Pups born, fade and die in 24 hours
I have been associated with the Hammonds family of dogs for 20 years. I'm not Maurice Carver, Mr. Hollingsworth or CA Jack by any means. I've bred a few dogs, not many really, but have had a few good ones and a few not so good breedings. I try and learn from mistakes and try to do better as time goes by. With the Hammonds blood, it has been my experience, that this line has some fertility issues as well as some sorry mothers and overall, just not a great line for maternal intuition, if you will. With that being said, I have seen a lot with the females of this line. I've seen mothers give birth, get them all cleaned up and after about 3 hours of being done, just start eating her pups (the litter that produced AC/DC Diablo - had to hand raise them all). Seen mothers of this line eat them, placenta and all, as they hit the ground. Seen mothers of this line stomp all over pups and be just way too rough. Ever hear of Hammonds No Toes??? Well, guy got his name b/c mom chewed all his toes off. Just some nutty shit in this line. Frustrating actually.
Well, the same litter that produced Diablo had one female in it and she was mine. I named her Calley. She produces some good dogs and one of those is my current best female of this line, named Jezebelle. Jez has produced two litters. Raised them all and is actually a very good mother. None of the above applies to her, but rather, what happened recently adds to the frustration.
I bred Jezebelle to PK couple months ago. Real excited b/c I know so much about both parents and their backgrounds. I consider the breeding to be one of the best of the Alligator family that can be put together these days. She has them sometime in the night, this last Saturday night. The next morning, I see she's had 7. I first check discharge and palpate some to make sure she is done. I find no reason to think she's not. I notice one pup is very lethargic. Turns out, she pulled a bit too much on the umbilical cord and tore a small hole in his stomach cause some internal damage. He dies by the end of the day. The other 6 are thriving. Gaining their weight as they should. By 4pm that same day, I notice one isn't doing well. I already checked her tits and milk and all looked to be fine as should be. By 8pm that evening, a few aren't doing well. It's Sunday. I should have prefaced this with the fact, I have access to only 2 vets within an hour of me. They are both extremely average to below average and I have very little faith in them, but it's all I have.
The next morning, I wake up, they are all still alive, but they are all very very "laid out" all over the brood box like a grenade had gone off. Jez looks like shit. She has a very toxic look to her. I load her and the pups up. It's 7am and I'm at the vet by 7:35. They open at 8am. He literally does not get there until 8:07. Before his arrival, Jez had stood up in her crate, starts to regurgitate, falls over like she's passing out and starts to vomit a mixture of placenta and bile. Hideous shit. By now, I'm not feeling good about all of this. I explain to him, as he walks in late, the entire situation as I did here. I tell him I have to be at work and I am trusting him with my best bitch and of course he wants to spay her and I tell him, this is not an option. I also ask for them to take on the pups as they are extremely weak and if they can stabilize the pups and equip me to take them home I am more than willing, but would prefer they get them to a stable state as two looked as though they were on their way OUT of this world.
He examines her. X Rays her. No internal or external parasites. Nothing on the X Ray to suggest anything inside of her. She is anemic. He starts talking virus. I suggest a blood loss due to birthing. He goes along with it. He puts her on IV fluids and Antibiotics and after hearing they don't use heating pads or understand tube feeding, I load my poor pups up and head home. I get a colostrum and milk replacement powder, get my heating pad out and go to work. I've lost 4 and looks like a 5th is on her way out as well. The first 4 all died within 48hrs of birth. One is doing outstanding and has been since day one, but the other one I have left now is fading bad today. Probably lose her. My wife and I have both been bottle feeding every 4 hours. Jez is at the vet and I'm about to pic her up. I called to check on her today and was told she is doing very well but her eyes "are very dilated" and at that point, after having her for 3 full days, I have to tell them "She's blind". Their response, "Oh, that explains her not finding her food right off some times".
His theory is that she got some type of strange virus that infected her milk and was passing that on to her pups. My theory, based on the anemia and the pups' response, is that she had some uterus damage from birth and this caused both blood loss and probably an infection that was coming through the milk. I don't know as I'm not a vet and this guy is suspect as to being a vet himself, so I'm using my own limited understanding of canine biology to put this one together.
To top it all off - the very next morning - yesterday - I'm driving to work at 6:45am after bottle feeding the 4 I had at that time and within half a mile from my house, here is a litter of 6 pups laying in the middle of the road huddled up together b/c some piece of shit scum bag dumped their ass for someone else to take care of. Being the asshole I am, I loaded them up and took them home as I just can't stomach shit like that so now I have what looks to be some kind of freakin lab crosses at about 8 weeks of age, FULL of freakin worms and shit that I'll worm, vaccinate and try to find homes for.......LOL just when I decide I have too many dogs and need to cut back, this is what I get.
Anyways - I doubt many want to read all of this shit, but I thought I'd share for a couple of reasons. 1. If someone can learn anything from my experience, then I'm glad to help. 2. Maybe I'll learn something about all of this if someone has a theory or suggestion to what happened or what I can do to improve and 3. It's freakin therapeutic.
Anyone looking for a Lab mutt - hit me up - they free to good homes.....LOL!
Have a great day
