Our W litter entered the world on April 22nd! Our new female imported from Europe wasted no time going into heat on her arrival to the U.S.A. SG Erna z Daskonu ZVV 1 Kkl 1 was bred to Havok von Goedehaus IPO 1, PSA 1. After a long stall between puppy number six without Erna showing any signs of distress, we decided it would be best to go to the vet to see what was going on. It had been over six hours since her last puppy and she had many more to go. Our regular vet took an x-ray and we figured out quickly the issue was a stuck puppy who passed up the “exit” and was in the shape of a backwards C, blocking the way for the rest of the litter. He tried to move the puppy to no avail and since they were operating on a skeleton crew due to COVID-19 and the wait would be indefinite for a c-section, I called one of my reproductive vets to see if they would be able to get us in sooner. Dr. Abigail Owens was working and said she would absolutely be able to take care of us so off we went.
Dr. Owens and her staff quickly got Erna inside while we had to wait in the car due to the virus. After reviewing the x-ray, she decided to use a technique she has successfully used in cattle to move a stuck fetus. She injected saline into Erna’s uterus using a catheter and was able to reach in and find the stuck puppy’s back leg and tail and maneuvered her back up into the uterine horn, which allowed her to be whelped naturally! The stuck puppy (orange collar girl) lived! Imagine my surprise and joy when my vet came outside to the car with two puppies in hand when I was absolutely certain Erna would be going to surgery!!! Dr. Owens gave us the option to allow Erna to continue whelping inside the vet’s office with them or stay out in the back of my Suburban to whelp with her puppies and with us where she was most comfortable. Of course I chose to have her with us! It only took about 15 more minutes and mama Erna whelped another healthy puppy, a boy. She had just two more to go (per the x-ray) so I called to make sure we were ok to try and finish the whelp at home. As fast as those three puppies came after the stuck puppy issue was resolved, and knowing how strong Erna is (one of the strongest dogs I’ve ever owned) I was confident she could whelp the remaining two puppies at home without any problems. We were not home very long before she had puppy number ten, a healthy male. Puppy number eleven was born about a half hour after that and unfortunately had passed away quite some time before the whelp and was very underdeveloped so there was nothing we could do to save her. We are absolutely thrilled with ten healthy puppies! Final tally is four boys and six girls, all of them sables! Poor orange girl was struggling the first few days as her birth was traumatic, but the rest were doing very well. About 24 hours of tube feeding orange girl and her recovering from the birth, she decided to crawl over to her mama all on her own and started to nurse. This after not even being able to lift her head the first day! She gets stronger by the day and definitely shows no ill effects from her harrowing birth. ❤️ We owe a great deal of thanks to Dr. Owens for saving the day for our mama Erna! Because of her expertise and thinking outside the box, our girl was able to avoid a major surgery and difficult recovery while caring for newborns. We are eternally grateful to all of our wonderful vets!
