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Originally Posted by gemy  No crap here from me, what is refreshing is the oopsy pregnancy happened and you made no excuses for it. As well your study after the fact, your investigation into the health lines of your breeding pair, all good things to do.
Now I do have a couple of suggestions; if you do Xray at 55 days, that might at the most leave you 8 days to gather supplies. Is this enough time for you? I don't know where you live or the availability of supplies. But there are great lists on here in other threads of what you might need.
The other suggestion I have is to borrow the whelping supplies from a breeder friend (if of course you don't have long term plans to breed again).
What I would like to talk about is the health of your breeding pair. Some questions and information for you.
I'm assuming the bitch had clear BATS at 16 wks and 6 months. LS is not uncommon in this breed, and while you checked the vertical pedigree did you check the horizontal one? That being her siblings, and also half siblings health in terms of LS but many other health conditions. Some of which are talked about below.
I'm assuming that your bitch is clear of LP. And you have also checked the vertical and horizontal pedigree for this including half siblings. While LP can happen as a result of environment, early onset of LP and in particular in both knees, and especially the early onset of moderate to severe LP (early onset less than 18mths old), would predispose me to assume a polygenetic inheritance factor. If this is so, there is a very good chance that one or more of the pups will have LP.
I'm assuming that the bitch hasn't been tested for eye disease. PRA. At this time it is during pregnancy and whelping etc, probably a moot point. But she should be tested after weaning. PRA is an hereditary disorder which eventually causes blindness in the dogs. It can rear its head as early as one year old and even at 5 6 7 or 8 yrs old. Again the checking of both the vertical and horizontal pedigrees need to be done, and if your bitch or sire has PRA it is NOT rrecommended to breed them again, and also I believe it only fair to communicate with your puppy buyers that PRA has been ddx'd with your bitch or your sire.
CT: Collapsing Trachea; again the pedigree vertical horizontal needs to be checked, and I am presuming due to the young age of your pair likely at this point they are clear of this.
I believe forewarned is forearmed, for your very small and young male, maybe you haven't had the second 6mth set of BATS done, please do this, to insure his are well within normal. If not then you will need to go down the diagnositc and perhaps treatment road for him; and I'd be pretty worried about how the pups health will be.
He will need to wait until one year old before PRA can be done.
LP can be assessed now and should be. If both your female and your male have LP the odds are very very good that the majority of your litter will have LP.
Just a note of caution, it is one thing to ask if parents were clear of LP,LS, Leggs Perthe, Hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia, as well as PRA. But if the parents are not listed on CHIC database or CERF or OFA, I truly question the breeders why not listed?
Just a thought, while you are prepared for the potentially high costs of whelping and raising a litter, and pretesting at least for the pups on LS, are you prepared to cover the health costs of the future puppies should they come up with health problems over their lifetime? LP surgery, LS surgery is very expensive. Just some things to consider prior to placement of your pups.
Good luck with your whelp if you decide to go ahead with this pregnancy. |
Gail,
You certainly gave me a lot to research into. Yes, Bella had clear liver function test at her eight month check. Vet checked her knees for LP and said they felt completely normal with no slipping. (No xrays however)
I talked to her breeder today, and she said she has no known cases of LP or LS in her lines. (She owned the parent pair and the grandparent pair on the female side as well.) I emailed Jetts breeder and she hasn't gotten back to me to ask any questions.
No neither of the pair has had their eyes tested.
I do hope to hear a fetal heartbeat with the doppler, if in fact we are with pups. That should give me a couple of weeks to get items ready. And yes, we are going to do xrays between 50-55 days. We are at day 33 now. I can have all the items needed for a whelp within a few days. But as soon as I hear fetal heart tones, I will start immediately getting supplies together.
Thanks so much for the info. It is nice to get such good information! I appreciate it!