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seemed fine. About mid-day I received
a phone call from our vet. “How’s
Gwen?” he asked. “Fine” I said.
“She’s held her meals down and her
energy level is great”. “Well, let me
tell you what we have learned….” And
the vet went on to tell me that they’d
had a radiologist review the films and
the radiologist had detected evidence
of irritation in the intestines; remnants
of string that needed to be surgically
removed before they perforated the
intestines. The fact that Gwen was
less than 3 weeks away from whelping
a litter of puppies only further
complicated matters. Our vet felt
unqualified to perform the surgery and
had made arrangements for us to see a
specialist about 50 miles away. I called
my husband, met him at our vet’s clinic
where I picked up x-rays and we made
the drive over the hill to the surgeon’s
office.
After a brief consultation, Gwen
went into surgery. They would take
precautions to try to save the puppies,
but Gwen’s safety was the top priority.
We went home to wait. It was a Friday
night, the night my husband had
planned on building the whelping
box for the coming litter. Instead we
watched the clock, waiting for the vet
to call with an update - hoping for the
best and imagining the worst. At 9:00
PM the phone rang. It was the vet clinic.
Gwen had come through the surgery
just fine. They ultrasounded puppies
and heard heartbeats up and down the
horns of the uterus. We breathed a sigh
of relief. The first hurdle was over!
We brought Gwen home the next
afternoon. She came waddling out
of the clinic, tired but tail a wagging.
She continued to make an excellent
recovery. We went back to the vet for a
follow up exam and x-ray. We discussed
the pending litter. The x-ray revealed
that there were 11 puppies. In spite of
the litter size the vet was confident that
Gwen would be able to have a normal
delivery. We took his advice.
Gwen went into whelp right on
schedule, and things progressed as
expected. The first puppy was born
with no problems, and then the second,
and on we went till we got to the sixth
puppy. Then things slowed down. This
was a big puppy, stillborn, and it was
a hard delivery for Gwen. The seventh
puppy was born immediately on the
heels of this unfortunate soul, screaming
his way into the world. He was fine; we
think he was just angry about having to
work so hard to be born.
The story does not have a happy
ending for the rest of the litter. Gwen’s
labor stalled. We were in constant
contact with the vet clinic, and after
several hours of inactivity, we packed
mom and the puppies up and went in
to the clinic to deliver the balance of
the litter. Gwen lost the remaining 4
puppies. We returned home that night
with Mom and the six pups we left the
house with, relieved that she was okay,
but saddened by the outcome.
I couldn’t help but feel responsible
for every aspect of what went wrong.
If only I hadn’t put the rug down, if
only we’d acted sooner during the
whelping process. Should we have
done a C-section and not attempted
a natural birth? It might have been
different. I could have prevented this
from happening. Perhaps, but doover’s
only happen in the movies. In
real life, we move on. Gwen was a great
mom; we had no further issues. We
were finally able to enjoy the litter. We
finished our first homebred champion
from this litter, and yes it was the little
guy who worked so hard to get here.
As fate would have it he was the pick
of the litter.
About a year later I learned of a
service called Whelp Wise offered by
Veterinary Perinatal Specialties. A few
of our friends had used it and were
quite satisfied. The service provides
you with the ability to perform home
monitoring of the whelping process.
You begin monitoring 4 to 5 days
before the expected due date. The
service is available 24x7 so there is
always someone to consult. I signed up
for the service with our next litter and
have used it ever since.
Would this service have saved the
puppies in the first litter? It’s hard to
know. What we do know is that the
service has given us the ability to better
predict the delivery of puppies, and to
monitor the progression of the labor.
I like the idea that there’s someone
following the progress of the whelping
with me and available to provide
consultation into the wee hours of the
morning.
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