rebreeding

Question
my saint Bernard was bred on her last heat cycle and had her first litter of 9  on 02-23-08. fabulous pups. my head tells me i should rest her for a cycle. but my heart wants to rebreed her now. she is ready to breed now. we absolutely loved having the pups and feel that empty nest syndrome.  Molly is 2 and 1/2 yrs old. in great shape. but don't know about her inside healing. thank you debbie

Answer
Hi Debbie:

Follow your head! Breeding consecutively greatly increases the risks for problems, such as birth defects due to calcium depletion & even if all the puppies are fine, it's likely the mother's calcium will be minimal to none, which often leads to a scenario of hypocalcemic and/or hypoglycemic episodes, which range in severity from a bout of mild convulsions to full on seizures & fatality. Plus, she truly needs time to allow her reproductive organs to completely heal as well as her entire hormonal & other body systems. Remember, the people who breed consecutively are often those who run puppy mills - I KNOW you wouldn't want to be in any way associated with that type of mind-set!