Leema

His head did look quite like it was fluid filled. Hydrocephalus might've been right, but maybe associated with some other malformation of his head. We took this poor boy to the vet today, but vet didn't have many answers. He suggested that perhaps the head was compressed during delivery. (I think the head looked odder when the puppy was alive - perhaps blood flow was sustaining its size?) The other overshot (overbite) puppy also died this morning. It had no interest in feeding, it wouldn't get warm (put it on heat packs etc and it just stayed icy to the touch), and it still had goop on it because mum wasn't interested in cleaning or tending to it. Another one that wasn't meant to make it. I'd be very concerned if this was one of MY litters - I'd want to know where these two big over bites came from! (And, you're right, it'd probably be blamed on inbreeding or the 'problems' of purebreds.) There are three fit and healthy brindle boys that are feeding well and passed a vet check today. :)

Fantastic news.

Some pictures of him. Was very hard to get a decent photo in the bad lit room, but hopefully this will give you an idea. I also took a video to show the dimensions of his head. If anyone thinks that would be of interest, I'll upload it... Just say. Rescue bitch ended up having 5 puppies - first two were normal, then this deformed pup, the fourth puppy also was overshot (not as badly) and hasn't seemed to be able to feed (may have to get it D'ed at the vet check today), and fifth puppy was normal. All surviving pups are brindle boys.

Puppy died. It actually is severely overshot - I had a moment, excuse me. I doubted that he'd be able to suckle, too. Will post pictures eventually. We've up to puppy 5. Still going. :)

Er, maybe, from Googling kinda... Couldn't find any pictures of new-new borns.

The rescue bitch here has started to have her litter (yay!), and third born puppy is deformed. He is severely undershot and his head appears all big and swollen. The puppy is not thriving (born only about 30 minutes ago) and we're letting mum decide if she wants it or not (seems not). Just wondering if anyone has any ideas what this irregularity is? Pictures to come once we've done this whelping thing.

Like others have said, I use frozen packs (like you'd put in an esky) and wrap them in a thin blanket. The puppies can cuddle them like they'd cuddle a heat pack. I'd only put air conditioning or fans on the puppies if the puppies were spread out (i.e. 'looking hot'). I can normally achieve enough cool air flow with windows open instead, but would use air conditioning if things were getting very gross. The room I whelp in heats up easily, and we have a bitch here (rescue) due to whelp in a week... I think it is likely that I will need to turn the air conditioning on to make things bare-able in here, but time will tell.

Clover's first season was a silent season. All her other seasons have been normal, but further apart... That is, the time between her 1st and 2nd season was 7 months, the time between her 2nd and 3rd season was 8 months, the time between her 3rd and 4th season was 9 months, and the time between her 4th and 5th season was 10 months... No, I am not making this up! She successfully had puppies from matings on her 4th and her 5th season. This is a slightly different case from you, but may help in some way...

Congratulations on your new family members. It sounds like your girl is just not toilet trained. This probably has nothing to do with her being entire. I doubt that, if you got her desexed, this would change. I would treat your maltese like a puppy and take her out every 30 minutes or so to go toilet, and put her in a crate if you can't supervise her inside. That being said, I have found that, with my girls, they pee more when they are in season. I say they like to 'advertise' that their status. For that reason, she may be peeing inside more so because she is in season. That being said, my toilet trained girls would not pee inside regardless whether they're in season or not. It's my bitches that aren't so well toilet trained that decide that it's okay to pee inside when in season.

I am not planning to desex Clover. Because... You just never know! What if, in three years time, a dog comes along that I just -have- to try? Plus, I'm not concerned about risks with keeping her entire. It's just a nuisance when I'm doing tracking, earthdog, etc, and I can't run her in season when I've paid good money! I'm not really a big advocate of desexing, full stop, so I doubt I'd desex anything for convenience sake. I think the health benefits are negligible.

My last litter was a singleton from a surgical AI with frozen semen. A singleton is a small litter for my breed (mostly reserved for old bitches!), but my bitch 'only' had 3 last time, so it's conceivable that she is just the small-litter type. There is no reason why frozen semen wouldn't 'work' on small breeds simply for being smaller. However, what might make sense is if bitches of some small breeds (and shelties would be one that come to mind) get so stressed by anaesthetic and surgical AI that puppies are not conceived. But, I would imagine that there would be a number of large breeds which would suffer from stress post surgery, too.

Very much agree! I am booked in for Ian Dunbar in Melbourne. Would love to know who else is going, and potentially catch up for dinner one night or something?

I'm in the same boat. I don't think I'll get them before I leave Adelaide, but that's normal. ;)

I agree. The idea of "don't breed or buy when shelter pets die" is a bit much. For every pet killed in a pound, there is: *A breeder who didn't do enough scrutiny of the new home. *An owner who didn't do enough for their animal. *A pound who didn't have enough resources to rehome the animal. No way am I, as a breeder, responsible for other breeders, those who surrender animals, or pound administration. I have no part to play in shelter pets dying. I wrote about this more in a blog post: http://leemakennels.com/blog/rescue/dont-breed-or-buy-while-shelter-dogs-die/

'Normally' I don't do a 12 week vaccine, anyway, it's just I've heard of a few parvo cases south of Adelaide recently and thought I might be safer... Now I'm not so sure. I'll perhaps skip the 12 week, and do the tri-annual vaccine at 16 weeks. So she won't be required to have one for another 3 years, anyway, after that. Hmm. Still happy to have your inputs.

This story makes me worried. Clearly, it's concerning that a dog would die in a shelter environment and no accurate records be kept (or disclosed) regarding cause of death. But more concerning is: Who has recommended that capsicum spray be used on dogs? On what basis is that a good strategy? Who does animal handling training for these people?

Myrtle was vaccinated at 6.5 weeks. She is 8 weeks today. Today, I found a small bump at the vaccination site. I haven't felt it before today and she is handled a lot, so I would be surprised if it was there and I missed it. She is happy and well. She has had diarrhea on and off for the last week, but has been her normal self. I don't think her diarrhea is vaccine related, but I thought I'd throw it out there in case someone else did. Would you vaccinate Myrtle again? Would you vaccinate at 12 and at 16 weeks? Or would you do just 16 weeks? Would you make sure you had a different batch of vaccine used? Thoughts appreciated.

Tiggy - are you talking about using gloves as articles? Regardless, there are a million context cues in tracking (including wearing a tracking harness) that show the dog that they're not doing obedience.

Thanks for the links, Steve. I have read Scott and Fuller and Pfaffenberger, but some of the other authors are unknown to me. I'll do some reading.

I'd be interested in those citations Steve. Go to google - its every where. While I agree with Steve - I don't think it's particularly heinous for puppies to their new homes prior to 8 weeks - I couldn't find any articles through Google scholar that indicated any science on the socialisation experiences of puppies. Steve, if you can provide some specific citations, that'd be great. I am keen to read them.

I'm pretty sure the 'slightly loose' stool I found today is hers, so looks like she's on the mend.

She has effectively been fasted, because she doesn't want the rice. - But no cow-pat-like poos this morning, so hopefully she has righted herself.

She was vaccinated on Friday - a week ago. (She was 6.5 weeks for vaccination, she's 7.5 weeks today.)

I offered Myrtle some rice, but she's not interested in it (desperately tried to get everyone else's dry though). So that solves that problem - rice is your only option, Myrtle! She is still happy and drinking, but just has diarrhoea. I'll take her to the vet tomorrow if we have any fresh patties tomorrow.

First thing is - do you have main register papers for Gus? Good conformation is conforming to the breed standard... However, it's very subjective. Welcome to the world of showing.