Sassy the Mastiff had a textbook, planned Cesarean. As soon as her temperature dropped Thursday night and she was in labor we took her to the vet first thing Friday morning for the procedure. Mastiffs are known to lose 30-50% of their pups when whelping a litter of puppies. All puppies deserve to live, so we did the Cesarean for $2000. An emergency C-section performed after problems start would cost more and be more stressful on the dam, and usually a cesarean is decided after a couple pups are already lost.
Sassy is such a mellow girl, taking all the human contact in stride.
IV is in her front leg. Sassy getting prepped for surgery.
Tummy prep
Sassy is put under then a final prep is done.
She is moved to the operating room.
She is cut open, and you can see a puppy in a horn. The horn is pulled out of the uterus.
Puppy #1, big Red boy, came out SCREAMING, very good.
The cord is clamped and cut.
Puppy #2, Yellow girl
Pup #3, Pink girl
Pup #4 breaking sac, Green boy
Breaking the sac off the face
Pup #5, Blue boy
Sewing Sassy back up
All done. Time to wake her up.
Keeping her warm
Cleaning her up
Saying, "Good Morning, good to have you back Sassy."
Receiving a shot of oxytocin to help her milk come in.
Checking to see if all pups will latch on and helping the pups nurse for the first time.
Home and all pups are nursing.
Sassy's puppies are here. They were all very big. Five pups: 3 boys and 2 girls, 1.5 to 2lbs each.
RED male 1lb 11oz first born, most vocal, biggest boy 774g
YELLOW female 1lb 7oz second born, 650g
PINK female 1lb 10 oz third / fourth 740g
GREEN male 1lb 8 oz . third / fourth 680g
BLUE male 1lb 7.5 oz last born 660g
Making sure each puppys’ plumbing works by stimulating them to go potty.
All pups are peeing and pooping just fine.
Weighing the pups
All pups are thriving and doing well. Sassy the Mastiff is recovering from her C-section.
Sassy is licking her puppies to help them go to the bathroom. Something that must be done, if not by the dam, then by the humans.
She is eating well...
And in very good spirits.
The next day all the pups have lost some weight as Sassy's milk is not yet in. This stage is nerve-racking, as you MUST let them nurse and suck till they are exhausted and hear them cry. If you do not do this and you start supplementing then the milk will not come in. You have to keep close tabs, so they don't get too weak and unable to aggressively suck to bring the milk in. So at 10 p.m. I topped them off with a little puppy milk supplement, and then hope for four hours of sleep. This will give them a boost, pick-up, so they can aggressively suck again.
There is so much more to breeding than many think. This is the stage where some people lose puppies from fading puppy syndrome, but this too is avoidable. A good scale is VERY important. You cannot let them dehydrate or get too weak.
This litter is doing very well.
Courtesy of MistyTrails Mastiffs
