[Candy317]

“Yes, after careful consideration, I still want to breed. What can I expect before and after the puppies are born?”

You’ve done your homework and found a compatible male to complement your bitch’s pedigree and physical characteristics; both dogs have passed the appropriate health testing for the breed. She’s in season and it’s time to take her to the veterinarian for a prenatal checkup and to make sure that her vaccinations, medications and worming are up to date. Once you’ve bred her, she should be under veterinarian care for any illnesses and should be kept away from any dogs that might pass viruses to her. Infestations, illnesses or diseases can affect the unborn puppies. Bitches can have miscarriages. If fetal death occurs early in the pregnancy, it is usually undetected and absorbed by the mother’s body. Abortion may result if fetal death occurs later in the pregnancy, and, dependent upon the cause of fetal death, the bitch may carry the remaining fetuses to term. A number of things can cause fetal death, including fetal congenital defects, the physical health of the mother, her uterus and placenta, malnutrition, anything that alters the health of the mother. This can include reproductive tract diseases and illnesses, such as cystic endometrial hyperplasia, adhesions (possibly from previous pregnancies or caesarian-sections), tumours or hormonal imbalances. Diseases known to cause fetal death include Canine Distemper Virus infection, Canine Herpes Virus infection, Toxoplasmosis, Campylobacter infection and Brucellosis (a type of Canine sexually transmitted disease).

You will still need to exercise your bitch. As the pregnancy progresses, your walks may get a bit slower. She will require about 30% more supplementary food during the last three to four weeks of her pregnancy. Now is a good time to put her on puppy food specially formulated for the needs of puppies and pregnant or lactating bitches. She may become a bit moody and depressed or she may have no changes at all, other than an increased appetite and thickening around the middle.

As the whelping date nears, she may become restless. The whelping area should be ready so that she can become accustomed to it. You may want to schedule a few days off before the whelping date so that someone is home with her at all times. Some bitches do whelp early and premature puppies are the result. Bitches should never whelp by themselves since trouble can occur and no one wants to come home to find dead puppies and/or a dead bitch.

Once whelping begins, be prepared for any problems that may occur. Dystocia is the term associated with difficulty in whelping. While uterine fatigue (inertia), due to length of labour or to lack of physical fitness prior to whelping, is probably the most common cause of dystocia, other factors may also present problems, such as puppies too large for the pelvis or vaginal canine, malpresentation (breech puppies), prolapsed uterus, prolapsed vagina, uterine torsion, or ruptured uterine. You and your veterinarian will need to determine the cause of dystocia. Proper treatment may be either administering drugs (oxytocin) to increase uterine contractions, manual assistance in delivery, or surgery (a caesarian-section).

Once those puppies are all born, there are still dangers to both the puppies and to the bitch. Eclampsia is not an extremely common disease, but it is life-threatening. While it is caused by low calcium levels in the blood caused by the demands of lactating, there is evidence that giving the bitch calcium during pregnancy may, in fact, predispose her to this condition. Small dogs are particularly prone to this disease. Signs to watch for during the first three weeks of nursing includes behaviour changes such as restlessness, nervousness or lack of interest in the puppies. Left untreated, the next stage can be excessive salivation, a stiff or wobbly gait, or irritability. Continued lack of treatment may result in fever, inability to stand, muscle spasms, and seizures over the next few minutes to several hours. Death may occur due to hypothermia or respiratory depression. Dogs suffering from eclampsia should be transported immediately to the veterinarian where, if consulted in time, the intravenous administration of calcium can result in rapid improvement. Recurrence can be prevented after such an episode by continuing to give oral calcium throughout the remainder of the lactation period. Calcium should be given upon a veterinarian’s advice only.

Much easier to recognize, mastitis is the infection and/or inflammation of the mammary gland and may include all or just one or several glands. The affected glands become firm and hard, often resembling rocks, are very red, warm to the touch and painful. Milk may possibly be off-colour. Veterinarians are divided in their opinions as to whether nursing from these infected glands may harm the puppies. Treatment includes antibiotics, massage and manual expression of the gland, warm compresses and may also include surgical drainage and flushing.

Puppies need to be kept in a dry, warm environment that is free of drafts. Care must be taken to keep the bitch from stepping or lying upon the puppies and to ensure that each puppy is adequately cared and fed by the bitch, particularly during the critical first three weeks. Newborn puppies are also extremely susceptible to other factors, such as disease and stresses such as physical trauma, infections from less than sanitary conditions, heavy parasite load, and congenital diseases.

Because it has been your decision to produce these puppies, it is your responsibility to make sure that they remain as healthy as possible. This means that your life for at least the first week will not be your own and, hopefully, your family will understand the stress and time constraints upon you. For those of you who are parents, think back to those first few months when it seemed as if you would never get any sleep again. Hopefully, you’ll be able to count upon the support of a partner or hire someone to help you care for the puppies during this time. After the puppies are three weeks old, you will need to start teaching them to eat a type of gruel. This results in extra time spent in preparing the food, cleaning bowls, assisting the puppies, and then in cleaning the puppies after so that skin infections do not occur from left-over gruel. This is, of course, on top of the average of a minimum of two hours a day spent in cleaning the puppy pen, exercising and feeding the mother, handling the puppies so that they become used to people, taking the puppies to the veterinarian for a health check, worming and vaccinations, cleaning the house, etc. Over an eight week period of time, this results in a very minimum of 112 hours.

During this period of time, you will also spend time on the telephone with those people who have reserved puppies and people who want information about puppies that you may have available. This can be from fifteen minutes a day to several hours, dependent upon the people. You will also need to budget money to return phone calls that you may miss.

Once the puppies are weaned, from three to six weeks, time should be spent playing with them, cutting their toenails, carefully examining them to help accustom them to having ears, eyes, mouth looked at. Trusted people and children may come to visit the puppies, but only if you know that their dogs, if any, have been completely vaccinated and they are not carriers of any viruses. Necessary to socialize the puppies, this is also an added cost to your time and expenses, since most of us will serve food and beverage of some sort to our friends.

MORE...