labor in dogs

Question
QUESTION: My female pomapoo went into labor around 10am yesterday and died around 9pm.  She started out panting off and on for a couple of hours and she was very restless yet lifeless acting.  Then her head started shaking profusely.  I tried to hold it but it would not stop.  She did this about 4-5 times within an hour.  Then she started to calm down for a while and then she would have contractions and pant, whine and sometimes do a strange steady sounding bark.  Then after about 4 hours of this things started to slow down and she'd just lay there until a contraction would come and she'd pant and get restless.  And her eyes looked funny like there was a film or something on them and she just looked like she was staring off into another world.  Then right before she died, my husband got up to use the bathroom and reached down and petted her, talked to her and she wagged her tail at him and within a few minutes when he came back to her she had died and he called me in from outside then and her legs were already starting to stiffen.  We also lost all the puppies because the emergency clinic didn't return my call for over an hour.  What could have possibly happened to her?  She also had the sack and one puppy leg coming out of her about 30 minutes after she died.

ANSWER: I am really sorry for your loss.I am sorry she suffered for so long in labor also. It must have been very hard on her.

There are many things that it could be but any dog that doesn't push out a puppy two hours into regular labor needs the assistance of a vet right away. Small dogs are especially susceptable to having puppies get caught in the birth canal. If you saw a leg then the first puppy was probably breech and she would have needed assistance to get the first one out. A lot of the time the first puppy is larger than the rest and gets stuck.

The head shaking could have been from exhaustion or a lack of calcium in her system. Long labors and starting milk production can cause calcium to be pulled from the bones to get it into the bloodstream which causes the shaking you saw. That usually doesn't start until after the puppies are born, but with a prolonged labor and dystocia, she could have started to get it. (painful and difficult birthing) It is the equivalent of eclampsia in women.

The puppies had probably died many hours before you called the ER vets. She should have been taken in to the vet around noon yesterday after being in labor for two hours.

I am really sorry you lost her and all of the puppies. That is a hard thing to bear.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------


Our precious LADY   QUESTION: Thank you.  She wasn't suppose to go back to vet for another xray until tomorrow, tues, and I just thought from every thing I've read on the internet about signs of dogs in labor that what she was going through was normal and could take up to two days before she actually gave birth.  We are all just heart broken, she was a very well taken care of and loved pup...we just miss her so much...so does this sound like eclampsia to you?  Do you think she had a heart attack?  I just don't see how her legs could've started to stiffen within minutes after she passed.  She was the best dog and our toy poodle misses her awful too!

Answer
Not necessarily eclampsia but she died because the first puppy was stuck. I don't really know what the cause of her death is but your vet could tell you if you take her in to him. He can do a necropsy on her and tell you more with certainty.

Their legs stiffen quickly if she was having a problem with calcium or muscle exhaustion from all those hours of labor. Usually this ends quickly and they become limp again only to have rigor mortis set in later.

I am sure your vet must have told you this, but never believe everything you read about online! Always consult with your vet first and foremost. He should have given you a leaflet or papers about labor and delivery in dogs if this was your first litter. It sounds like you had been taking her in all throughout her pregnancy so this surprises me that this happened to her.

I can tell she was well taken care of. As I said, small dogs are very prone to whelping problems and if this was her first litter even more so.

I know it's too late for her now,but maybe you can save someone else the same heartache by encouraging spaying their dogs at 5 months old so this doesn't happen to them either.

That way her life won't have been lost for nothing. Use her story to help others to see why adopting is so much better than breeding!
Safer too.

Here is some more information that might be helpful:

Pre-Eclampsia/Eclampsia (which normally can happen 10 days after whelping, can also happen with a large litter, and more in toy breeds in the last few days of pregnancy. Hypocalcimic shaking & pre-labor shaking can seem the same at first), but if Dam is hypocalcimic, and gets eclampsia, the shaking quickly turns to Convulsions, muscle weakness, muscle tremors, spasms, rigidy and twitching needing immediate Vet assistance before seizures, coma and death. It is wise to give your Dam calcium when pups are 5 days old, (for the next few weeks. The easiest way is one Tum a day. Tums are a great calcium supplement. Eclampsia (sometimes referred to as Milk Fever) is a very serious condition, and can come on suddenly. It is caused from a shortage of Calcium in the Bloodstream.

This is from a site that a breeding put up on a normal delivery. You can read the whole thing but the main thing is that once the actual labor starts she should have started to deliver puppies in no more than one-two hours.

http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/whelping.htm

I know you miss her a lot. I am sure your other dog does too. I am really sorry for her loss.
Again, take her into the vet's if you want a complete answer to what might have happened.Please do let me know if you find out anything.