[Mardelin]

Not every litter is a nightmare. But, one needs to prepare oneself for the worst.

I like Tina hate whelping a litter. A year and half ago I almost lost my 7 pound Champion girl. I will share.

The whelping was very text book with one being born hind legs first (which is common and happens in about 40% of yorkie births).

A week after the pups were born I noticed my girl was not acting like she usually did after a litter. It was late on a Sunday afternoon. I rushed her to ER. The diagnosed eclampsia and administered calcium (she was alergic to the treatment). Took her home and began hand raising pups. The next morning my girl began vomiting, gums cold (she was going into shock). Ran her to the vet (repro vet), All blood tests were normal, except a bit anemic and dehydrated but, definately in show. They kept her and administered IV fluids and massive doses of antibiotics. She began emitting a horrible odor (we had left no placenta and had administered a POP shot) so, there was an infection raging inside of her. She was kept 3 days with this treatment. She had finally stablized but, had to be kept on antibiotics for a month. They couldn't perform a spay because her coagulations levels were off and she'd have bled to death. Her pups had to be hand reared (now that wasn't fun, feeding round the clock and taking care of a female that was ill).

When she was finally well enough we had her spayed. The repro vet was prepared for the worst, ran blood tests, sonograms, and cauterized every step of the way. What he found was she had a ripped horn and it had most likely had happened during the whelping process (if had happened prior, I could very well have had floating puppies and all would have died). She was 5 years old, so this was her last litter anyway. But, what if she had been younger and I had decided to breed her again (not that I would have because she was so ill), she and the puppies would have died.

Let me add the books don't prepare you for this, but being experienced in recognizing danger signs does.