At the clinic the diagnosis was confirmed, definitely bloat, and worse - torsion. Torsion is when the stomach, intestine, or other parts inside become flipped or twisted. It is extremely serious and quite possibly fatal. Renee needed surgery right away.
Because Renee wasn't due until next Saturday we had a bit of a dilemma. The puppies might not be viable this early. One of the last things to develop are the lungs. Before 57 days of gestation, the lungs just are not ready to cope with the outside air. Renee was only at 55 days gestation, two days too early. However, to save her, we needed to operate, and very likely take out the puppies.
As much as we want the puppies, Renee is our first priority, so we did what we had to do, and Renee went into surgery. Without it Renee would die.
Miraculously the surgery went very well. There were some minor complications as she had huge blood vessels that wanted to bleed a lot, but the vet is a good one, and made sure he caught the "bleeders" and closed them before she lost too much blood.
There were 12 puppies in there. One had died in utero, so had no chance of survival. This isn't unusual in a large litter of puppies, even if whelped naturally.
All the puppies were very groggy and took a while to come around. Because of Renee being anesthetized, the puppies also had some of the drug in their system. Normally it doesn't take long to get into the bitch to take out puppies in a c-section, but because of the bleeding, it took longer than usual.
The dedicated clinic staff working on resuscitating puppies.
A dog's uterus is Y shaped, with two uterine horns. Both horns have puppies inside them. When whelping usually the puppies alternate as they are born. In a c-section, the vet takes out all the puppies from one horn, repairs it, then takes the puppies out of the other horn.
There were 6 puppies in the first horn. These puppies had the least anesthetic, so recovered more quickly. The second horn also held 6 puppies, including the one dead puppy. The last puppy in the second horn had been under anesthetic the longest, and was very groggy. Sadly this puppy did not make it.
Puppies in towels while being rubbed down to get their breathing going.
However, amazingly the other 10 puppies all started breathing on their own. All seem to be fat and healthy, and of decent birth weights, considering that they are a whole week early.
Eight little puppies all in a row.
While Renee's surgery continued the puppies got to snuggle together in a basket, all nicely padded with hot water bottles below them to keep them cozy. The vet was able to work on Renee without removing her uterus, which is nice as I had not hoped to spay her at this time. Sadly spayed bitches cannot be shown, and I really would like to take Renee out to a few shows again one of these days. Everything got put back where it belonged, and the vet feels that Renee has an excellent prognosis.
Puppies snuggling up to Renee for a drink.
Once Renee recovered enough to be conscious, we put the puppies on her for a chance to drink. Thankfully she already had some milk starting, so the puppies should have enough to eat without supplementing.
More puppies snuggled up to Mom.
Renee is still at the clinic with her puppies. She needs to have some more time to recover, and get some post-op bloodwork done before she can come home. We are busy finishing the set-up of the whelping bed, which was only halfway done as I'd not planned to move Renee there until tomorrow. But, assuming she continues to recover well, Renee should be home later tonight.
Renee recovering from her ordeal.
I will post more once Renee is home and settled in for the night. I will also have some photos and info on the individual puppies soon. There are still no guarantees that everyone will make it through, so any prayers and good thoughts are welcome! But so far things are looking as good as can be expected.
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