Tyler was brought into the clinic a few weeks ago, obviously very pregnant. She had had problems having pups a year ago, so we were considering an elective caesarean. As we did not have an accurate mating date (hence whelping date) for her we ran a blood test (progesterone) to indicate the day of whelping.
The day arrived with no sign of her going into labour so we opted to undertake a caesarean.
Tyler was anaesthetised and laid on the surgical table.
Tyler had an incision made in the centre of her abdomen and the uterus was exteriorised.
The uterus is opened and the pup is removed inside its sac.
As the puppies are removed they are rubbed vigorously by the nurses. This mimics the mother licking them and stimulates them to breathe
The puppies were then placed in an incubator. This is heated, and has oxygen flowing through it to give the pups a good start.
We use an anaesthetic called isoforane, which causes minimal depression to the puppies in the uterus. Mum also wakes up very quickly once the gas is removed from her.
Here is the proud mum, only about 10 minutes after the operation. I am pleased to say that mum and children are all doing well!
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