We will never know with any certainty what happened to Dove's litter.  Here's what happened and it's not going to be easy reading.

Our final x-ray revealed ten pups.  One was much larger than the rest, and one much smaller.  Both were angled for heading out first.  Litters of this size frequently have pups that fail to make it, and we have seen (very recently) x-rays that appeared to have 11 pups, only to have 8 in the litter.  Anyway, we kept the number under our hat as it could differ from the final tally.

Based on the image, we decided that if Dove went into labor and didn't instantly start whelping pups, we would intervene with a cesarean section.  Dove went into labor around noon on Wednesday May 6.  By 2:45 we started the c-section.

Pups whelped via c-section are under the influence of anesthesia and also haven't been squeezed through the birth canal.  They have to be revived, lungs cleared.  This usually takes a few moments for healthy pups.  We were holding beautiful fully developed puppies, but they were not coming around.  Moments turned to minutes, which became fractions of an hour.  Folks arms were sore from rubbing and patting the pups.

It was clear very early that something was desperately wrong with not just on or two, but with all the pups.  We had the most experienced cesarean section crew available in the area, possibly in New England.  Trust me, they know how to do this, and their success rate is very high.  They are all wonderful competent folks, and I am forever grateful for their effort.

I watched the “cull” pile grow.  We had nine or ten people reviving pups and by the time everything was said and done, seven beautiful pups were laid out like a stringer of fish – dead.  We had one fairly healthy girl, and two sickly boys alive.  Everyone in the room was a wreck, Amanda and me especially.

I took them home for Dove to care for.  I knew something was amiss on the ride home.  Every time prior that we had puppies in a laundry basket and Dove in the car, even immediately following her other c-section, Dove tried to get into the basket.  She looked at the pups, but did not try to nurse them.

When I got home, Dove would not lay down to nurse her pups.  When ordered to lay down, she refused.  When guided down, she remained firmly on her elbows and feet.  I had to muscle her over to get her on her side, then restrain her from licking the pups while they tried to latch on.

When the pups didn't do well with the nursing thing, it was back to the hospital for some more incubator time and goat's milk.  Mixing the powder with goat's milk instead of water makes for a better tasting formula, and the extra calories and stuff doesn't hurt at all.  We borrowed an incubator from the hospital and set it up at home.

From then on, we were signed in for 24 hour feeding and elimination duties.  This means waking every two hours during the night to feed and stimulate the pups into peeing and pooping.  It's exhausting and frustrating work.  You are never happy with the amount consumed, and always worried about if you are doing everything correctly.

We got the pups through the first night and started to feel like we were making progress.  The boys weren't exactly thriving, but they were alive and mobile.  The girl was doing better than them, but not dramatically.  I was running on about four hours of sleep a night, and Amanda was similarly sleepy.  We took the pups for some “mommy” time and were able to get some nursing in, but not for the duration that you'd like.  So it was back to hand feeding.

Near midnight we set our alarms for our shifts as we went to bed.  We lost the boys between 3:30 and 5:30 in the morning.  But the girl was doing OK.  In the morning I took her to see her mother.  Dove seemed more accepting of the girl and actually tried to nurse her.  

I left them alone, checking regularly and they seemed to be doing well.  I thought I could finally breathe.  Until I checked in the afternoon.  The pup had taken a turn for the worse.  She was cool to the touch and not really responsive.  We brought her in the house and put her in the incubator.

We fed by hand on regular basis for the rest of the day, but late in the evening she passed away too.

OK, first to answer the question “Is Dove OK?”  Yes she is.  She is recovering from a c-section, but will heal up just fine.  She is a tough girl and that's why we like her and bred her in the first place.

The second question is “What went wrong?”  We don't know.  I can tell you that I am kicking myself up one side of the street and down the other thinking “Maybe if I did this... and Maybe if I didn't do that....”

We think the problem is viral.  A germ of some sort got in and didn't cause any major problems for the adult dogs, but did for the fetuses.  We aren't certain that Diva ever was pregnant, but we thought she looked the part early on.  Now she isn't showing.  Is it related?  We have no proof.  The good news is most viruses are short-lived, and once conquered, immunity tends to last. We have no concerns for Diva's future fertility.  The “swine flu” is even on our lists of possible culprits.  It has already survived in the system of many animals.

We would have run every test available in veterinary medicine if we thought there would be a decent chance we'd have an answer.  The fact is a necropsy would have likely reveled nothing.  Blood cultures would not have found viral infections.  We felt running every test in the book would have resulted in a 25% chance of getting an answer, and that if we were lucky enough to get one, there would be less than a 50% chance that we could do anything with the information in the future.

Is this the end of breeding at Marshfield Kennel?  No.  Iris is in heat and we are headed to Quebec to breed her.  If you asked me today and I had to stick to my decision, I'd say I'm done breeding GSP's.  But I picked up our GSP puppy collar last night; one of the dogs must have dragged it out of the toy box.  My thought came directly out of my mouth.  “It's gonna take a special little pup to fill this collar.”

What happens to the next guy who accuses you of breeding for profit?  Come bail me out of jail.  I've not been in a fist fight since college, but this one will result in me being charged with assault.  In order to make up for the losses I've taken on breeding pups over the years, I'd need to charge about two to three times what I do.  The only other way to make a profit breeding dogs is to not give a damn about anything.  Breed poor quality dogs, sell them to anybody who has cash, lie through your teeth to get the cash, give no veterinary care, and do nothing for puppies or bitches when things go south.

We are sending deposits back to some, helping a few find pups.  

We really appreciate all of the condolences and prayers that folks have lavished upon us.