Emergency C-Section

some people think that my job description is playing with puppies and kittens all day. That is not true at all, especially in emergency medicine. This day however, was the exception! 

We had a client come in with his Chihuahua who had 3 puppies 6 hours early and seemed to still be in labour. Generally, you like to see a puppy being born at least every hour. 6 hours with no puppy is considered an emergency. This particular dogs pregnancy was not a planned one so the owners were unsure if there were even any puppies left - sometimes there isn't and they will just need an injection to stop the labour. In this case, there were still puppies. Since she was such a tiny breed dog the Doctor was able to feel a puppy in the birth canal so radiographs or ultrasound were not needed. Dystocia - difficult birth - is common in small breed dogs, or any dog that breeds with a larger breed male. The birth canals are just not big enough to fit the fetus'. So as in human medicine, we had to prepare to perform an c-section.

Long story short, the surgery went well. There were indeed two puppies left inside. One was stuck in the birth canal holding up the line. Both puppies were revived with some difficulty but strived immediately afterwards. The main concern here was that they were stuck for 6 hours and we weren't sure if the puppies would make it. But alas, we got a happy ending. 

2 healthy baby chihuahuas - 30 minutes old