Help! Just got a call from a friend. Her bitch had a dark green discharge 14 hours ago. Since then the bitch has been calm and has not shown contractions. My friend called her vet and he says to just wait it out. Please let me know what you would do.
Unfortunately, green discharge usually indicates placental detachment, so if it happened 14 hrs ago, the pup many already be dead.
I would ultrasound her, if no heartbeat, then use oxytocin or Lutalyse to get the puppy out of there.
Do a C-section only if necessary.
If there is a heartbeat, I would probably section to get the pup out alive, if it is full term.
that is placenta separation as Laura said and most likely because it was 14 hours ago when you posted the pup is no longer alive. I would have her at the vet immediately, ultra sound her as indicated get the pup out one way or another.
Fingers crossed for a good outcome, sorry your friend got the totally wrong advise from her vet.
singleton puppies almost always [save the flames] require a Csection for SAFE delivery.
a proven fact once again, if this puppy is still alive , it will be a miracle.
Ended up with c-section. The vet said the puppy had been dead for a while. Certainly longer than when the discharge occurred. It was still in its sack.
So sorry to hear it. I have had two singletons and had C-sections done with both of them.
For what it is worth, I recently had a bitch who did not go into labor. The temperature had dropped by mid-afternoon, that night about 2AM she had some of that green discharge, not copious. The phone system for my repro vet was on automatic answer and my regular vet's colleague said to take her to the emergency clinic, which I have used in the past and was NOT satisfied with- certainly would not have a C-section done there if it could be avoided. So I toughed it out until the repro clinic opened at 7AM, sure that I had lost at least one of the 4 puppies. She was in surgery by 8:30AM (repro clinic is almost an hour away, so they lost no time in processing her), and all puppies were fine. One placenta was partially detached, but not enough to cause problems for the puppy. So there can be a happy ending, even with the green discharge.
Why does early placental detachment occur? How long before a puppy will suffocate when this happens? Is there anything that can be done to avoid it and is it possibly genetic?
