Kasey's Son

Well it's been fourth time lucky for Kasey and finally she has her baby boy. The first scan at 4 weeks showed nothing, but 10 days later this young man decided to show the world he was there. Though the vet said possibly 3 puppies, Ian had said from the beginning that he only ever saw the one! 

Small litters are a nightmare, with puppies growing too big to be delivered and bitches far more likely to go into uterine inertia than with a larger litter. Ian had been monitoring Kasey's temperature for days, it was imperative that he knew when the temperature dropped, bitches must go into labour within 24 hrs of that drop! Kasey's temperature dropped on Friday evening and Ian got prepared for the labour on Saturday, but nothing came. 

In the past bitch pregnancies would be considered to be as short as 58 days, or as long as 67 or 68 days, but when longer than 63 days it means the mating took place prior to ovulation. Fresh healthy dog semen can live for about a week in the bitch. When shorter than 63 days, the mating occurred after ovulation, the length of gestation is normally 63 days from ovulation. If there are no pups more than 24 hours after the major temperature drop or beyond 63+1 days then something is going wrong. Kasey may well have been calm and relaxed, but she shouldn't have been, she should have been moving on with the pregnancy, her body should have been preparing for the birth - it wasn't, Kasey was in uterine inertia. 

As dog breeders and owners, we can't live without vets. They have excellent GP's skills and some are super surgeons, but they are not specialists in every field. There are reproduction vets, there are orthopaedic vets etc, who specialise. When a general practising vets offer progesterone testing to discover the actual day of ovulation, I expect them to know the gestation of pregnancy is 63 + or - a day from ovulation and to not be telling their customers 36 hours after a temperature drop that there is nothing to worry about, and further more to suggest leaving the bitch another 36 hrs without taking action. I wasn't feeling well as it was and I felt no one was listening to me. Remarks of she's not ready yet, and she's calm and relaxed only fuelled my fire, she was not supposed to be calm and relaxed, her body had triggered the beginning of labour with the temp drop, something was wrong! I rang Katrina, she said I'd advise them not to leave it further than tomorrow morning, dead or alive the pup needs to come out. I rang another breeder friend, she was horrified and said mother and pups will soon be at risk ... OMG I went to bed in tears of stress and concern.

Around 5 am I got up to check my phone, nothing. With Kasey still not proceeding with thematter in hand at 9.00am Ian rang the vets, it couldn't have been worse. It was the tw*t that refused to come out to Kaiah, again he refused to come out speaking to Ian in the same tone that he had spoken to me in January 2021. We couldn't leave this and through help we got the senior partners telephone number and Ian called him at home. He agreed to come out and give Kasey a scan. Following the scan they decided to go ahead with the caesarian and little Mario made it safely into the world. I didn't do any of it for praise, my concern was simply Kasey, the pup .. and Ian, but it was nice when Katrina praised me for my intervention, saying had I let it drop the outcome 24 hrs later would have been less successful. I have to admit at times I did feel like backing off, I felt ill and exhausted without feeling that no one was listening - I'm not an irate breeder but I am someone who over the last few years has taken great interest in the effects of progesterone testing on breeding and the influence it has on determining the sex of puppies born.

This little chap may well be Nico's last grandson to be born, and I'll watch his progress with great interest.