Quote Originally Posted by QCK23 View Post
Our bitch went into labor last night which kinda took us by surprise because she had not started producing milk yet but her temp had dropped and she was having small contractions. My girlfriend sat with her for hours but of course as soon as she steps out on the porch for a minute the bitch has her first pup. She then ate and regurgitated it. That was the first pup we had ever lost so needless to say it didnt sit well. We waited for the next pup but nothing came. First thing this morning she was rushed to the vet for a c-section but the outcome was not good. Only 3 out of the remaining 5 pups survived. The Vet could give no explanation as to why she didnt produce milk or continue having the pups natually. All of them were lined up in the correct position and everything. She has had one other litter with no complications at all. It was especially hard to loose half the litter because the stud is Silverback and we all know how old he is. If anyone has had something like this happen before an explanation would be appreciated.
Wow, that is disappointing

It sounds like she did not produce enough oxytocin naturally--and might not have had enough calcium in her diet either. Hopefully, the vet gave her a shot of calcium and oxytocin to stimulate the production of milk.

As to why she didn't produce any milk, did you change her diet at all since the first time?

Jack

PS: Don't feel bad about losing the pups, as there is no one in the universe (who breeds dogs for any length of time at all) who doesn't eventually run into tragedy a time or two (three or four). That is just part of experience and dealing with volume. For example, my first two litters were 8, 10, 12 pups ... that all went fine ... but eventually I have lost litters too, still doing everything right. The simple truth is, the more litters you deal with, you're eventually going to run into "the law of probability" that something will eventually go wrong. That is just part of life ... and, of course, I can assure you (also based on experience) that these things tend to go wrong with *the* most important litters you're counting on. Sad but true