Wanted to pass along information from my phone consult with Dr. Hutchinson.
First a little background. Bred my bitch, Ultrasound at day 31 showed 4/5 pups. Pregnancy was uneventful, however I was concerned as she did not appear to be getting very large. X-Ray at day 59 showed only two pups. Ultimately went into labor which did not progress and had a c-section on day 63. One horn had a pup that died probably 4 to 5 days earlier and the pup that was alive the previous evening (heartbeat seen on ultrasound)was dead and only 6 ounces. The other horn was full of fluid.
Devastating to say the least.
Pups and placenta's sent to Cornell, biopsy of uterus sent to Cornell. Lots of results but the cliff notes are there was an interruption of blood supply to the placentas. No signs of any infection. So lots of money for not much of an answer.
Phone consult with Hutch (I sent him all the reports). First thing he thought of was the placentas interfered with their own blood supply by the cells growing too deep into the uterus. He has actually seen cases with the placental cells grown through the uterus wall. Based on the facts that the pups all seemed to die at different times and the pathology showed a cut off blood supply to the placentas, he believes this to be the case. He doesn't feel there was an issue with blood flow to the uterus because they all died at different times.
He said for reasons unknown, our Breed seems to have a pre-disposition to this.
The majority of re-breedings turn out just fine. That was wonderful to hear.
His advice, breed back to back, US day 24 and again day 36 to be sure there is not a repeat performance.
Thought I would pass this on as it was the first time I heard of it. I would be curious to hear if anyone else has experienced this and what happened on their re-breed of the bitch.
