes on immunities and also with milk production and colostrum.
I have only had Yorkies 3 years and been breeding a year and a half. I have bred Poodles and Cockers in the past but Yorkies are VERY different. Poodles and Cockers seem to be much sturdier breeds. Or possibly it has to do partially that we lived in the desert and there weren't as many parasites there. All I know is I was not prepared for what has been happening out here.
In a year and a half of breeding I have lost more babies than I ever did with combining the Poodles and Cockers. I could count on one hand the number of Poodle and Cocker babies I lost and still have at least 4 fingers left. It seems like I lose at least 2 babies out of every 3 litters of Yorkies. Now with this information from my vet and a couple of other things I've learned over the last 3 years, maybe things will start to settle down.
I just thot that it might be nice if everyone could pass along one word of wisdom they have learned. LOL Mine is above.LOL
Sylvia |
Its sometimes hard to take some Vets seriously when they are trying so hard to market their practice instead of practicing medicine for animals.....giving vaccines to a bitch 3 weeks before breeding when she already has antibodies against the very viruses and bacterias she's being "boosted" for(this is taking in consideration the bitch has had her puppy and follow-up vaccines), will only cause her to have all the risks and possible negative side effects and no "extra" antibodies are produced to even pass on......when these dogs or any animal for that matter has antibodies against viruses and bacterias and are given unneeded "booster" vaccines...the antibodies kill the vaccine, so therefore they are not needed....Yes, I think I would find another Vet. thats a little more "care" oriented......Thats my 2 cents for the day
SOme of the problems you stated, were they the reasons you lost the pups or just problems you have encountered since???? That had to have been heartbreaking to lose babies.... We have only had one litter and are thinking of breeding again next month...I too am learning...Do you worm on a routine basis..use a heartworm preventative??? Do you know or have access to the pedigrees/lineage of the bitch and sire???Do you know what the genetic faults/traits are to prevent the passing of these to the pups? Did you do any studying of genetics on what traits are dominant or recessive?? I'm just curious if you take these things in consideration when breeding???