cause of death

Question
QUESTION: my great dane was 4 and got pregnant the week of february 8th of this year.. was due first week of april... she was having problems the week of March 22d.. i took her to vet.. they did a c-section on her and she lost the 4 babies that she had... an hour and a half after the c-section she died... the doc told me it was becuz she was geriatric age... she also had some kind of infection in her uterus.. i'm curious to know what age is considered geriatric...and what age do u stop breeding a great dane...this was only her second pregnancy.... she survived the surgery and the vet called and said she was fine.. an hour later the vet called and said that she had passed...

ANSWER: Susan,

To answer your question, four years old is not a "geriatric" age for a Great Dane. We recently had to euthanize our Dane Gowyn who was almost 15 years old. If she had some sort of infection this could have been the issue. She could have also had a blood clot or something was not closed right inside of her. I would have personally requested that a different vet perform a necropsy on her, to make sure that it was not the veterinarian's fault that she died. Unfortunately what happened at the veterinarians was not your fault, she should not have had a c-section, if she was due the first week of April and she went to the vet on or around the 22nd, this means that she was at least 9 days away from being full term, the rate of survival for a puppy born on day 50 or 51 is less then 10%.

I am  not sure that to tell you but I do not think that her age had anything to do with the complications, it could have been an infection and unfortunately not all dogs need to be bred.

Breeding is something that should really be left to someone who has extensive knowledge on how to handle any situation with a pregnant bitch and someone who actively shows their dogs competitively in Conformation, Performance Events like Obedience and Agility or other AKC sanctioned events. Dogs who come from mediocre breeding have genetic defects and underlying problems that sometimes cannot be foreseen until it is too late.

In this case, your female probably had an underlying problem which inhibited the ability to keep the puppies inside to their due date, this can mean that there may have been something wrong with the puppies and the body was not going to hold them any longer. Almost the same thing as a miscarriage, you never really know why it happened.

I am sorry for your loss and I hope that in the future you will reconsider breeding as these problems occur far more times then I care to know about and it breaks my heart that someone's pet died for the sake of having a few puppies.

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

QUESTION: i wasnt trying to breed her..  i have a male great dane also.. MY DOG DID NOT DIE FOR THE SAKE OF HAVING A FEW PUPPIES..  but she did get pregnant .. cant watch them  24?7  ... i was asking a question to you and you pretty much made me be the bad one... came to u for help ... guess i'll go somewhere else that will answer my question

Answer
Susan,

If you had read the entire response you would have seen that I did answer your question. No one is going to be able to tell you exactly what happened. If you wanted to find out, you should have had another veterinarian perform a necropsy on her.

If you have a male and female dog that are both intact you should get one or both spayed and neutered or keep them separated when she is in heat.