Spring's litter

Spring was a good size girl 7 pounds. She had free whelped previously. She was bred to my champion male and I was anxiously awaiting this litter. We x-rayed her and she had 5 puppies.. they looked small enough to pass.

Spring went into labor but I could tell she was "stuck" to many puppies for her to push out... So a c-section she went. Luckily it was during the day and my favorite vets who "tolerate" all my "rules" delivered 5 babies of various colors. All was going well.. Spring was an excellent mom.

Because Spring had a c-section she was on clavamox. But 4 days later Spring kept shaking so I thought she was having eclampsia (which is common in big litters) and was giving her calcium... but something was just off... Although her temperature was normal, no discharge (which is acutally a sign they should have some bloody discharge) So I ran her into the vet clinic. They checked her blood for low calcium but he white count was off the chart.... Spring was in major trouble she was doing pyrometria... ( a uterine infection) so she was rushed into surgery and spayed.... her whole uterus was a pus mess.

I took her home and got home opened the crate door to blood squirting out her inscision (sp) and the pad underneath her soaked in blood ( mind you I'm 15 min from the clinic) I called hysterically.. (not every day one see's blood squirting out sutured area)... the clinic but it was closed so called the emergency number and finally got hold of the doc she said she meet me back at the clinic pronto.... (this was 9 pm at night now)

My vet ran her in tried sewing her back up but she wasn't clotting.. she had to have a blood transfusion Immediately... and would stay with my vet. She even took her home later to keep on eye on her (thank you Dr. Natalie at Healthy Pets Animal Hospital)

It was touch and go for Spring ... Not to mention I was now handing feeding 5 puppies every 3 hours! The next day Spring was still alive and stable. But the pups would not be allwowed to nurse on her because of all the drugs they had to give her to stablize her... Now how was I going to do that!!

I came up with the idea of using a Human newborns Onesie .. cut out a hole for the tail and put that on her.. now I did have to put duct tape around the leg opening part cause the little boogers would crawl up inside the leg opening to nurse... Spring also developed mastitis and so I had to do warm hot compresses a few times a day and milk her just a bit to keep her comfortable.


The best part of having the momma dog is that although not able to feed she can keep them clean, warm and bonded. I cannot tell you how exhausted I was handfeeding and Nursing Spring back to health!!


These puppies went on to have perfectly normal and healthy free whelped litters. This of course was the last of Springs litters.