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Primary Inertia Taken from
Linda Firth's Dog World Breed notes I am thankful to a breeder of considerable experience who wishes
to pass on a warning about primary inertia.
This lady’s bitch went into labour and showed all the signs of whelping,
unsettled, scratching up paper and a drop in temperature to 96.4. She went 24 hours during which her
temperature rose to 98.6 and she became less distressed. There was much debate at the vets, who
began to wonder if the bitch was even in whelp but a scan was done showing
live puppies and so a Caesarean operation was carried out. 4 out of the 5 pups survived. There is something about this in Beardie breed notes of February
10 which makes interesting reading.
So the lesson to be learned is to take notice of a temperature drop,
even if there are no other signs, it could be inertia which needs an
operation to save the pups. Speaking personally I have seen this before, once before any
pups were born and once after one or two pups were born normally. Our vets have always administered oxytocin
and waited a while before operating, sometimes it worked, sometimes it
didn’t. The vet always recommended
that the bitch be spayed after a Caesarean. Linda Firth This unfortunately happened
to our B. Button It, as above her temp dropped then rose again and we lost a
litter of two. At no time was she in distress which is why I think the Vets
didn't act quick enough, plus as with a lot of these occurrences it was Sunday
and I was seeing a junior vet in a different town. We did have her spayed and
always regretted not having any progeny from our lovely girl, but we just
couldn't risk it happening to her again. Brenda & Danny |