So you want to breed...
 

Probably the wrong forum but hoping more will read this. Friday morning I was at the vets with one of my fosters when a woman came in with her shih tzu and her daughter who looked to be around 10 years old. The mom held the dog and the daughter signed the dog in. The poor thing was obviously in distress and luckily the receptionist noticed the woman sitting with the dog and they took her back immediately. It seems the dog had given birth approx 3 weeks previously to 7 puppies, 5 surviving. The family apparently loved their shih tzu and wanted a puppy just like her. They bred her because they thought she would soon be getting too old, so at the age of 6 they bred her for the first time. They also thought that losing 2 puppies was normal. Her calcium levels were so low that she started seizing. The owner just kept saying " I didn't know" when ask about supplements and why she didn't have mama on puppy food. Well they got their wish and had puppies just like mama. Unfortunately they no longer have the mama. She didn't make it. Now what they have are 5 orphaned puppies and obviously no knowledge about caring for them. The vet techs were attemptiing to educated them on bottle feeding and the care needed but sadly I don't have much hope.

Oh my goodness, such a terrible, distressing story - that poor, poor mummy dog. And those poor orphaned little babies...why oh why do people keep doing this?

I think it is the right place to post this. Most readers come here first. But because it is so busy, by tomorrow or so, your post will likely drop to page 2.


The availability of the internet to find out what you should do when breeding, makes it hard to fathom, why any-one would not know the basics.


It also continues to astound me that folks don't ask or appear not to ask their vet for information on health subjects, and do not supply educational articles on whelping, breeding etc.


So now we have 5 - 3 wk old puppies who are at high risk of survival. A very hard lesson for a little girl to learn, I do hope she learns it well and never forgets it.

Oh my gosh...SO sad :(. That poor little Momma. Just boggles my mind that people can have so little common sense as to think giving birth is just nothing to think about. Makes me so mad, sad, and frustrated.

So sad...I'll never understand people. Working in a vet clinic, I've seen similar things happen. We had one a couple of weeks ago. The owners brought in their little Yorkie mix, who was also 6 years old and had never had puppies before. The vet saw 4 pups on x ray and told them she would most likely be going into labor in the next 24 hours. They ended up bringing her back the next morning after 3 of the poor puppies died. The vet did an ultrasound and saw last pup was in distress, very low heartbeat, and did an emergency c-section. When they left the clinic, Momma and pup were doing okay, but now, who knows. And they had been feeding this girl cat food throughout her pregnancy. SMH.

There was another case a couple of years ago, also a Yorkie, the poor girl had been in labor for several days before they brought her in! Of course the puppies were dead and rotting inside her. The poor girl was so full of infection, she didn't make it.

That is so terribly sad . One thing that had me averse to owning a female was the possibility of puppies. I think it's so much work and the heat cycle alone seems like could be a pain.

However I believe this is the right area to post so people see that having puppies is risky business , including costly and sometimes you won't recoup those costs through puppy sales.

Again education in any new venture is key and hopefully someone will learn from a another's misfortune.

Heart breaking the everyday person never knows these things. I personally have learned a mountain of things here. If i had not known a yorky can be fragile from reasearching the breed i would have not come here. So heart breaking these stories just unimaginable situations.

So sad :( That poor pup. I cannot imagine doing that to my precious girl.

This is so heartbreaking. . .