Repeat Breeding goes Hay-Wire - Page 1

Here is the story, I did a repeat breeding of my male and female. Previous litter was six puppies, all came out healthy and I have tracked them and all are still healthy great dogs. On repeat breeding 7 puppies: 1 came out dead with half it's head not formed. 1 came out dead with little to no bone structure in its abdominal area, soft and squishy. 1 lived for a very short period of time 3 days, under developed lungs on necropsy. 1 we just put down at 2 weeks from congenital heart faliure, not gaining weight ect. Other 3 healthy and big. Except one has an extra flap of skin in the lower eye lid area that Vet said will have to be surgically removed and reconstructed. Puppies born exactly 63 days from first breeding. Only thing we know of that happened to this female during pregnancy is she got in a dog fight with another female. (daughter accidently let the othert female out). Vet is ruleing out genetics as each one seemed to have a different affliction, plus previous breeding points away from that. Vet is leaning towards either an infection, that stayed in the body long enough to effect multiple stages of development or dog got into something that stayed in the body long enough to effect the different stages. We are thinking more enviromental then Genetic. Has anyone had this occurr?? or have any ideas of cause? Mike

Kind of scary but interesting. Any vaccines given or different wormers? It sounds like some kind of chemical irritant. I'd think back and see what changed since the first litter. What was mom exposed to and dad also. New pesticides used, fertilizer, painted your house?

Nothing, and the only thing Mom got was her heartgard plus that she always gets. Male was also bred with another female of mine prior to her breeding and that female delivered 9 beutiful healthy pups.

Hmm...thats too bad your vet couldn't do some tests and pin something down but we can't know everything I suppose. I would like to know the answer myself.

I once had a female that just attacked a 7 week pregnant female. They had coincided all their life prior, I expect she was trying to up her pack staus and could sense the female was pregnant and vulnerable. The resulting litter came on time, but the birthing was slow due to there being only one puppy alive I suspect. There were 6 pups total. Three were not develpoed properly, two were normal size but still born, one pup was alive, healthy and had no health problems in later life. This female had whelped 3 other litters, 7 pups all healthy, no still borns. I had always figured it was due to the fight even though it got broke up in seconds as it occured right in front of me.

Does anyone nearby use pesticdes on their lawn that could drift undetected into your air? land on your grass? Do they spray from the air by small planes for fields or mosquito's? I'm with 4 pack, what could have changed since the last litter. Could she have been bitten by something that caused an undetected virus ? This is a tough one. What kind of environment do you live in? Doesn't sound genetic

Mike-- I would guess the fight between the two females is a big clue---Probably the female who had the healthy, successful litter was the dominant female. Yes? The other female was under stress the whole pregnancy, sensing the dominant's attitude. When I was a young child, I saw a special documentary on TV about the wild dogs of Africa. It was brutal---one by one the dominant female killed the pups of the lesser female. They both had given birth at the same time.

I live in the mountains of Colorado on 6 acres all woods. Neighbors are all at least ten acres away. no one really sprays. This dog doesn't even go in the kennels as she is my boys dog and sleeps in his room. As it seems I had alot of puppies around this year I did not even bomb the house for spiders this year. The only thing we had was some pups that came in with cocidea, we treated them and sanatized the area. Adult dogs were tested and none got it and she was never in the area they were in. Also long before she got pregnant. Other than the dog fight, nothing was different. Her last litter poped out no problem, this one was a long drawn out process with a trip to the vet. This is why I am stumped. Mike

LMH- the female who had the problem with the litter is actually a very dominant female, the one she had the fight with was a very old female that I had been putting off putting her down as she was half blind and deaf, and had to be seperated from the other dogs as she was starting to fight with everyone even the male. The one who had the litter had already establishes dominance along time ago over the one she got in the fight with.

What do you think about if she could have been bitten by a spider or tick, both can cause systemic problems. Typically you would see skin infections but not always,it could have caused an infection that affected the developing puppies as it would span different stages of development. even those little greenish white biting spiders that are not poisonous can do that sometimes. I'm a little stumped too but considering what has been ruled out I would suspect a spider bite at this point.