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Dog Birth
The contractions of the uterus push the young dog out throughthe vagina. The puppy appears in one of several ways. It may still be inthe amniotic sac. If so, the sac must be broken or the newborn willsuffocate. If the mother doesn't do this, you should do it for her. Thepuppy may still be in its sac, but the sac may have ruptured. Or theyoung may be born with the sac remaining inside the mother. In thiscase the umbilical cord is still connecting it to the sac. The mother maychew this cord to break it, and the sac and placenta will he dischargedlater. But you can wrap a cloth or tissue about the cord and pull gentlyuntil the sac comes out with the placenta. If a placenta is not discharged it may or may not become a problem. How do you know when the mother has delivered her last puppy?When is she ready for ass examination and perhaps an injection? Thebirth process is a natural one happening often in dogs all over theworld. Most deliveries are simple, normal events requiring only themother's help. But for the owner, the experience of a first delivery isfraught with healthy concern that results in more difficulty for him orher than for the dog. To relieve the anxiety, it is wise to contact yourveterinarian in advance of the accouchment, both to alert bins or herand to ask advice. The veterinarians will tell you of any potential prob-lems of your breed and will decide, depending on the individual case, ifthe female should be brought in after the whelping. If so, your vet maysuggest bringing the puppies in for an examination, too. The trip willbe disturbing to the new mother and is to be avoided in most cases, inour opinion. The first puppy, frequently the most difficult to he birthed, may bethe largest in the litter. This may occur because the first pup develops at or close to the bifurcation of the uterus, where there is a rich bloodsupply to the developing fetus. A good many contractions may be nec-essary to force this puppy's head or hips through the pelvic girdle.Sometimes the mother tires at this point and this is a time when youmay help her by donning a disposable examination glove, lubricatingyour first and second fingers, inserting them in the vagina and gentlypulling that part you feel. She will then contract and gradually you willbe able to bring the head or the rear legs out of the canal.Now, if the membranes have not ruptured with the head exposed,tear them and dry the puppy's nose. Then wrap a dry dolls or tissuearound the head and continue gentle traction as the shoulderssqueeze through the pelvic girdle the puppy suddenly slides out withease. If the delivery is breech, or hind legs first, and the legs are out ofthe vaginal canal, the umbilical cord will be under pressure, preventingthe blood exchange circulation to and from the mother. In this situa-tion there is no time to rush to a veterinarian for help. To save a breechpuppy it is better to grasp the rear legs with a cloth or tissue and exertenough traction to deliver it. Sometimes you must pull so hard you mayhesitate, but if you wait too long there is the danger of possible damageor death to the puppy. When a female is delivered of a puppy that appears dead or if youfind one during the whelping still in its sac, tear open the sac, dry thenose, and holding the puppy in a towel in one hand, imitate the moth-er's licking motion by rubbing it with the towel with your other hand.If there is still no motion gently swing it through the air in an arc toforce blood into the head, then continue to stroke its sides firmly. Rollit over and stroke the other side. Rub it roughly but not roughlyenough to damage it, and don't give up easily. If you lose a puppy or two, remember that for creatures of multiplebirths it is natural for some to die. Some have birth defects and someare very tiny by virtue of an inadequate blood supply to the uterusduring development. Studies of wild wolves in Michigan find an average of only one pup from each litter grows to maturity and this isadequate to perpetuate the species. It would appear we may be overzealous in saving puppies that would die without our help. Some of these dog must contribute defective genes to the gene pool of all breeds. This may account for the seem-ingly fewer problems of mixed breed dogs that as a group are not giventhe attention expended on our valuable purebred dogs. It also appears that a female may regulate the number of puppies shehas, provided, of course, she has been bred at the correct time. There is an occasion some years ago to perform an exploratory operation on achampion English Setter female to determine why she had not had aheat period in four years. She had cysts on one ovary and all along onehorn of her uterus. Half her uterus was thick walled and diseased. Theoffending ovary and horn of the uterus were removed. There had been an agreement between the breeder and a prospective English purchaserthat if she came in season and was bred they would purchase her. Shedid indeed come in season two months after the surgery, was bred, andshipped to England where she had twelve beautiful pups while in quar-antine. Twelve pups from half a uterus! Although we doubt she wouldhave beaten the world's record of twenty-three puppies with twenty-four pups if she had had both horns of her uterus. Birth defects are common problems. Don't bediscouraged if you encounter one from time to time. If you do findsuch a puppy, take it to your veterinarian for euthanasia. He or she maysend it to a pathology department where records arc kept of thesehappenings. It seems to us there may be an environmental basis forsome defects and although we have urged different groups to collectand classify birth defects, each declares there are no funds available forit. It would seem that monitoring our dogs might disclose environmen-tal problems that can also affect mankind. In our experience delivering thousands of puppies an estimate about 20 percent arc born with a breech presentation. There is nothing ab-normal about it. Normally a female will chew off the cord at varying distances fromits attachment, then eat the placenta and lick her young dry. This isunpleasant for most people to accept, but it is part of a natural functionand there is no indication that interference is called for. However, it may be necessary to crush the navel cord with blunt scissors two inchesor so from the body if the mother is unable to do it efficiently.There is good evidence that the ingestion of the fluids, placenta, aridmembranes by the mother in some way helps the mother produce inher first milk immune bodies that increase the puppies' resistance todisease. This milk is called the colostrum. If you attend an dog giving birth you will find that your assistanceand affection are reassuring and that she will trust you with her young.If she has a large litter, it is a good idea, when she is not looking, tohand the first ones to a helper, who can put them in a warm, dry placeto stay until the mother is relaxed and ready to take care of them. Inthis way she can attend each one as it is born, without injuring othersfrom whom her attention has been diverted. Healthy newborn puppies are perfect examples of the inheritance ofinstincts when, blind, deaf, and still wet, they seek out a nipple andattach themselves to begin nursing - even while the mother is chewingtheir cords. It is a remarkable sight to behold, no matter how manybirths one observes. Why a hitch decides to eliminate a certain puppy from her brood is difficult to ascertain. Perhaps a given pup has an odor she does notappreciate so she pushes it out of the way with her nose. You find it andreturn it to her breast and conic back later to find it once again ex-cluded from the litter. A pup like this should be removed to a containerwith a heating pad or heat light and returned to the mother every twohours when it must be placed on a breast for nursing. After a few daysmost bitches will then accept the previous reject. Two postparturition infections in hitches are not common but dooccur - uterine infections arid infection of the breasts. Infection of theuterus is unlikely if no placentas remain in the uterus. Normally afemale discharges from her uterus the lining to which the placentaswere attached during pregnancy and through which the young werenourished. This takes the form of a dark red discharge and may last forten or twelve days or even longer. Infected breasts are extremely seriousto both a mother and her young, and they require immediate attention. What Not to Do in Whelping. One often had been told about the most ludicrousdirections for helping bitches to whelp, especially those about the needto be sterile. These warnings" disinfect the scissors and hands"; "tie the cord with sterile silk" are overzealous applications of the humanbirth precautions. With dogs you need pay no attention to such nonsense. Every puppy is a bacterial flower garden almost as soon as it isborn. It comes, bacteriologically speaking, into a filthy world. If itsmother is left to herself, sire may allow it to drop into a manure pile;and even if this happens it will be unaffected. You can be as sterile asyou wish and in spite of your efforts the puppy will be an ideal breedingground for bacteria. Its mother's breasts and legs, its nest, hair, andintestines are teeming with them. Fortunately most of these bacteriawill be benign, and nature has equipped the puppy to combat theothers. The most important precaution for you to observe is to avoidhandling puppies after you have been handling sick dog. You havefar more to fear from viruses and coccidiosis spread by flies than fromcontamination from well-washed hands or clean home instruments. The End of Whelping. One by one the puppies are pressed throughthe birth canal until the last pup and the last placenta have beenexpelled. Then, and not until then, will the bitch become relaxed andcalm. Using the method of palpation, it is possible to tell a great deal aboutbirth just as it is possible to diagnose pregnancy. One fact that can beascertained is when a cesarean operation is necessary. By reaching upfrom underneath and placing the fingers on one side of the belly andthe thumb on the other, you can clearly feel a puppy entering thepelvic opening. If you find that the puppy is in the birth position andthe bitch is straining but accomplishing nothing, check the situationagain in a few hours. If the puppy is in the same position, get the damto your veterinarian. He or she may be able to extract the puppy withspecial forceps or may have to perform a cesarean section. Palpation can also be useful in determining whether or riot the bitchhas finished whelping. If you have not had practice in this technique,hold one of the newborn puppies in your fingers and then feel throughthe abdomen to see if there is a similar object contained within it.Some persons prefer to feel with both hands, keeping the fingertips ofeach opposite the other. This is particularly helpful in the case of largebitches. Birth can take a few minutes for one or two puppies to perhapstwenty-four hours for a large litter. If, after having a puppy, the motherrelaxes and does not appear to be having contractions, take her out of the nest for a walk. As she pulls to return, release her and she will runback. This exercise will often start strong contractions. Walking thefemale up and down a staircase a few times has the same effect. If youchoose to walk her outside at night take a flashlight. Many bitches,appearing to urinate, are passing a puppy. When you think the last puppy has been horn, wait a few hoursbefore you let the mother out. The great pressure on her bladder andother organs has relaxed and she can and naturally does go a long whilewithout elimination. If she refuses to leave her pups twelve or sixteenhours after birth, take her for a walk, unless she is in a pen where shecan go out at will. If she is in a pen, she will wait until it is dark andvery quiet before going out. Before the young are born, the mother should be prepared for suck-ling by being carefully cleaned and having long hair cut away. It oftenprevents the young from reaching the teats. Breasts often cake because a mother produces more milk than heryoung need. This is inevitable when her litter is small. Caked breastsare normal and the symptoms usually disappear without medication.Sometimes a mother dies during parturition or when her litter is veryyoung. Although it is not easy to save the orphans, you can probablyraise them successfully if you understand their needs. This means thatyou have to understand what their mother would supply if she wereliving. A wise dog owner will look carefully at the puppies' navels every dayto see that they are healing. The dried-up umbilical cord drops offsometime during the second day, although occasionally puppies willhave it much longer. After this, healing should progress rapidly. with many trace minerals in lesser amounts. Among these are: iron,manganese, copper, iodine, zinc, cobalt, fluorine, boron.
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As the puppies start to pass through the birth canal, there is an evengreater effort of expulsion, which is probably due to a reflex occasionedby pressure on the upper part of the vulva. This is true labor and is auseful fact to know in helping a bitch to whelp. If you want to make her strain, insert a clean gloved finger in the vulva and pull upward andbackward. She wig nearly always strain and assist you. The averagewhelping time for dogs is five hours. Small dogs, such as Cocker Span-iels, usually finish whelping in three hours, but large dogs, such asGreat Danes and St. Bernards, often take seven or eight hours. Twelvehours is the limit of normal time for a large dog, although bitches havebeen known to take thirty-six hours with no particularly abnormal as-pects to the whelping.