A greenish-black Caesarean section - Breeder could hear only one puppy's heart sounds

March 15, 2016


9am 

Visit to Farm to check whether my Dachshund patient had given birth naturally. She had not been eating on Mar 8, 2016 and recovered on Mar 10, 2016 being very active. Had visited on Mar 11 (video, very active running about, eating)

Dachshund in whelping crate. The Dachshund looked at me. She was quiet with slight increase in respiratory rate.  I noticed a greenish-black vaginal discharge on the towels.
Temperature 37.9C was below normal. Breeder showed that she had milk Plenty of it.

But she looked bad. "The big abdomen had shrunk," I had seen her since 10 days ago. "That is not good".  In retrospect, this meant that the two puppies had died and the water bag had ruptured. Shrinkage of the abdomen.

He decided on an emergency Caesarean section saying: "I can only hear one loud heart beat of one puppy," the breeder said. "The others have had died."

10 am
The way she responded to anaesthesia showed she was very weak.

Masked and given isoflurane gas + O2 gas. Intubated. Tongue pale. Eyeball rotated downwards, pupils dilated - very deep anaesthesia. Surveillance. No gas at all unlike normal procedure of connection to gas directly. Dog took around 1 minute to recover. 

Thick greenish-black liquid flowed out from incision instead of the usual colourless water bag. 2 dead pups drowned in melted placental material pulled out.

Third pup at the brink of death. Still in the normal water bag with the clear colourless fluid. Placenta had separated and not wholesome. Melting. No sound. Gave to the experienced breeder.

Closed up the dog as fast as possible.
Dog only on 0.5% isoflurane gas  + O2. (normal strong dam needs at least 2% to be painfree)
Death on the operating table - not good for the vet's reputation no matter what is the cause.

Recovered. Cleaned up. Given IV drip (baytril, vitamins, amino acids). Puppy went home first. 





8pm  tel breeder. Dam and puppy OK.