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French Bulldog puppy madness!

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Well, round one of the 2012 puppy madness kicked off on Wednesday morning, when Billie presented us with SIX beautiful French Bulldog puppies. A matched set – 3 boys, 3 girls, in a variety of fun colors. Sleep is now a thing of the past, and it’s about to get worse, with Penelope due this coming Wednesday. As if that’s not enough, I agreed to whelp a litter for a friend (back before I knew both Billie and Nell were pregnant), and Lyra is due any minute now.

Holy crap, y’all (stress sometimes makes me get southern).

Think good thoughts, and here are some pix of Billie crew of cuties in the meantime.

Where did your puppy come from? French Bulldog Puppy Mill Exposed Pt 3

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After Kathy Bauck’s conviction on animal cruelty, and the suspension of her commercial kennel licence by the USDA, most of us would assume that she would be effectively barred from any further selling or breeding of dogs. This is shockingly incorrect, as detailed by the veterinarian who testified against Bauck during her trial –

“The irony is that if the revocation of Bauck’s USDA license stands, she will still be able to keep her dogs,” said Dr. Linda Wolf a veterinarian who served as one of the key expert witnesses in the most recent animal cruelty case against Bauck.

“The USDA only regulates the sale of dogs to commercial sources, like pet shops, brokers and wholesalers. They have no say as to whether or not Bauck gets to keep her dogs,” Wolf added.

Additionally,

“The termination of Bauck’s USDA license prevents her from selling dogs to her normal sales channels,” added Wolf.

– Source

“Normal channels” is primarily considered to be sales directly to pet shops and to pet shop suppliers like Hunte and other brokers. It does not include direct sales to puppy buyers, through internet sales sites, and that gives Kathy Bauck and other suspended USDA breeders like her a very handy – and lucrative – get out of jail free card.

 

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New Rules for UK Breeders

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French Bulldog mother with puppies

Tula and Teddy

The Kennel Club of England has announced new rules for UK breeders, starting in 2012.

From a November 22cnd news release on their website:

The Kennel Club has announced that from 2012 it will normally register no more than four litters from any one bitch because of concerns that the current legal limit of six litters can potentially be detrimental to a bitch’s welfare.

The decision was made by the Kennel Club General Committee after receiving a recommendation from its Dog Health Group and will be effective for litters born on or after 1st January 2012.

Six litters per bitch is the current legal limit enshrined in the Breeding and Sale of Dogs (Welfare) Act 1999.

Bill Lambert, the Kennel Club’s Health and Breeder Services Manager, said: “The Kennel Club wants to ensure that all breeders put the health and welfare of their puppies and breeding bitches first and foremost, and this decision underlines our commitment to this issue.

“Whilst the law allows bitches to have six litters in a lifetime and our registration system has previously fallen in line with this, the vast majority of responsible breeders feel that this is too high and that there is potential for this to have a negative impact on the welfare of the bitch.

“Very serious consideration has to be given to the matter if a breeder wishes a bitch to have more than four litters but the Kennel Club may grant permission for this to happen if it believes that there is good and justifiable reason for doing so on a case by case basis.”

There are also new restrictions on Caesarian Sections for bitches in the UK.

Excerpt from the news release:

The Kennel Club has had discussions with the major veterinary organisations over restrictions on the number of litters born by caesarean section which may be registered from an individual bitch from 2012.

The Kennel Club has confirmed that it will no longer register any puppies born by caesarean section from any bitch which has previously had two such operations, except for scientifically proven welfare reasons and in such cases normally provided that the application is made prior to mating. Refusal to register a third or subsequent litters of puppies born by caesarean section would occur irrespective of whether the progeny from either of the first two operations had been registered with the Club.

Following discussions with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the British Veterinary Association and the British Small Animal Veterinary Association, the organisations have agreed to advise their members that any caesarean sections which they perform on a Kennel Club registered bitch should be reported to the Kennel Club.

To allow the reporting of such operations by veterinary surgeons, an additional section will be incorporated into the form which is presently completed to notify the Kennel Club of any operation which alters the natural conformation of a registered pedigree dog.

This policy will become effective for all litters born on or after 1st January 2012.  Further details relating to the timing of reporting by veterinary surgeons will be announced in due course.

In essence, bitches may have no more than 2 c section deliveries “except for scientifically proven welfare reasons and in such cases normally provided that the application is made prior to mating.”

No one seems to have any idea what defines a “scientifically proven welfare reason” is, or if it will be allowed to be applied to French Bulldogs.

As more and more countries move towards restrictions on routine c sections, it behooves us as breeders to begin breeding intentionally for dogs with the ability to free whelp. I believe that many of our North American bitches could, if allowed, actually free whelp, but fear of complications or uterine inertia causes many of us to consider c sections to be an unavoidable reality.

As someone who has lost a puppy due to uterine inertia, and has also had several successfully free whelped litters, I agree that it’s a hard call to make. C sections are horribly invasive procedures, with copious risks to both bitch and puppies, and yet it’s also true that many puppies have died due to a bitch’s inability to deliver them naturally.

As I said, tough call.

And then there were THREE

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Tula wonders "Where the heck did HE come from?"

Poor Tula. She goes to sleep at the vet clinic, she wakes up with two puppies. She comes home, has a nap – and wakes up with one more. If this keeps up, she’ll be afraid to ever go to sleep again.

Tula is doing some surrogate mothering – Paula’s singleton French Bulldog puppy (out of Elliott, which makes him sort of our Grandpuppy by proxy) has been having a hard time of it. His mom, Lucy, has no milk at all, and they’ve been getting up every three hours to bottle feed him. Worst of all, he’s not been doing well on the bottle. Since Tula loves her puppies, and has enough milk to open her own dairy bar, I suggested we tuck him in with Tula’s kids.

He arrived this afternoon, wrapped in a pink blanket and looking terribly small and thin. He’s almost two a half days older than the boys, but weighs just 209 grams to their 289 and 297 gram weights (that’s the fawn boy, who is something of a chow hound). Since he got here, I’m not sure he’s once let go of the nipple. Maybe he’s afraid that if does, it will either disappear, or dry up. Unlike Tula’s boys, who are still nameless for now, the little pied guy is named “Striker” (although I might lobby to have it changed to ‘Sucker’).

Tula had an initial moment or two of “I’m pretty that this is not mine” type hesitancy, but since he’s now covered in her milk and has been sleeping nuzzled up against her boys, she’s just fine with it. I’m going with the theory that she just thinks maybe she miscounted them.

Photos here, or on Flickr. Video later on, if I get the chance.

Mae Comes Home – with Degenerative Myelopathy

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Mae makes herself at home

Mae makes herself at home

Some of you might recall Mae – she’s our big boned cream girl, also famous for being mom to the uber cute Solo. Mae was placed into a retirement home, but when things got rough for her adoptive mom, she thought it was best for Mae to come back to us. We’re always ready to take back any of our placed dogs, so of course we arranged to pick Mae Mae up.

We knew she’d been experiencing some rear end weakness, and that her vet had been having a hard time coming up with a definitive diagnosis for what was causing it. I’d assumed it was likely arthritis – her vet had speculated it was first stage degenerative disk disease, but in my (thanfully limited) experience with that, it usually comes as a ‘bolt from the blue’. One day, your dog goes to sleep completely normal, the next day, they wake up paralyzed.

Mae’s condition, on the other hand, was slowly progressive.

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