Labrador Retriever Forum
On November 14, I, as Starfish Labrador Rescue Network, pulled a very pregnant yellow Lab from a GA pound a couple of hours before they gassed her. I brought her home and she had her pups the night of the 18th into the morning of the 20th. There were 8 total, and other than one being quite small, all seemed very healthy. They were active and nursed vigorously.
About 2 AM on the 21st, I checked the pups and noticed one of them was rather cool and didn't feel firm and wiggly as he should. I put him up to the nipple and he began to nurse enthusiastically, so I thought perhaps he'd just gotten pushed aside and became chilled and hungry. An hour later I woke up to a puppy crying from under the mom's chin. I lifted her head to reach the crying puppy, and found the other pup as well. He was absolutely stiff as a board - the fastest, most rigid rigor mortis I've ever seen.
The mother is a very sweet dog, but especially at that point she wasn't over thrilled with me putzing with her pups. I moved the dead pup a couple of foot away with plans to remove him when she was distracted. A couple of minutes later, he lost his rigidity and began to move a bit, becoming limp as he had been an hour before.
At this point I removed him from the box and placed him in a warming basket. I fed him with the best formula I could concoct at 3 AM, and kept watch on him throughout the night, feeding he and one other pup, the little one, every couple of hours. He didn't seem to be getting any worse, though his muscle tone wasn't improving either. At about 9 AM when I went in to check and feed, he was stiff again. Even his ears and tail were stiff. I rubbed him for about 20 minutes, and laid him on the bed for another 20 minutes or so before deciding he really was dead. I then placed him in the fridge, and kept running in every 5 minutes or so to check on him, just in case he started to move again.
After talking with my repro vet, I decided to take the pup to the U for a necropsy, as I had the rest of the litter to worry about and no idea why this guy died. Before I could get him there, another of the pups did the "go stiff and then limp" routine. I pulled him out of the box as well, and when I got home from the U, he was dead. A third puppy did the exact same thing later that evening.
Because this happened the Friday before Thanksgiving, there was some delay in getting all the tests run. However, I finally have the report back. The puppy's heart was abnormally small, and there was some degree of aortic stenosis. Essentially, the puppy's heart was deformed. This led to delayed maturation of the lungs and passive congestion of the liver, though the primary cause of death was congestive heart failure.
There is no evidence of any disease process or infection or bacteria.
I'm sharing this as these symptoms seemed so "out of left field" that I was pulling my hair out. I thought it might be worth a read in case, God forbid, you should see something similar, someday.
Thank you for posting this.
Karlene,
what were te results of the necropsy? Sounds like a liver disorder to me? The reason I say this is over the years I have had a puppy or to do this. In all cases it had something to do with the liver.
Hi Herbert, Karlene gave the results of the necropsy in the second to last paragraph.
What a strange and scary thing to go through. Thanks for taking the time to share you experience.
Karlene, you're forever taking in those special Labradors that others toss out. Bless your heart for caring enough to offer your home and generousity and making sure they get their forever homes !! I love the story of how you rescued the " Chuck, the Tripod Labrador ".
The litter was 4 weeks old, healthy and thriving. Was sitting watching them play and a male became stiff and hard as a rock, not breathing, not moving, evrything went stiff right before my eyes. Picked him up and tried rubbing him for a minute or so, it didn't help, no response, I laid him down outside the whelping box and checked all the other puppies. Seemed like a long time had passed and the puppy came to on his own and just started to walk around. Took him to the vet later that day and she never heard of such thing, checked him out, did fecal and drew blood. Later came back within normal range. The puppy never did that in front of me and was given away with the knowledge of what happened. That was 1993, back in September this year received an email that Viking had passed away at 14 years old. Still had never heard of such thing until reading this post.
It is probably the most bizarre dog thing I have ever seen. I "knew" the pup was dead when I first pulled him out, stiff as a board - I could have driven nails with him. When he went limp and started to move I nearly had a heart attack, and when it happened the second time (when he really did die) I didn't know whether to think he was dead or not. Actually, he might have done it more than twice, but I wasn't watching him every minute. One of the other two pups that died did the "stiff" thing three or four times.
A couple of things I should add here - the pups are half lab and half ??? If I were guessing based on appearance, I would say that the 3 that died as well as 2 I still have were from the same dad. The other three pups appear to be from 3 different dads.
Joy, thanks for your kind words. So far, we have been able to rescue 13 Labs/Lab mixes since moving here - some on our own and others through our newly formed Starfish Labrador Rescue Network. It can be very difficult, but I am rewarded everytime Daisy nudges me with her nose and gives me her sweet, loving look.
