I believe we are over the hump. 4th day on antibiotics, which I have to tube feed to them. They hate it and hate me because they know what is coming. The one who was pretty bad is especially mad about it. I'm sure the tube feeding makes breathing more difficult. Not only does the tube cause some breathing blockage when it is in place, it also fill up the tummy and a full tummy also make it difficult to breath. I put warmed up supplement in with the cold liquid antibiotic. It is also hard to nurse when you can't breath. You can tell by looking at them which was the one with the worst case of pneumonia.
I will now tell a little more of the details regarding the scary (after hours- it's ALWAYS after hours!) c-section. My vet was out of town, my second choice vet was out of town and I could either go to another local vet or one of the two big city emergency clinics. Both Huntsville and Birmingham emergency clinics would be about an hour and a half trip. I chose the 'other' local vet. I had met this other vet before and really don't like him. He is terribly gruff and egocentic! But, I swallowed my pride and dealt. I insisted on an IV line since I was concerned about the size of her belly and the size of her normal body. She is regularly only a 27 pound bitch and she weighed 45.5 going in to the c-section. I did not want her going into shock and/or cardiac arrest. Well, you can probably see that poor Nibbles has shaved areas all over! He never was able to get one single vein! Gee, I was so stressed watching and listening to him not getting it over and over...poor Nibbs...he even did a "cut down" on BOTH sides of her neck! The reason was obvious after she was opened up...her body was already getting shocky...twisted uterine horn and a tear...and a water puppy (Anascara) which was about 2 1/2 times the size of a normal pup. This was a first for me. So was the pneumonia in pups. I'm sure it did not help that this vet clinic is poorly prepared...they didn't even have oxygen when I asked to put the pups on it...so no, they didn't have bulp syringes to suck out nasal mucous...I have 2 at home. But sure didn't think about possibly needing them!
Look at poor Nibbles HUGE scar(and it has already shrunk with healing). Over the last 20 years, I got accustomed to very small scars and a MUCH different c-section team of experienced people. I figured being in a small town in the country would mean a different class of vets and less professional care than I have been accustomed. I feel that the vet I had the planned c-section with and trust is one of the best around and he would have done a MUCH better job at the whole emergency c-section. Certainly he has the oxygen. He genuinely is a good and caring person who graduated from one of the best vet schools (Auburn), and seems to be quite intelligent, in control and takes what he does seriously.
He is the one that has been caring for my pups with the pneumonia.
OK- well, I shared a lot. I guess I felt it would be helpful and informative.
OH, and I removed the dew claws today- finally, on day 8...I was too stressed and I felt that they did not need any more physical stress before now. It went very smoothly.
Again, dog breeding is not for the faint of heart!
