This topic contains 3 replies, has 4 voices, and was last updated by 
Diane 8 years, 4 months ago.
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Our schnauzer just lost her entire litter . . .
Hello,Our family has two purebred miniature schnauzers, one male and one female. The male was bred by a local and reputable breeder, who has become our mentor over the years. Two years ago our dogs bred successfully and had five beautiful, healthy puppies. We recently decided to breed one last time, however, our outcome was drastically different. Our female was due on March 18th (from the first date that they tied), but she went into labor on March 11th.
The first two puppies were born alive and later died. We packed up the car and our dog and headed over to the breeders house for assistance, answers, something- and our dog gave birth to a dead puppy in the car. Puppy #4 and #5 were born at the breeder’s home, but they died as well. Four puppies probably would have survived if they hadn’t been born so early.
We took her to the vet because at this point we of course wanted to make sure our dog was okay. They told us she didn’t have any more puppies inside of her and that she looked okay, was acting normal, etc. They have no reason to believe that this was caused by an infectious disease because she is up-to-date on shots and hasn’t been bred with another dog; our male hasn’t either. Based on the fact that she had a healthy litter before, and also because four puppies were born alive but died because they were premature (the vet actually looked at two of them and confirmed they were premature but otherwise looked normal without any abnormalities), they believe that this is an isolated event. Most likely cause, I’m told, is that her body was trying to expel the dead puppy which caused her to go into preterm labor.
Have you ever experienced or heard of something like this? Thank goodness our dog is safe, and otherwise healthy, but we are looking for closure. We trust the vet but since we do not know for sure I was hoping to get some feedback from other breeders too, in addition to the breeder that is mentoring us. Thank you.
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This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by John.
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This topic was modified 1 year, 11 months ago by
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Replies
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I am really sorry for your loss. I hope you find some answers. If you do, please post them so we can learn from your experiences.
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I am so sorry for your loss and sympathize so much with the tragedy. I cannot know for sure what happened to you, but there are other possible reasons. Several years ago I had a girl go into labor two weeks premature. She immediately expelled a dead, malformed and much younger than gestation puppy. Hoping for a miracle I grabbed my girl (we had been to two Vets at that point) and went to the University near me which has a very fine Vet School. The ultrasound showed the rest of the litter was formed well and appropriate age, but all but one was already dead. The little guy was delivered and lived a day, but it is very hard to keep a puppy that premature alive and so horribly, he didn’t make it either.
I did have necropsies done on several puppies because it was the beginning of my girl’s career and I wanted to know what happened and what to expect. The result was an e coli infection of the uterus. It is naturally found in most animal environments, but very unusual to be found in her uterus. What we determined was that she was swimming in contaminated water during estrus – when her uterus was ‘open’ to infection. The rest of the time her uterus is closed and so infection can fester unchecked. We did have a good litter after that and I am hoping to confirm she is now pregnant again. If your girl swims this is a potential.
I will also tell you that brucellosis is a potential, though you might have lost the litter earlier on if that was the case. I would want to know that she is getting rid of any infection that caused this and any infection that was present because of the dead tissues in her; I assume your Vet has placed her on a very heavy duty antibiotic. I think TMZ-SMP is the standard of care and would be used for some extended time. I think you will want to rule out brucellosis as if she has it, likely your entire dog populous has it; though it is crazy rare.
At any rate, if you try to breed her again – you will most certainly want to culture her in early estrus when they can do a very deep swab. You should also test your male. I would go with an ultrasound at 28 days and then xrays at 48 days. This way you can monitor your girls health and the puppy’s development too.
*None of this is meant as Veterinary advice!! I do think it is important to good breeding that information on medical conditions be shared. There is a real stigma against that here in America and only when we all start working together will we breed better animals. I am sure there are other breeders who will add to this. Breeding is not easy and we all have gut wrenching heartaches from time to time.
Good Luck to you and your girl!-
Your advice and thoughts are great. It’s nice to be educated on different topics. I feel more prepared and if something like this happens to someone I know (or to me), at least I know a little more…
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