25/05/2023
It's not all fluffiness and rainbows
Breeding is not all fluff and rainbows. And not only cute puppies, great pictures, winning at shows and gaining championships. These are the bright and public side of breeding. But there is also a dark side of it.
I decided to write a few words, after my last experience, as we are devastated. Exhausted. Sad.
As we all know, Bulldogs are not the most perfect breed in the world. Ofcourse for us, devotated and dedicated breeders, they are the most beautiful dogs. But we have to be realistic, problems exist and you cannot avoid some.
I invest all my energy, time and money in my dogs. I love them and spoil them as much as I can. I invested (and probably will invest) thousands of euros importing good dogs, spending fortunes on them to grow properly, doing every health test I can, driving thousands of km to shows, clubshows, showing them to reputable judges where most of the time I receive amazing feedbacks, building for them a place where they can leave in luxurious conditions. I plan my breedings and my imports spending days and nights studying pedigrees and lines. But it happens. It happens the worst when you expect it less. So I decided to share with you my recent experience:
This march, I made a long avaited mating, in wich I had high hopes. Pregnancy wasn't the most smooth, but the female went trough it. But, 5 days prior to due date, labour started. We rushed to the clinic and an emergency C-section has to be made. Resulted 5 puppies, but 5 premature pups. As you all know, in 5 days in the mother's womb is a lot for the puppies, in these last days, the organs development is happening. These puppies didn't had the chance to fully develop. However, we came home with 4 living puppies. They were tiny, pink, but they were alive. 2 males and 2 females. (Note: thanks to awesome vet team, you guys made everything you had to do, impeccable work!). No strength to nurse, so we decided we have to feed them with feeding tube. Not an easy procedure, but a life-saver and I reccomend to every breeder to learn to do it. Every 3 hours, day and night, pups had to be cleaned and fed trough feeding tube. Pups were doing great, they actually started to develop nicely. Brigi was so confident and she truly believed they will survive. Deep in my soul, I know it was a mission impossible, but I didn't wanted to make her sad and cut her enthusiasm. After 4 days, one of the boys died. His kidneys stopped working. After a few hours, one of the girls died too, due to the same problem. There remained one beautiful girl and one gorgeous boy. After 1 day, even myself I had a little hope, that they will make it. But ofcourse, I was aware of the situation and that we still didn't made trough the critical first week. So we continued with feeding them and they started to look beautiful, started to grow, pigmentation started to appear. Here we are, today, when they are exactly 1 week old. At noon, we lost the boy. His lungs didn't develop properly and they could not do the job anymore. Here I am writing these rows, at 7PM, and the little girl remained, is dying. Brigi with tears in her eyes, me with anger and sadness. We are exhausted, no sleep for a week, did everything we could and we had to do for them, but Mother Nature has other plans.
It's not always easy. It's f*cking hard. 🖤
🐾Sweet Dawn English Bulldog Kennel 🐾
