Breeding – Sand Spring Chesapeakes

We are six days into Glory’s scheduled cesarean section which took place at Veterinary Village on February 6, 2016. I chose to do a scheduled csec after talking in depth with Dr. Greer about Glory and what would be best for her and her puppies. Dr. Greer is my reproduction veterinarian for all my repro needs. I also consult my doctors where I work as a Veterinary Technician at Harmony Pet Clinic between us all we came up with a game plan. This breeding was a surgical AI using frozen semen that was also done at Veterinary Village, you can read that post here.

First we took into consideration that Glory didn’t have a “normal” whelp with her last litter. Glory gave birth to a dead puppy 5 hours after her last delivered live puppy. This puppy looked normal in all aspects except that it was dead. That constitutes not a “normal” whelp.

Second Glory’s due date landed on the weekend. If by some chance Glory had problems with her whelp and became distressed the reproduction clinic or an emergency clinic would be over a hour away that is not a good distance to have to travel with a bitch that is having problems delivering. The percentage of survival of puppies is higher with a scheduled csec than letting the bitch deliver naturally if the bitch becomes distressed and it turns into a emergency csec. This has been proven by Paula Moon et.al study that she did “Perioperative risk factors for puppies delivered by cesarean section in the United States and Canada.” JAAHA 2000, Vol 36, N. 4, p. 359-368.

Third thing we took into consideration was that x-ray showed that Glory was going to have a large litter. Even know the x-ray shown that she was going to have at least 8 puppies Glory was very large which made me think she had more puppies in there than on x-ray for they were 8 really large puppies.

This decision is one that isn’t taken lightly and should be well thought out and discussed with your reproduction veterinarian. You know your dog and you know what you and your dog can handle so you need to do right is right for your pregnant bitch.

Without further adieu let me take you through Glory’s c-section experience.

Date: February 6, 2016 time to be at Veterinary Village 12 pm, time to leave Stancerville 11 am. Friends Tom and Irene (who own Josey from Glory’s last litter) arrived promptly at 10:45 am, we loaded up the van and were off on an adventure that we will never forget.

Supplies we took with.

Supplies we took with: Comforter for Glory to lay on in the van, basket to bring the puppies home in, heating pad to keep the puppies warm, power inverter for the heating pad, blanket for puppies, towels for basket, notepad to keep notes, soda, cookies, camera, chocolate and chapstick for the vet staff.

Blood draw, catheter placement.

Once we arrived at the clinic we checked in with the receptionist, Glory weighed in at 95.5#, we were then taken to our examination room where the pre-op stuff would take place. First Glory had her blood drawn for her pre anesthetic blood work which will check her internal organs check a complete blood count and a coagulation panel. While the blood work was being run on the in house chemistry analyzers Kassie one of the Veterinary Technicians placed the IV catheter. This would be for IV medications and for IV fluids during the procedure. She then received steroids through her catheter site as well as flush to make sure the catheter was patient. An Adaptil collar was put on at this time. The collar which is a calming collar should be put on a couple days before any whelp. It has dog appeasing pheromones that help calm the mother.

ECG and shave.

While the steroids were incubating (needed at least 45 minutes) a ECG was taken of Glory’s heart to make sure it was beating correctly, they didn’t want any surprises in surgery if there was something that could of been detected before surgery. Her abdomen was then shaved so there could be a sterile surgical field lastly she was given a couple subcutaneous injections which were calcium, reglan and atropine. Calcium was given because it has been anecdotally reported to improve maternal skills and aids in uterine contractility. Reglan has been shown to improve lactation. Atropine will cross the placentas and aid in maintaining fetal heart rates. *taken from the book Dr. Greer wrote: Canine Reproduction and Neonatology. Published by Teton NewMedia.

PicMonkey Collage5

At 1:45 pm Glory was induced, intubated, hooked up to general anesthesia and IV fluids and prepped for surgery. When they are prepped a plastic drape is put down and only the incision area is scrubbed so the puppies are more apt to take to the nipples since nothing was put on them. Dr. Greer and Dr. Ahmann performed the c-section while Dr. Griffiths was monitoring the anesthesia as well as Glory and keeping track of the surgery as what puppy came out first and out of what horn of the uterus, what time the puppy came out and who it was given to in what color towel so the puppy could be kept track of from start to finish. Their were 4 support staff members handling the puppies as they came out. Heather and Cassidy are Veterinary Assistants, Cassie is a Technician and Dr. Greer/Griffiths daughter Katie was home for the weekend so she helped out also she is a nurse.

It’s show time, at 1:54 pm the first puppy was born, the last one was born at 1:59 pm.

The video shown what a well oiled team this is. Everyone had their duty and place.

Surgery report.

Another puppy coming out.

The puppies were popping out like popcorn so more hands were needed on deck to help stimulate the puppies and get them warmed up and breathing good. The first stop for the puppies was at the puppy resuscitation center.

The more hands the merrier.

I thought the rubber maid container with heating pads inside of it was most clever. That way if you needed to let go of the puppy there was no chance of it falling off the table. There were heating pads in the bottom with a towel over it to keep the puppies warm. Each puppy came out and was put into a specific colored towel so they could keep track of who was who. At this table was where the puppy’s throat got suctioned out with a DeeLee Mucus trap, caffeine was given to help stimulate them, dopram was given if needed help breathing where oxygen was given too if needed. They stayed here until they were stable then were transferred to another table where another team member did their work on them.

Weight, id, umbilicus table.

At the weight, id and umbilicus table where the Dr’s daughter Katie was tying off the umbilical cords from the placenta using a sterile hemostat and suture material. Once tied off then the placenta could be cut off and the umbilical cord dipped in iodine. The puppy was weighed and a small spot of nail polish was placed on the head before it headed to the incubator to stay warm.

The supervisor.

Another puppy coming out and resuscitated.

The surgical suite.

While Dr. Greer was overseeing what what going on in the treatment room with the puppies Dr. Ahmann was suturing up Glory. Glory was done at 3 pm.

Glory in recovery.

While Glory was in recovery the puppies were all doing well so I asked if the Dr. could remove their dewclaws right away so I didn’t need to make a trip back with them since I live a hour away. Each puppy had rear dewclaws that needed to be removed along with the fronts.

Removing dewclaws.

The technician holds the puppy pressing on the cephalic vein that goes down the leg at the elbow while stabilizing the leg for the doctor. A sterile surgical scissors is used to remove the dewclaw, kwik stop is applied and surgical glue is used to seal the incision. Once done the puppy was given to me to see if they wanted to nurse on Glory.

Trying to nurse.

The puppies and Glory wanted no part of nursing. It was too soon for them so instead of taking any chances that they might not get Glory’s colostrum which is a valuable part for puppies to develop adequate passive immunity and should be given within 12 hours of birth Dr. Greer decided to get them started on fresh frozen plasma.

Giving plasma via tube feeding.

Since I needed to give the plasma once we were home via a feeding tube I needed a refresher course on tube feeding. I learned it in technician school but I haven’t had to do it in a very long time. Dr. Greer was explaining to me what I should do. You take a feeding tube and stretch the end of it to the last rib and the nose. You put a mark on the tube where the end of the rib landed. You then tip the head of the puppy down and insert the tube into the left side of the puppies mouth and guide the tube down the esophagus, once you get to the mark you made on the tube you hold the head in your hand while holding the tube and using your other hand you pinch the puppy to get it to cry, if it cries then the tube is in the stomach and not the trachea and then it is ok to administer the fluid. If you can’t get the puppy to cry then reinsert the tube.

That is a video of me tubing the puppy and giving it the plasma. Fresh frozen plasma can be purchased through HemoPet. The donor dogs have their health screenings so they are disease free so you don’t have to worry about introducing diseases. The tube feeding went well. Glory was recovered enough to go home with her pups so it was time to pack them up.

Time to go home.

We took the puppies out of the incubator, placed them in their heated blanket and into the van we went.

Ice Cream for the ride home.

On our way home we stopped for ice cream and of course I was busy texting my friends telling them all was well with everyone.

So far I am very pleased with my decision to do a scheduled c-section. I have the best well organized repro clinic a breeder could have. Since I am a technician and know how a facility should be run it was so nice to see this clinic being run that way. Everyone was so professional and took such good care of Glory and the pups. They all had their jobs and they did them well. I can’t thank the staff at Veterinary Village enough for allowing Tom, Irene and I to partake in such an amazing delivery. So far all 9 puppies are doing very well and so is Glory.

THANK YOU!!!

Barks And Bytes

We are joining Linda at 2browndawgs and Jodi at Heart Like A Dog for this great blog hop.

This breeding with Glory has been over a year in the making. Last summer I did my research on available stud dogs, picked one and was waiting for Glory to come into heat (which was suppose to be after she had her OFA test’s done). The best laid plans didn’t work last year, she came into heat before she was two which meant we couldn’t do her OFA test’s in essence we had to wait on breeding her the following year. We could of bred her in the spring after we did the testing but we train and run hunt tests all summer long a litter wouldn’t let us be able to do that so we do our limited breeding’s in the fall/winter.

So I get to meet my boyfriend today?

Where’s my boyfriend?

Are you bringing in my boyfriend?

So you know that we chose “Silas” to be the stud dog. Silas lives in Oklahoma. Normally the bitch would go to the stud dogs house and they would breed naturally any where’s from one to three times during the bitches standing heat period (a bitches heat cycle can range from 2-3 weeks in length with average time of standing heat being at 10-13 days). Since Silas lives 13 hours from us and we had too many things going on in November I planned on doing a artificial insemination for this breeding. There are a couple of methods that can be done for a AI. If the stud dog is alive (which Silas is) and his semen quality is good (he has produced several litters in the past) you would use a fresh chilled sample and have it implanted one of three ways.

Three types of Artificial Insemination

1. Vaginally – semen deposited into the vaginal tract

2. Transcervical – semen deposited into the cervix using a endoscope via the vagina

3. Surgical – surgical procedure where semen is deposited into the uterus, used most often with frozen semen and in older bitches that the doctor would like to visualize the uterus

I have done a vaginal and surgical AI with Nellie in the past which both produced a litter of puppy’s. I debated and debated which way to go with Glory. This is Glory’s first litter, she is young and healthy so there should be no reason on her end not to become pregnant doing a AI. But which AI will it be?

We’re in the conception room.

Hello lovely technician Brenda.

After some long deliberation I decided the best route for Glory would be the transcervical route. I figured we would only get one chance at a insemination and wanted the best percentage of her taking which is over 80% so we went for it. When doing AI breeding’s you need to run progesterone tests on the bitch so you can pin point when they are going to ovulate so you can do the breeding on the correct day for the best chance of conception. Glory had four progesterone tests run. Once I noticed she started her heat cycle I had one run which the results were low <.02 the reproduction doctor told me I could wait 4 days and run another one so the next one was done 7 days into her heat cycle, the results were .6, still low so the next one three days later. The next test was done 10 days into her heat and the results were 2.6 which happened to be on a Monday. Dogs ovulate when the progesterone reaches 5, the eggs need 48-72 hrs to mature before they can be impregnated with the semen. Dr said next test Wednesday. I knew we would be getting close by watching Glory and watching the discharge coming out her vagina (the color was changing from dark red to pink). I told the stud dog owner we were getting close and to be on standby. The results on Wednesday were 8.6, she ovulated so 911 the stud dog owner and have him collected and the semen overnight-ed for the AI on Thursday.

I use Veterinary Village for all my reproduction work. Dr. Greer has done my repro work on Nellie and gave me two nice litters so she will be the one doing the insemination on Glory.

Dr. Greer holding Glory as the table is being elevated to the correct height.

Dog daddy John holding her front, Brenda the tech holding the rear.

What is TCI?

TCI is Transcervical Insemination. How this is done is explained by the American Kennel Club website:

The transcervical insemination (TCI) is performed with the bitch in a standing position. No sedation nor anesthesia is required. A fiber optic cystourethoscope is used vaginally to visualize the opening to the cervix. A flexible catheter is maneuvered through the cervix into the uterus. It is important that the breeder realize that the veterinarian is not visualizing the inside of the uterus and this technique does not allow for evaluation of the uterus.

The TCI procedure is visualized on a television monitor and does allow for examination of the vaginal tract, however. The semen is gently pushed through the catheter from a syringe. The veterinarian can visualize that the semen flows easily into the uterus and does not flow back into the vaginal tract.

The transcervical insemination does not replace the surgical insemination as it does not allow for uterine evaluation, but is a significant improvement over the vaginal method of artificial insemination. The TCI is recommended for any type semen, especially frozen and fresh-cooled and can significantly increase conception when poor quality semen and lowered sperm numbers are used. The TCI technique should be used in bitches less than 5 years of age where there is not a reason to suspect uterine changes or uterine disease.

Getting everything prepared.

Let’s get this show on the road.

We were in and out in 30 minutes. Glory was a little uncomfortable when the first catheter was placed and kept in there while getting ready for the endoscope to be inserted. Once the endoscope was inserted then she calmed down and stood there for the procedure. Here are two video’s of the procedure. The first one is over a minute long and the second one is over 5 minutes long.

December 18 will be Glory’s ultrasound to see if she is pregnant. I could hardly wait for her to come into heat now I can hardly wait to find out the results. Thanks to Dr. Greer and her two technicians Brenda and Marissa who helped out with this breeding. Paws crossed!