THE UNEXPECTED PREGNANCY

Trevor Turner, B.Vet. Med., MRCVS

First published in March/April 2003 Edition

The title surely must be a story line for a "docusoap" but I can assure you this is a fact. A well respected judge, exhibitor and breeder who also is a personal friend, had an overseas judging appointment. Unlike many who share their life with dogs as time progressed she had done all the right things. She had reduced her kennels as a preface to retirement so now had two golden oldies with whom she could not bear to part and a couple of young hopefuls on which the continuation of the line depended.

With only four dogs, staff had long since been disbanded so when away from home the dogs went into my kennels. I had been her vet for at least 25 years. I gave up my veterinary practice some four years ago and then subsequently sold my kennels. This proved something of a hiatus but arrangements were made with a local practice and then with local kennels in which she developed great confidence. The kennels, following a code of good practice which I have been advocating in these columns for years, requested a contact phone number. She gave two, her mobile and mine, as her "once was" vet. The period of stay requested was one week. Two days into that week she received a telephone call from agitated kennel staff explaining that the bitch had gone into labour and already produced one puppy.

"We will not be able to keep her here, you will have to collect her." That is when I came into the equation. I had seen the bitch successfully exhibited only two weeks previously and had talked with the owner, an experienced breeder who had at that time asked my opinion regarding phantom pregnancies. Should they be treated or are they best left alone? At that time I had seen but not examined the bitch. My advice could best be described as "general". The scene is set.

I talked with the kennel owner and realised the main problem was that he did not think there were any suitable whelping kennels on the site. It then turned out that there were isolation kennels which had not been used for some time.

The problem was temporarily solved! The bitch, of a breed normally renowned for fairly large litters, only had three puppies. Mother and family were duly collected by a rather red-faced judge, breeder, exhibitor at the appointed time. There are quite a few lessons to be learned from this true but salutary tale.

1. Sometimes pregnancy in the bitch can be notoriously difficult to establish even with all the modern gizmos at our disposal.

2. Even the smallest kennels should be prepared for the unexpected. The kennels in question in this case was neither small nor inexperienced. However the owner of the bitch in this case was pretty high profile in the dog world. Clearly the bitch did not look pregnant on admittance and the kennels knew she had been successful in a show only a fortnight previously. Therefore the usual questions e.g. when is she due in season? When was she last in season? etc. were omitted.

3. Very soon in my kennel career I learned that the unexpected is always waiting in the wings, among them whelpings. During early site development I arranged to have a whelping kennel or two available as far removed from the main kennels as possible but at the opposite end of the site to the isolation kennels. Later during the evolution of our kennels this whelping facility was increased so that we actually advertised the service and often had bitches in for whelping when domestic circumstances were such that the bitch could not whelp at home, e.g. clashing with holidays, important events, etc., those kennels were actually quite profitable because they also acted as a "bitches in season" block, which was another growth area during my kennel development in the nineteen eighties.

4. The final point is to ensure you have details of the owner's veterinary surgeon in a case like this. Although strictly in this case I no longer acted for the breeder in a professional capacity, I was nevertheless able to talk the kennels through the crisis which I am sure their own veterinary surgeon would have been able to do just as well, but imagine a similar situation involving an inexperienced pet owner. I am sure they would be much happier if they knew there had been contact between their own veterinary surgeon and the kennels rather than, for example, a Caesar having to be performed in an emergency by the kennels' vet without any input from the pet's own vet.