14/01/2025
TRIGGER WARNING! Video for Educational purposes only! Video contains seizures in puppies.
As breeders, we often get asked about behind the scenes. What happens when things go wrong? We also get a lot of criticism when people see us post all the happy photos. Many people assume we breed like mad for money because there are so many happy photos.
Well, we thought maybe it would be best for everyone to see both the good and the bad. To see we aren't just breeding, but we are also helping others, and our program is more than just production.
Breeding, rescuing, and assisting others who need it all come with risks and potential for heartbreak.
Kyah's is the fourth litter whelped here at Capaill in the last 2 years that was done to help another owner who, for whatever reason, could not do it themselves, and we happily offer our time and experience in the best interests of the dogs ❤️🩷🧡💛💚💙🩵💜 we don't turn anyone away, nor do we judge or condemn other owners for accidents, because they can happen to anyone. We simply offer advice, support, and help to ensure the best outcome for the dogs and puppies involved 🐶
Turning people away only hurts the animals and benefits no one.
Now, unfortunately, due to how life played out, Kyha's owners found themselves very unprepared, which can happen to anyone.
In reaction to this unforeseen event, they reached out to us for our help. We immediately brought Kyha over as soon as possible to let her settle into our nursery before the big event.
We had our calcium, engergel, honey, electrolytes, everything ready to go.
When the time came everything started well, Kyha informed us in a very loud way that it had started 😅 (digging, poking us, pacing, insisting on pats, panting) by this point kyha was very comfortable with us.
She brought us to the nursery and got straight into pushing.
However, we knew something wasn't right from the start. When Kyha's water broke, the smell was not right.
We immediately became more vigilant, and after a few minutes, the first pup came but was already out of its bag. He took a few minutes for us to clear his airway and wasn't super strong. He also didn't want to latch. He improved slowly, though, so after we got him to latch for a bit, we let him just settle.
The next pup was sadly already passed away long before labor started. He was thankfully not massive, which meant she could get him out herself. We quickly thought the smell must have been him.
The next 4 pups were all delivered strong and healthy, latching without issues.
Back to pup number one, though. As time passed, he was still slow to latch but improving. We thought he was out of the woods but rotated shifts to check on them every 15 minutes.
Fast forward to the next morning, Little Man gave us a horrible scare by screaming, and when we got to him, he was stiff as a board. We had checked in on them multiple times in the night, and his last check was not 10 minutes prior. We immediately jumped in to see if mum had accidentally squashed him, but it turned out he was still breathing, and as we picked him up, he relaxed and seemed to return to normal.
Now baffled by what had occurred, we watched very closely to see if it would happen again, noting the smell was less but still present. We called our vet, who asked us to watch him and see if we could get some formula into him. He seemed to improve quickly when we warmed him up and he fed well, but only a few minutes after we thought he was going to be ok he showed us a full seizure which we managed to catch on film.
It's good to note here he was perfectly fine in the 7 hours we had them under constant 15-minute checks after birth.
Doing a set of observations on him now showed his temperature was low and heart beat irregular. We recognised this as a possible hypoglycemia seizure. We sent the videos to the vet as we got him ready to transport.
Faced with a fatal condition in newborn pups, we immediately took little man to the vet, who confirmed the only option for him was humane euthanasia.
This was where the smell was coming from. Sadly, no matter how much experience you have, sometimes, time is not your friend, and It's easy to miss things. We now know the smell was a warning for not just the still born pup, but unfortunately, even if we found the cause sooner, he would not have made it through.
Many things can cause hypoglycemia. Lack of oxygen at birth is a prime candidate. As is infection potential from the still borns compromised placenta.
We will never know what possible issue caused the problem, but we were very fast to connect the dots, which now means the rest of the litter is under strict surveillance. It's extremely important to note that this could have been easily missed by anyone, breeder or not.
This is the reason we are so willing to help people when they ask. Someone who has only had a single litter or just starting, or has been thrown in the deep end because of an accident could easily have dismissed the smell as normal, or missed the pups seizures and not known they now had to watch the rest of the litter for the same issue.
We hope that by posting about the event, others who may find themselves in this position may recognise the signs faster and now know what they are dealing with. We also hope those that wonder about us will have some answers as to why we have so many happy posts for you all the time and have a little less judgement when they see our posts, knowing we aren't just a breeding program, we are so much more then that.
We don't breed huskies/malamutes. Kyah is not our dog, and her pregnancy was an accident. We simply made sure her pups arrived safely while her family are away, and they will all go home next week 🙂
We are not advertising these pups (as they are not ours), and we are not charging anything to have them here. Besides puppy cuddle tax, obviously 🥰
We understand there is a tremendous stigma around breeders being "money hungry", and that these uneducated responses are the result of our decision to help others who need it, regardless of the circumstances. We try our best to be as open and transparent about everything we do 🙂 and it's never about money.
We hope you all have an amazing day! Enjoy the next week of puppy spam!
