I have been considering using the Whelpwise service for my next litter and was wondering what other's, who may have used the service, experiences have been?
Good? Bad? Is it worth the cost? Or any other thoughts you may want to share?...
Absolutely worth the $. A litter that I helped whelp with it was able to be born without a c-section, which would have occurred in the middle of the night at an emergency vet and you all know how expensive that would have been. And who knows if we would have been able to save all of the pups. The piece of mind alone is worth it. I believe the rental fee is about $400.00, which is half the cost of one pup you could potentially save.
I had a great experience this past spring. I have a girl with major repro issues and we had to use whelpwise from day 32 on to track her contractions. We were able to stop her early contractions thanks to the whelp wise system and the fetal heart rate monitor detected when the pups became stressed on day 60 and she needed an emergency c section ( we only lost one pup out of 7). The technicians are super helpful and friendly, available ANY time of day. They will spend all the time you need to walk through set up, or listen to the heart rate monitor with you if you cant hear. Downfall was it did cost us a pretty penny because we used it for over month and I did have to shave my girl to get good contact with her abdomen, but in the long run I feel I would not have saved the puppies without it.
Okay, I'll play devil's advocate. You worked really hard to get a nice litter from your girl. Are you now passing on her issues to the next generation? Should we have to work this hard to get puppies? And then we wonder why we can't get our bitches pregnant?
Interesting food for thought. I remember reading an article a long time ago, maybe in the old NLRC newsletters about how smart is it to continually breed a bitch who has problems whelping. Naturally with a first litter, you have NO IDEA. But continually breeding her after you know she has problems isn't the wisest, at least so it seems to me. Maybe this should be it's own thread because it's not a reflection on the original post, just a question....
I had a BISS bitch that had a c-section 1st litter after delivering 5 pups due to uterine inertia, whelp wise 2nd sucessfully but a nail hanger and a c-cection for her third litter and almost died a week later for hemoraging (sp?)
Her daughter that I kept from the third litter is the EASIEST whelper I have had, another daughter also a fine whelper................
I used it a few years ago and found it difficult to use, had the shipment arrive without some of the batteries and in the end - needed a section that I would have realized myself. I'm also not sure that I would have used the oxytocin as soon as they directed me to. JMO
I have used WhelpWise two times and will never go without their service again. The first time "sold" me on their service. The litter of 9 was born with their help to keep the contractions going, otherwise it would have been an emergency C-section in the middle of the night. They also helped with a stuck pup that needed turning to be born. After the delivery her contractions were monitored to make sure all pups were born(they were) and there were no retained placentas.
The second use was with a first time mom that popped 8 pups out in 2.5 hrs. Their service was needed mainly to make sure there were no retained pups or placentas. I knew one had been retained, based on the contractions we knew which side to monitor until I saw the placenta and we confirmed with the change in contractions the next morning.
Without their service you don't know how strong the contractions are and if they are productive or starting to fade. I will never "fly blind" again.
I used them twice and both times didn't have good results. With one time the bitch reabsorbed all but one pup and they told me to get her out now, well she was early and too small and lived for a month but never thrived and ended up dying anyway (the vet and I felt she was taken out too early)... it was a real bummer as the pup was the last of a line I wanted to continue on with but it is gone now.
I used it a couple of times some years ago. The first time was fine, the second time (different bitch) they rushed me in for a c-section because her contractions weren't getting stronger. Disaster ensued, though all ended up fine - it wasn't fun. The same bitch's next litter I let her try by herself. Turns out she just takes about 36 hours from temp drop to first puppy - no problems at all.
