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Howling Spirit's Steel x Ivory de LouFranc Litter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Delivery Story.... Thursday 7/31/03 Well, after a long stressful day, I am pleased to announce the arrival of 4 beautiful puppies. Howling Spirits Steel sired his first litter with Ivory de Loufranc. This was Ivory's second litter, but first under our ownership. According to the x-ray on July 18th, only 5 skeletons were visible. However, based on her size and the 15lbs she gained, I really had doubts. Wednesday evening she was beginning to drip a light colored fluid but she was not irritable or showing visible signs of contractions. We kept her under close watch for the evening and on Thursday morning, she wanted desperately to be back in her whelping box. At 2:20, the first puppy came. I have never whelped a litter by myself, nor had to assist before. Our foundation bitch was a dream when it came to this process. Ivory began to clean herself before starting to remove the sack so I started to help her. The pup was all white, nice size. It wasn't moving, so I immediately checked for a heartbeat with a stethoscope. There was none. In hindsight, I now believe this pup could be alive today but at the time, I didn't know what to do, other than humanly wrap it in newspaper and put it in the freezer. 2 1/2 hours go by, nothing. No more contractions or signs of distress. Now I'm getting nervous. Somebody told me that 8 hours is not unusual between pups but I couldn't see myself waiting that long and possibly dealing with an emergency room visit. I called the vet at 4:30. Told him I wanted to bring her in for a shot of Oxytocin. Arrived at the vet's office about 40 minutes later and Ivory is just lying comfortably in the crate. My vet has personal reservations about using Oxytocin and he talked me into a C-section. By the size of Ivory's belly and knowing she still had 4 pups to go, we prepped her for surgery. At this point, we all noticed black flecks in the drops of fluid which reassured the idea that a c-section was necessary (something was wrong). I have to say, we found ourselves a wonderful, patient and understanding veterinarian. Without hesitation, the vet asked me to assist with the procedure and explained how to aggressively rub the puppies to "wake them up" and that it may take awhile before they start to breathe. Watching the subQ layer being cut wasn't bad, it was the next layer that was disturbing. Immediately after he made the incision, a ton of fluid poured out of her. My stomach is actually feeling queasy even writing about this. This fluid was now the third sign of a complication. As the vet then began to pull out the individual puppies still wrapped in the placenta from the uterus, the problem showed itself - a tear in the wall of her uterus 2-3 inches in size and not one, but two!!! The second one was discovered mid-way through the removal of the pups. One pup was bloated and had cleft pallet, and the third to die was contorted in such a fashion in the uterus that it's kidney were crushed. Had we opted for Oxytocin early on, who knows how many more pups would have been crushed to death. While Ivory was under anesthesia and already opened, I decided to have her spayed. At the age of 7, there is no need for her or a future owner to have to deal with this again. At least we now have 4 pups out of 7 (yes 7, so much for an x-ray)!!! Two black saddle and white pups (one of each sex) and two pinto pups (again, one of each sex). All I can say, is if you are whelping a litter and have any doubts, please contact your vet and consider the consequences before immediately opting for Oxytocin. |
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