Thursday, May 27, 2010

Ebony's Litter

I had waited to breed Ebony until she was 3 1/2 years old. She had been my show dog and was on the show circuit in AZ with Curtiss for 9 months. She wasn't able to finish her championship so I decided I'd better breed her as she was getting old to breed for the first time... by "breeder rules".. At the time I had recently imported a male from the Phillipines.. well with him came a really nasty strain of kennel cough unlike anything my then vet husband or I had ever encountered we had the hardest time clearing him up and all my dogs got it including Ebony who was 3 weeks from Whelping. Because Ebony was pregnant we weren't able to give her the major antibiotic we had to give to everyone else (zithrowmax ..just came out!!) Ebony had was coughing horribly and this some one from NZ gave me this cough recipe - 1 TB Aloe, 1 tsp melucca honey 1/4 tsp Brandy and this really did work... everyone kidded me I was turning her into a lush!! ... I was doing all kinds of herbs to keep her going... that wouldn't affect the puppies..finally she went into labor but was so sick she had to have a c-section... which my then ex-vet husband did good thing he was quick ... pups were OK healthy and kicking... Ebony on the other hand was horrifically sick and going under the knife didn't help her... So this was my first hand raising experience where I had to do all the work... Now I look back and think how anal I was - LOL... I put my whole handrearing experience in another blog post. Ebony had green puss coming out her nose she could barely breathe... my vet husband wanted me to euthanize her... I told him NO... I tried steaming her in the bathroom but that was too much for her so I would put a pan of boiling water with a titch of vinegar on the stove had hold her head over the steam 6 times a day... (meanwhile hand feeding every two hours) and having to hot compress her for mastitis... I cannot tell you the stress of all this... it was enough darn near to make me never want to breed again.. and it took me a year before I even thought about it... but I saved Ebony much to the amazement of my vet husband .. and I raised her puppies who also did come down with kennel cough too at 2 weeks abouts... that's when I noticed it.. and I had to did a bathroom steam with them WRONG WRONG... I just about suffocated them in their own fluids... the vet told me to put them in the oven to dry them out!! so I did on 200 deg with the door open.. and set them in the oven... this worked great!!

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