Smaller the litter, Greater chance of caesarian??? - Page 1

Hi Guys, I am just curious - is it true that the smaller the litter, the greater the chance the pups will be too big and the dog would have to have a caesarian? I know a guy that bred his GSD and and she is a large girl, but this is her first litter. She is huge and they found out she is only having 4 good size pups. A friend of my husband's that has had many working litters in the past said that every litter she ever had that only had 4 pups had to have caesarian except for 1. Is this common? What do you guys think are the chances/odds that she will have to have surgery?

Hello, As you stated if the pup is too big then yes operation is must. But that is not the case everytime. As per my experience if the liiter size is small i.e.1 or 2 pups then female might not get enough labour pains to deliver naturally that might call for a operation I think 4 pups is average litter size. I would like to bring to everybodies notice and would like to have everyone's honest opinion. I have GSD's for more that 10 years now. Ealrlier I use to give natural food i.e. eggs, bread,milk, rice,occasionallly beaf and my dogs were healthy. Also they use to produce puppies regularly. I had a male also with me so natural mating was possible. Now I have 2 females and I have shifted completely on dry food mainly Purina. The condition of the dogs is prime i.e. I can any day enter them in show. Their periods are regular i.e every 4 to5 month they come on heat. But the problem is they are unable to get pregnant. I had done a slide test to decide the day of mating but still no success. In contrast to this one of my freind who is feeding his dogs with natural food i.e.beef,rice,chicken,eggs etc. is regularly producing good sixed litter i.e. 5 to 6 pups. Now I have seriously started thinking this is because of food. I might be wrong but then I dont find any other reason. Please I would like to have everyone's opinion. What do top kennels in Germany feed theie dog with any insight. Thank you

It's very frustrating - it seems like the people that feed their dogs junk dogfood with ground yellow corn as the 1st ingredient and poor, filthy living conditions always have litters of 12! I would have a tendency to believe it's a genetic thing more than a food thing. Back to the subject: ****WHOMEVER HAS HAD 4 PUPS IN A LITTER....***PLEASE tell me your experience!

I had a litter of 4, the first one was to big to deliver and I had to rush her to the vet, and he ended up doing a c-section. Only one made it though.

UGH. I hope all the responses will not be this....UGH!!!! :( greatestgsd - What day did she go into labor? Early - Late - On time? Was this within the 60 to 64th day?

I have had two litters with four puppies in them and neither bitch had any trouble delivering. Both females delivered on time. I would more worried if the litter contained only one or two puppies. A vet could x-ray close to term to decide if the puppies were too large to be delivered. Good luck!

The dam went in today to get an ultrasound to confirm the # of pups and the vet said there were 4 and they were big - that's it. Nothing about risk of delivery.

Logically, it makes sense that a smaller litter produces larger puppies overall, but of course I have never seen any data that proved this. I also have never looked. I have had litters as large as eleven (11) puppies from one (1) breeding and tie, and as small as six (6) puppies. I think from this one can discern that I obviously have not had many litters. As far as the larger litters were concerned, all of the puppies weighed from fifteen (15) to seventeen (17) ounces. The smallest litter had similar weights, but there was one (1) exception: Three (3) puppies were born naturally and without any difficulty. After a fourth puppy did not appear for more than one (1) hour we took the dam to the veterinarian who delivered the remainder by C-Section. One (1) puppy was "stuck", and it was a male puppy who was considerably larger than any of the others. This puppy was dead in the womb and preventing two (2) female puppies from entering the birth canal. They were delivered alive, and with no complications. All of the five (5) surviving puppies had normal weights, as per my experience. Logically, I can see where fewer puppies could be larger than many puppies, as they have but one (1) dam. But again, I have no data that will support this. Interesting question, Bob-O

the best thing to do is x-ray at the last week beore whelping ,and get an idea of how many pups, and how big they are. Sumo is correct - 4 pups is a normal litter size for GSD. C-section should not be required. From several experiences, I now always plan a scheduled c-section for any litter 3 or less. Puppies just get too big for natural birth if there are 1 or 2, sometimes 3. Definately 1 or 2. One puppy will not stimulate labor - the female can simply not go into labor and endanger both her and the pup. And with two or three pups, even if she can have one on her own, she can go out of labor after that and lose the second - c-section to remove a dead pup is no fun. So, from "learning the hard way" now it's always scheduled c-section if the litter is 3 or less. One lost puppy that would be saved with c-section is worth the cost of the c-section. molly

Molly, I agree with you, and my unfortunate experience supports the small cost of an x-ray prior to birth so that one can plan better for a possible C-Section. Everything went very well, and "by the book" until the large puppy became stuck. And we lost what could have been a very nice male. Bob-O