females absorbing thier litters - Page 1

has anyone delt with this and what did you end up doing to help stop it. Heather

I had a bitch that absorbed a litter, bred her again and all was well that time. She only had 2 litters, so I can't say what would have happened with future litters. I personally do not believe in using hormones and fertility drugs, so went to no heroics to get that litter. There are plenty of veterinary fertility specialists around who will advise you differently, but they are not seeing the big picture and what will happen to the breed in the future if fertility challenged bitches are used to produce more of the same in their progeny. IMO, it's not a good thing to mess around with homones, implants and such to get a bitch pregnant or to carry a litter to full term.

I had this happen with mares bred only to absorb the foal very early on, or miscarriage and dropping it some place I had to hunt and bury it. Nature has a way of ridding of some pregnancies that are not forming properly. This happened in one of my young dogs that had a weird heat, she dripped some two weeks. She got out and I was not worried, she was dripping red yet. She got grabbed and bred. She appeared to be doing ok, nipples expanding, rib cage, etc. But, then it all stopped and I believe she rid of the pups as she never went any further, she has a different heat her first at one year, so she might be a non breeder or never able to carry a healthy litter. I am going to wait and she will be two July 1 till fall heat, see if it goes ok and try one more time. If she does it again, she will be spayed. Some dogs insides just are not meant to carry puppies as some humans the same. Cannot tell you exactly why, my dog is fine now, but it does happen and it is better to have be rid of the litter than a bunch of cripples or deformed puppies. If she does this again, I would just spay her and replace her.

I have a female who had produced several very large litters, and then absorbed several litters - all health checks done, ultrasound to check her uterus, complete blood work up - everything normal. Repro specialist said "sometimes even if thyroid levels are normal, if they are on the low end of the normal scale, the female might still not be able to maintain her litter. He said "optimal thyroid levels for maintaining litters" is high-normal to above-normal. I now routinely test thyroid levels, and put my females on low levels of Soloxine at the start of heat, through whelping. This particular female just whelped a nice litter of 5 puppies.

Bacteria can also be a problem. As soon as she comes in next time, have her cultured to make sure there are no problems in that area.

Eichenluft, I have heard that same thing from a friend of mine, he routinely supplements every bitch he is breeding with synthroid and swears he gets bigger, healthier litters. This is in a breed where most score in the low normal range of a T3, T4. Have you noticed that subsequent generations also require the supplementation or have you found it is a random thing?

I had this with one bitch of mine. Second time I did ultrasound early and you could already see she was reabsorbing. Vet put her on antibitics and we managed to get one female from the litter. Sent away biopsies on her uterus/placenta etc. They did not really tell us anything. I never bred this dog again and never bred the female I got from her. One of the first things to 'go' when one does a lot of linebreeding is fertility.

I cant stress enough about MYCOPLASMA TESTING... one of the BIGGEST reasons for Absorbing, inability to get pregnant, and death in puppies is secondary to Mycoplasma. EVERY single bitch EVERY single breeding should be cultured for Mycoplasma ALWAYS. I would NEVER breed a stud dog to bitch who hasnt been tested and the BEST time to do the testing is during Estrus. I would NEVER breed any bitches without testing, you are more likely to have problems with Mycoplasma than Brucellosis and EVERYONE always tests for Brucellosis. Heather, you cant "stop" a bitch from absorbing... you cant tell when a bitch is doing it, some may have been able to tell, but i havent met many who can tell when the "absorbing" is actually happening. Basically having your bitch health checked for EVERY breeding is a good start, but even the healthiest can absorb for reasons other than Mycoplasma or infection Regards, Dawnmarie

Dawnmarie wrote: "I would NEVER breed any bitches without testing, you are more likely to have problems with Mycoplasma than Brucellosis and EVERYONE always tests for Brucellosis." How I wish the latter statement was true...you'd be surprised how many people *don't* test for brucellosis. :^( The reasonings I've heard range from, "I know she's OK, she's never had any problems," to "I've never bred my dog to an outside bitch/I've never bred my bitch to an outside dog, so there's no way he/she/they could be infected..." I'd amend your statement to "Anyone ethical--as well anyone who's ever been burned by brucellosis in their kennel-- always tests for brucellosis." You're dead on WRT the mycoplasma point, though. Should be done, and too often isn't.

ok i am going to go and study this Mycoplasma, maybe that is the problem can I have her checked now after the litter. The one pup is very healthy ect..and mom is doing great. She has had full healthy litters befor...and I always do Brucellosis, even when breeding to my own male.lol Thanks for all the information. I am very sad about this happening. I will post anything that i find out with her. Heather