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TammyJM · 02-21-2010, 08:40 AM

You are welcome to read through some of my recent posts to see what I have gone through with Livi's second litter. I think you have very good reason to be nervous about breeding....it should NOT be taken lightly!!! I don't want to be a downer for you, I really don't but please make sure that you can handle anything that can happen. Livi's first litter ended in with a c-section and losing 3 out of 4 puppies. Not all at one time, though....they were preemies so I helped them to get latched on all throughout the nights. We lost one during the c-section and one tiny (2oz.) girl later in the day. Just when I thought things were getting better, we had to have our precious Strawberry put to rest at 5 days old. We did everything to try to save her....nebulizer treatments, several vet visits. We were blessed to get to raise the one surviving puppy, but it hurt like you would not believe to sell him!!! Now, with her current litter.....*sigh*....... just please, please, please be prepared for ANYTHING that can go wrong! My husband and I helped her during the whelping process. I had to actually retrieve two placentas....like I said, be prepared for ANYTHING!!! When she had her first puppy, we saw part of the placenta but we started working with the puppy and just assumed that she had eaten the rest of what we did not see. No, she hadn't done this.....we almost lost our Livi 4 days later because of a retained placenta. I cannot even begin to get into all of the details of everything, but she ended up at the vet for 2 days (only allowed to come home at night). I was bottle feeding the three puppies at this point and they HATED it and were losing weight. Luckily, she was able to nurse them at night, but things went from bad to HORRIBLE!! They sent me home with a medication to give to her that then affected the puppies...causing them to be extremely bloated, gassy, constant diarrhea, lethargic. Our once healthy puppies started fading within 5 hours of that one pill. We then went from caring for a VERY ill momma to also caring for CRITICALLY ILL puppies. Rushing them to vet for sub-q fluids and glucose (twice...once for momma as well). Watching a puppy fade is not something that you will ever forget....we have gone through it with both litters. We had to wait more than 24hours for that pill to get out of Livi's system....between this and the stress of everything, she lost her milk. I was then faced with 3 puppies that were less than one week old that hated drinking from a puppy bottle....so guess what?! I was on my hands and knees feeding all three with an eye dropper every two hours. That meant that I was feeding every hour because it took this long to feed them in one sitting. You have to know how to diaper them, burp them, heat the milk, dropper it to them so that you don't aspirate them. There was one day that I literally sat on the tile floor, never leaving that room (NEVER!)....because I was crying too hard and so much that I had to stop feeding them and take breaks because I couldn't see straight. The other days, I would go to FINALLY take a break around 10ish pm....I would go to sit on the couch and eat something quickly, only to fall asleep sitting up on the couch (lost 3 and a half pounds in 3 days). But when I say fall asleep, it was actually a 2 minute nap. I know that some may read my words and think that I am maybe exaggerating....I'M NOT...NOT EVEN A LITTLE!!!!! This is what I did day in and day out, plus I have two small children that were sick during this time and I was still caring for Livi. She was not eating at all on her own so I was also spending 30 minutes at a time syringing food to her. Livi's milk did finally come back in (only because I was forcing her to eat and drink) but having to do this for those 5 days has changed my mind about breeding. Plus, I am not going to risk Livi's life ever again!

I hope you do not think that I am trying to be mean to you....this is just so fresh to me right now and feel like I need to share this with people that are thinking about breeding. Please make sure that you are COMPLETELY ready to face the possibilities of losing puppies and/or your momma. If you think that my story sounds bad, trust me, it sounds soooooooooooo mild in comparison to what it actually felt like!!!!!!

02-21-2010, 08:40 AM	#10
TammyJM No Longer a Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: With My Beautiful Fur Babies! Posts: 5,525	You are welcome to read through some of my recent posts to see what I have gone through with Livi's second litter. I think you have very good reason to be nervous about breeding....it should NOT be taken lightly!!! I don't want to be a downer for you, I really don't but please make sure that you can handle anything that can happen. Livi's first litter ended in with a c-section and losing 3 out of 4 puppies. Not all at one time, though....they were preemies so I helped them to get latched on all throughout the nights. We lost one during the c-section and one tiny (2oz.) girl later in the day. Just when I thought things were getting better, we had to have our precious Strawberry put to rest at 5 days old. We did everything to try to save her....nebulizer treatments, several vet visits. We were blessed to get to raise the one surviving puppy, but it hurt like you would not believe to sell him!!! Now, with her current litter.....sigh....... just please, please, please be prepared for ANYTHING that can go wrong! My husband and I helped her during the whelping process. I had to actually retrieve two placentas....like I said, be prepared for ANYTHING!!! When she had her first puppy, we saw part of the placenta but we started working with the puppy and just assumed that she had eaten the rest of what we did not see. No, she hadn't done this.....we almost lost our Livi 4 days later because of a retained placenta. I cannot even begin to get into all of the details of everything, but she ended up at the vet for 2 days (only allowed to come home at night). I was bottle feeding the three puppies at this point and they HATED it and were losing weight. Luckily, she was able to nurse them at night, but things went from bad to HORRIBLE!! They sent me home with a medication to give to her that then affected the puppies...causing them to be extremely bloated, gassy, constant diarrhea, lethargic. Our once healthy puppies started fading within 5 hours of that one pill. We then went from caring for a VERY ill momma to also caring for CRITICALLY ILL puppies. Rushing them to vet for sub-q fluids and glucose (twice...once for momma as well). Watching a puppy fade is not something that you will ever forget....we have gone through it with both litters. We had to wait more than 24hours for that pill to get out of Livi's system....between this and the stress of everything, she lost her milk. I was then faced with 3 puppies that were less than one week old that hated drinking from a puppy bottle....so guess what?! I was on my hands and knees feeding all three with an eye dropper every two hours. That meant that I was feeding every hour because it took this long to feed them in one sitting. You have to know how to diaper them, burp them, heat the milk, dropper it to them so that you don't aspirate them. There was one day that I literally sat on the tile floor, never leaving that room (NEVER!)....because I was crying too hard and so much that I had to stop feeding them and take breaks because I couldn't see straight. The other days, I would go to FINALLY take a break around 10ish pm....I would go to sit on the couch and eat something quickly, only to fall asleep sitting up on the couch (lost 3 and a half pounds in 3 days). But when I say fall asleep, it was actually a 2 minute nap. I know that some may read my words and think that I am maybe exaggerating....I'M NOT...NOT EVEN A LITTLE!!!!! This is what I did day in and day out, plus I have two small children that were sick during this time and I was still caring for Livi. She was not eating at all on her own so I was also spending 30 minutes at a time syringing food to her. Livi's milk did finally come back in (only because I was forcing her to eat and drink) but having to do this for those 5 days has changed my mind about breeding. Plus, I am not going to risk Livi's life ever again! I hope you do not think that I am trying to be mean to you....this is just so fresh to me right now and feel like I need to share this with people that are thinking about breeding. Please make sure that you are COMPLETELY ready to face the possibilities of losing puppies and/or your momma. If you think that my story sounds bad, trust me, it sounds soooooooooooo mild in comparison to what it actually felt like!!!!!! Last edited by TammyJM; 02-21-2010 at 08:43 AM.