When does the ‘fun’ part begin?
Tula's Black masked fawn French Bulldog puppy needs some veterinary care.
I have to take Tula’s little fawn boy to the vet after work today – seems that his umbilical isn’t healing. More accurately, instead of being a little pin point on his belly, it’s big gaping hole. I have seen this once before in a puppy, and it was easily treated – the vet put in a couple of dissolving stitches, and it was fine. Let’s hope that’s all it needs to fix him, as well.
Paula’s little guy is still not doing well. He has foamy diarrhea, and I just can’t seem to get weight on him. He was up 19 grams this morning, and now he’s back down to yesterday’s weight. We’ve got him nursing every two hours, so I’m not sure what else to try. I’m rarely stumped by a puppy, but he’s stumping me. He nurses til his tummy is full, he isn’t dehydrated, and other than the diarrhea, I don’t know why he’s not gaining.
I tried to give him some probiotic powder (fortiflora) for the diarrhea, putting a few granules on his tongue, but he vomited up all his milk, so I won’t be trying THAT again. Paula is going to bring him some flagyl, and if that doesn’t help by tomorrow, he’s off to the vet as well.
I’ve been running on two to three hours sleep a night, up every two to three to make sure the puppies are on nursing, and to give the tiny guy some extra attention.
While I’m at work today, Sean is home running in and out checking pups, putting the pen back together (Tula is a digger, and has been burying the pups under the blankets), checking for full tummies and clean bottoms, and doing piles of laundry. This afternoon I’ll drive home, meet Sean at the door, take the Fawn boy in to the vet and get back home again just in time to start my night shift on puppy watch. Thank God Sean has four days off of work between shifts, or I’d have to take the entire week off of work.
I keep getting emails from people telling me that they’re going to breed their French Bulldog once, “just for fun” – but could someone tell me when the ‘fun’ part of dog breeding is supposed to kick in?
Photos from yesterday below, or on Flickr.
Fingers crossed and prayers floating for all. Did you get the pics of Lukey at IKC?
I’m just downloading them now – thanks so much! I am sending email your way.
Never good when a pup has to go to the vet, I hope it only takes a few stitches as well.
Really hoping Striker is just being a difficult puppy and that he pulls through this.
.-= Kari´s last blog ..March Rescue of the Month =-.
Hi Carol,
How is little fawn boy doing? Is he ok? Please write some quick note because we are worried.
Hope everything is alright.
Richard and Ewa
Hey Richard! I’ll email you this as well, but he seems to be much better today. I had to give him an enema this morning (he was constipated, since Tula hasn’t been able to clean him properly), but he’s gaining weight and looks wonderful.
– Carol
I had ulcers BEFORE my last litter was born. The first ultrasound said no pups but maybe cysts. The second ultrasound sain no pups, cysts for sure and suspicious fluid. The third ultra sound said BIG cysts, and yep, fluid filled horn, time to spay.
Me: Oh shit, OK, spay her
whoops! To conclude…
Vet: Good call, it’s almost certainly pyo
Me:Well, please call me as soon as she is done, and if there’s a puppy, please don’t spay her, hah hah.
Vet: Hah hah! Don’t stress, sorry about no puppies.
Two hours later
Vet: well, you won’t believe this but…..
AND he took pictures of her exteriorized uterus to show me. Aughh!
Post surgical ultrasound showed one puppy (where in the hell were they hiding) but no heartbeat, making me think. we should have spayed her.
As we all say, if you do this long enough, you’ll see everything. My girl came home on heavy duty antibiotics, with an abdominal incision from her aborted abortion and three weeks later delivered two pups by section. And her cystic uterus and ovaries with cysts were removed after a quart of pus was drained from the left horn.
BTW all the ultrasounds, the “spay” and the section were done by a repro specialist and an internal medicine specialist, who both have rockin’ fantastic reputations and track records.
Two little girls, one of whom began to have seizures within hours almost certainly due to less than optimal conditions in utero! After holding her for six hours I gave her fluids, antibiotics and put her in an incubator with oxygen and went to sleep figuring her sister was going to be on her own by morning, but she pulled through and greeted dawn hungry if rather shagged out.
While they never really had any major issues from then on, I was sure they would, and could not relax for the first month of their lives. I swear that now, almost 8 months later, I am still suffering PTSD.
Maybe that ought to be PTpuppyinducedSD. So PTpiSD? 🙂
This was NOT fun, it was NOT cheap. One of the girls had an innocent heart murmur that had me freaking out for weeks. I was freaked, my vet was freaked. My vet’s WIFE was freaked.
Can’t imagine why I don’t want to breed for a good long while now….
Oh, BTW, I had a little girl with a massive umbilical defect. Stitched up at 48 hours old, by four months you couldn’t find the scar.
Fingers crossed that these little boys stop being “naughty” and let you start enjoying them!
OK, Jennifer wins the ‘scariest c section story’ award.
The boys are doing fine – fawn boy just needed some liquid bandage, but he also has to be kept from mom, so she won’t lick it open. Well, you know what THAT means – constipated puppy. So, here it is 6 am, and I’m about to give him an enema.
The fun just never stops.
I think I am going to do a blog post – top ten worst ‘pregnancies gone wrong’ stories. That way, when someone posts or emails saying “I wanna breed a litter for fun”, we can just send them here! Can I share that one?
If you do do a collection of OMFG WHAT happened?!? whelping stories, it would rock. I have been meaning to do so for years! 🙂
I don’t see how anyone could think that
1. Breeding a teeny tiny breed
2. Breeding a brachy breed
…could be anything OTHER than nervewracking. There’s so many risks and special considerations you have to make. I get nervous just IMAGINING it!
I don’t understand it either. I think that breeding dogs can be rewarding, but I don’t think I ever think of it as ‘fun’. Playing with puppies is fun, but there’s a lot of work to get there, and a lot of upkeep in between playtimes!
When they say things like “I think it will be great for the kids to see puppies being born”, I remember all the horrid stuff my kids saw when they were young (dead puppies, a puppy with a prolapsed rectum, sick mothers, etc).