My 12 year old met up with a 'mature', childless couple from ringcraft about 3 years ago. She has no grandparents of her own so they 'adopted' each other. She then went on to show thier Beagles quite successfully in breed and JH. She was also given a Beagle in partnership.
A 3 year old that she shows was due to whelp on Thursday but due to problems last night she had to have a Caesarian. There were 7 healthy pups but such awful news, the bitch had a heart attack and died.
the couple and my daughter are devastated and now have 7 pups to hand rear. My daughter has gone to stay with them for a few days and help them with the mammoth task ahead. We are all so sad.
Sometimes you worry about pups surviving but never expect anythging to happen to your bitch.

Thats awful Star hope you manage to save the pups
Are they ok to handrear the litter my friends an expert on it if you need help/advice.
Best wishes

I'm not being funny, but I hope that all of those people out there who think breeding is easy and natural learn something from your very sad story.

What a horrible situation for all concerned.

Please send my love and best wishes to your daughter and her 'grand-parents'. Hopefully they'll find some joy in the puppies.

Fiona
xxxxx

This happened to a friend of mine last year, but the pups were lost too. She had two daughters from the bitches first litter, and has just reared a lovely litter from one of them, but again things didn't gove smoothly and she developed pre eclampsia, with swelling in hind limbs in early labour. they had changed their vet and had monitored this pregnancy extra carefully, and she was rushed in for a ceaser, needless to say she will not be mated again, and the daughter they have kept will be mated away from the female line (Father complete outcross anyway) when her time comes!

Oh I do hope they save the babies, and she gets to keep a special one as a memorial to the little MUM!

I am so sorry for you ,But I do hope the little puppies survive what rotton luck ,Can you not get a surrogate bitch ? good luck hope each little puppie gets very strong ........

So sorry for the loss of your bitch - it is devestating I know, this happened to us 3 years ago, my beautiful Golden Retriever 'Kalli' lost her life in the same way, she had 12 pups, 6 we could not revive(my Husband & I were present during the caesarean)the other 6 we took home, and we just looked at them, and the only thing I can say is, we 'went into auto pilot', those pups were going to survive for their Mum! Yes, it was hard work(we lost 1)but oh the love we had for those special babies I just can't put into words. Sorry I am filling up now. But 2 weeks ago one of the puppies,Bliss (now 3 years old)that we Hand-reared, had her first Litter.

You can do it, I sincerely hope all goes well.
Thinking of you all
Sweep x

Hi, i'm Star's daughter i'm at the house now and all the pups are fine they're feeding well and at a good weight, we are thinking of keeping the 1 bitch, as it is the last in the line. We have got past the biggest hurdle and hopefully we'll rear all of them, but anything can happen.I'll keep you posted on their progress.THank for all your kind replies.
Heather

good luck heather xx

Lots of luck, thinking of you.

Sweep

Well done Heather and lots of luck.

An update!
Sadly 2 of the pups have died over the last 2 days but at the moment the other 5 are holding their own.
On a lighter note, Heather spent all last week helping to feed these poor little orphans but had to come home on Sunday and go back to school.
Since then, Heathers Beagle pup Magpie who lives with Grandma and Grandad has taken on the role of 'surrogate mother' She is in with the pups, licking and cleaning them up and doing almost everything their own mother would have done. All this and she is not yet 12 months old herself. we all have our fingers crossed that the rest of the litter will survive.
Sue

Ohthat is good. Even if the surrogate Mum can't feed the pups, the cleaning and nurturing, and taeching will be of imeasurable benefit to the pups social and physical benefit! Don't be surprised if the surrogate does get some milk, especially if she has been in season in last two or 3 months. In the wild the other bitches help look after and even feed pups, it is one reason bitches tend to syncronise seasons.