# Survival rate



## Leslie B (Mar 17, 2011)

I remember reading that unattended canine births have as much as a 35% mortality rate and that is with purebred dogs. I would hazard a guess that no one looks at the survival rate of the average back yard breeder or puppy mill pups. 

For our dogs, I suspect that the key factor in the survival rate of the puppies is the health and care of the dam. Is she is good health prior to pregnancy? Good weight and muscle condition? Is she fed a quality feed? Does she get good vet care? Is the birth attended? Does the person attending the birth know when to get help? Do they have the best vet that will meet them at 3 am when they think a puppy is stuck? Is the whelp box clean, free from drafts, and have appropiate temperature? 

Good breeders can do everything right and still have something go wrong. Genetically there are some puppies that are not going to make it. I know a breeder who had a bitch who would sometimes refuse one of her pups - invariably the pup had something wrong with it and she knew it. Some pups will look perfect and never take a breath . I know of more that one litter that was concieved via surgical implantation, born in an immmaculate padded whelp box, and still fade away.

From my experience, it seems that vast majority of my puppies survive and thrive. I have only lost 7 puppies at birth in 10 years and 4 of the puppies were from the same bitch - we suspect that she has a defect in part of her uterus.

All that being said, I remember a story from a lab breeder near us. She was called out late one night to help rescue a dog (stray) that had delivered a litter of 10 or 11 pups under someones porch in a blizzard. Of course they all were doing fine. Sometimes we forget just how tough mother nature can be.


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## hvgoldens4 (Nov 25, 2009)

Yes, the mortality rate amongst puppies when they are very young is rather high but this is also why dogs have litters like their wild relatives that they descended from. They have the litters to try to ensure that some will make it to adulthood. Our dogs don't face the issues that animals in the wild face, but an upper respiratory infection, pneumonia, sepsis from the umbilical cord site are all rather common losses. 

A breeder has to be very diligent with new borns as they are beyond fragile and have no reserves or immune systems to fight anything off with.

Unfortunately, with large litters(10 and above) I often hear of girls laying on their puppies by accident and this smothers them. 

We do not ever leave newborn puppies unattended. Someone is always with them and the mom until the puppies eyes are opening and they are up on their feet. At that point in time, they have a higher chance for survival and don't go down hill so quickly.


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## TheZ's (Jun 13, 2011)

I've read that sometimes puppies are reabsorbed (hope I've got the term right) by the mother before birth. Without getting unnecessarily graphic can someone explain what this is and why it happens?


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## PrincessDaisy (Dec 20, 2011)

In Dogs??

I know that rabbits can do that, but never heard that dogs can also.

Max


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## Tahnee GR (Aug 26, 2006)

I think this often has to do with hormone levels or illness. I actually was able to "see" it happening with one of my bitches a long time ago. We did the initial ultrasound and could see 2 or 3 decent heartbeats and about 4 faint ones. I thought maybe it was too early, so redid the ultrasound later. Only one heartbeat, and that's what she had. She resorbed the rest into her body.

Since then, a lot of breeders check hormone levels througout pregnancy and will supplement if necessary to prevent loss of puppies.

I remember when I first started out in Goldens back in the 70's, most vets did not believe in resorption of puppies. I asked several vets about it, and we even had a vet who came to speak to our kennel club, and all denied it existed. Breeders "were mistaken" about pregnancies, or "made errors" when palpating. Resorption did not exist and was a physical impossiblity  Another reason I like to think and research on my own, versus just depending on my vet for everything


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## ServiceDogs (Apr 2, 2013)

It depends on the dog. I had one that we ended up just retiring early since she carried the puppies so poorly. She had as high as a 50% loss rate of puppies, the last litter ended up in a c-section. There have also been females that never once lost a pup. Of course having experienced people on hand for the birth always helps.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

TheZ's said:


> I've read that sometimes puppies are reabsorbed (hope I've got the term right) by the mother before birth. Without getting unnecessarily graphic can someone explain what this is and why it happens?


I had it happen this winter with a very expensive fresh-chilled breeding for which I had a wonderful waiting list of working homes.....

My repro vet said there could be a number of reasons why it happened and we are doing a workup on the girl before we try another breeding. Just a few we discussed:

problems with the bitch's uterus (such as endometriosis) which interfere with embryo attachment and development
infection--a number of bacteria like mycoplasma can cause pregnancy failure
ovarian cysts causing hormone fluctuations
genetic defects in the embryos
genetic incompatibility between the parents leading to embryonic failure (in which case you would go to a different stud dog!)
In my successful litters, I have lost three puppies. One was the stuck puppy in Breeze's emergency c-section due to a twisted uterine horn, and the other two were from her daughter's two litters--one stillborn in her first, and a partially developed puppy in her last litter. It had developed to the point where it could not be absorbed, but was obviously not viable--that litter was born two days earlier than I expected--I figure likely because of the dead puppy which was not pleasant looking when born, but was still in its placenta, which likely protected the other pups.


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## Ksdenton (Mar 17, 2013)

That sounds so horrible. I would imagine the first loss would be very hard to take as would the others but the first one to me would be one of the hardest. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


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## tippykayak (Oct 27, 2008)

TheZ's said:


> I've read that sometimes puppies are reabsorbed (hope I've got the term right) by the mother before birth. Without getting unnecessarily graphic can someone explain what this is and why it happens?


I know in other mammal species, reabsorption happens when the body cannot "fund" the growth of the embryo or when the mother is stressed. It appears to be an adaptation mammals developed a very long time ago, and it helps ensure that the fetuses the body does "fund" have the best shot at making it. It's not always clear, in multi-fetal pregnancies whether the other fetuses absorb the fetus or if the uterus does.

It's actually well-documented in human pregnancy now that ultrasound is so sensitive. Occasionally, when several embryos are implanted, ultrasound will detect multiple heartbeats at earlier stages, but one or more of the embryos is absorbed by the others as the pregnancy progresses.


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## sterregold (Dec 9, 2009)

tippykayak said:


> I know in other mammal species, reabsorption happens when the body cannot "fund" the growth of the embryo or when the mother is stressed. It appears to be an adaptation mammals developed a very long time ago, and it helps ensure that the fetuses the body does "fund" have the best shot at making it. It's not always clear, in multi-fetal pregnancies whether the other fetuses absorb the fetus or if the uterus does.
> 
> It's actually well-documented in human pregnancy now that ultrasound is so sensitive. Occasionally, when several embryos are implanted, ultrasound will detect multiple heartbeats at earlier stages, but one or more of the embryos is absorbed by the others as the pregnancy progresses.


And because of the very unique way canine pregnancies work, stress can also be a factor in causing implantation failure, as well as reabsorption. One of the reasons we cannot do many of the procedures used in other mammalian species, such as IVF or embryo transfer (very common now in the cattle industry) is that when canine eggs are shed they are not yet fertizable. They take about 48 hours to ripen once released from the ovaries, and will not do this outside of the body. Once fertized, they then float around down into the uterine horns before implanitng somewhere around 14-16 days post-conception(18-20 days post LH surge). Stress during this time (trauma, lack of food, etc) can prevent implantation from occuring. This is one reason why many people who have shipped a bitch for breeding may ask the stud dog owner to board her until pregnancy can be confirmed by ultrasound, as by then that crucial time has passed. However, if the bitch is not a good traveller, then stress could still cause a classic reabsorption, which is why many now prefer to do a fresh-chilled or frozen breeding where the semen comes to the bitch.


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## hvgoldens4 (Nov 25, 2009)

In dogs, the female has to manufacture the progesterone needed to maintain the pregnancy. In other mammalian species, it is done by the fetuses. If the female doesn't manufacture enough progesterone, the levels will drop off and the pregnancy will terminate. It is actually a rather common phenomenon.


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## Conquerergold (Dec 12, 2007)

sterregold said:


> Once fertized, they then float around down into the uterine horns before implanitng somewhere around 14-16 days post-conception(18-20 days post LH surge). Stress during this time (trauma, lack of food, etc) can prevent implantation from occuring. This is one reason why many people who have shipped a bitch for breeding may ask the stud dog owner to board her until pregnancy can be confirmed by ultrasound, as by then that crucial time has passed. However, if the bitch is not a good traveller, then stress could still cause a classic reabsorption, which is why many now prefer to do a fresh-chilled or frozen breeding where the semen comes to the bitch.


Actually, according to leading authorities, that isn't quite right. If one is shipping a bitch it is best to ship her back immediately after breeding, before implantation has taken place. Implantation happens roughly 21 days from ovulation (with a range of 21 - 24 days), which then releases the hormone relaxin. This way there is plenty of time for the bitch to settle before implantation. Ship them once ovulation has occurred, breed, and ship home, that gives a breeder the highest chance of success when dealing with shipping.

Late term absorption can be caused by trama, premature drop in progesterone, illness, as well as a myriad of other possibilities.

Cheers
Rob


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## hvgoldens4 (Nov 25, 2009)

Conquerergold said:


> Actually, according to leading authorities, that isn't quite right. If one is shipping a bitch it is best to ship her back immediately after breeding, before implantation has taken place. Implantation happens roughly 21 days from ovulation (with a range of 21 - 24 days), which then releases the hormone relaxin. This way there is plenty of time for the bitch to settle before implantation. Ship them once ovulation has occurred, breed, and ship home, that gives a breeder the highest chance of success when dealing with shipping.
> 
> Late term absorption can be caused by trama, premature drop in progesterone, illness, as well as a myriad of other possibilities.
> 
> ...


Our repro specialist(Dr. Robert Hutchison) has always told me the same thing that Rob is stating about them being bred and sent back home before the eggs would implant.


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