Worried about pregnant Jack Russell.

ncmc

I am worried about my parents in Law's Jack Russell bitch. She is a very small breed and she is pregnant by a Labrador :eek: I am really concerned that she won't be able to give birth to the puppies. My F.I.L isn't a big believer in vets, so he won't take her to be checked out (or neutured, but that's another story :mad:. Does anyone have any advice about what I should do? Do you think she'll be able to have the puppies naturally? I don't think she is very far along, so would a termination be an option if I could 'dognap' her for a few days and get her to the vet? She is a sweet little thing, and I would hate to see anything happen her. Thanks in advance.

star-pants

How far along is she?
Also why would you want to abort the puppies? (do ye not want them? and depending on how far along she is it might be too late)
I wouldn't worry about her being pregnant, I'm not sure if she *might* have difficulties giving birth, the vet would be able to help more there, and monitor her along the way, but it won't be pure lab so they won't be huge.

edit - I did google the cross breed and seems it is possible, but as better said by others below - vet is needed to help - as she may have serious complications

lorebringer

We had a foster (boxer x pitbull) who gave birth to enormous pups, the father must have been some type of malamute because they were giants and very fluffy. She had considerable damage internally from having the pups and had countless trips to the vet afterwards, due to near rupturing of the womb, cirvical closure problems and infection after infection because of the stretching beyond repair of her womb (until she was spayed, but she still suffered from UTIs quite a bit). The cross you are taking sounds dangerous to the mother and could cause terrbile complications as she gets on in her pregnancy and at birth.

Definately talk to a vet about options, if it is early on in then a termination is an option (but it's always best with the owners consent). It sound as though the owners don't really care too much for the poor pets welfare ("don't believe in vets", letting her get pregnant in the first place by such a large male...) so the choice is down to you as to how you act, but I would be very concerned for a bitch carrying such large pups.

Whispered

You could ring a vet and ask. Just to be safe. It wont cost anything, most would be happy to advise over the phone. If you don't have a vet you usually deal with let me know, I'll ring mine and ask when I'm back tomorrow.

Bitches can often die while giving birth due to complications and to have large puppies, it could make the complications worse. To be honest, I've never heard of a JR getting pregnant by a lab. If the puppies are ok I'd say they will be lovely. :cool:

ncmc

Also why would you want to abort the puppies? (do ye not want them?

For this reason:

She had considerable damage internally from having the pups and had countless trips to the vet afterwards, due to near rupturing of the womb, cirvical closure problems and infection after infection because of the stretching beyond repair of her womb

I would hate anything like that to happen, and I don't think I can rely on the owners to moniter her closely and call a vet if she gets into difficulty. It's not that they don't care about her, they're just old school and think that dogs can just look after themselves. I had heard that puppies will take the 'size gene' from the mother to enable delivery, this may sound naive, but is that just an old wives tale?

star-pants

No I understand now ncmc - I thought similar to yourself, about the size gene, but figured the vet would be better able to advise.
That's a horrible thing to happen to a dog - and obviously I wouldn't want that for any dog. I did see people through google saying they had cross pups of this variety but can't find much about pregnancy on it.

As Helena said - ring the vet and ask if they know. And if needs be, bring her in.

ncmc

Thanks, think I will ring my vet, she's lovely and has always being very helpful. I may be worrying about nothing, they don't know who the pappa is, but the neighbours Lab is the prime suspect. It drives me mad that they don't neuture, their other bitch has had about 4 sets of pups in about 3 years. It's awful as a dog lover to watch and feel so helpless. Hope I don't have to cause a family rift by 'dog-napping'!

lorebringer

ncmc wrote: »

I had heard that puppies will take the 'size gene' from the mother to enable delivery, this may sound naive, but is that just an old wives tale?

This sounds a bit strange to me, from a boilogical point anyway. Puppy size at birth between breeds is not particularly big (have you ever seen large breed puppies being born? They look tiny compared to their mother, where as smaller breed puppies, while smaller, look bigger relatively compared to their mother) and generally it is volume that the mothers body controls so that pregnancy is easier on her. JRs tend to have reasonable sized litters, 5/6, (compared to say Malteses who have quite smll litters, 2/3)and if these pups are large the mothers body may not be able to handle this. As far as I am aware, size is determined by mother and father with large being dominant over small (much like in humans).

If you are concerned, talk to a vet. They will be able to tell you all the options that are available to you.

Call me Socket

ncmc wrote: »

if I could 'dognap' her for a few days and get her to the vet....

If she does end up carrying and delivering these pups, would your above idea be an option when this is all over (for neutering?...ssshhh) I have this all planned out in my head!:D....... You'd need to be 'dogsitting' the night before so you can fast her from 6pm, and the night of the op so you can monitor her til the drowsy effect of the anaesthetic wears off....You could ask your vet to put in soluble stitches and she wouldn't have to go 'missing' again to have them taken out- (though they're very easy to remove yourself) One of the vets at my clinic is incredibly neat and tidy with the incision and sutures- you'd hardly know anything was done. But then another vet leaves a very puckered look....so it would depend on who you get to do it if you were hoping for the owner not to notice. Would the owners be very worried if she was missing for 2 nights?

ncmc

Call me Socket wrote: »

If she does end up carrying and delivering these pups, would your above idea be an option when this is all over (for neutering?...ssshhh) I have this all planned out in my head!:D....... You'd need to be 'dogsitting' the night before so you can fast her from 6pm, and the night of the op so you can monitor her til the drowsy effect of the anaesthetic wears off....You could ask your vet to put in soluble stitches and she wouldn't have to go 'missing' again to have them taken out- (though they're very easy to remove yourself) One of the vets at my clinic is incredibly neat and tidy with the incision and sutures- you'd hardly know anything was done. But then another vet leaves a very puckered look....so it would depend on who you get to do it if you were hoping for the owner not to notice. Would the owners be very worried if she was missing for 2 nights?

I have actually thought about this! I think I might talk to my hubby and see if he can talk to his father (it is him that doesn't want the dog neutered, I think his mum would have it done if it was up to her). It's tough when it's family and I don't want to be seen as domineering or forcing my ideas about animal care on them. Some people seem to have a mindset against neutering that I just don't understand.