In most cases, pregnant dogs and cats deliver their litters without complications, but veterinary care is important to ensure your pet’s health before, during and after delivery. However, pregnancy complications can occur in any breed, and at any age. On this show, Drs. Audrey Kelleman and Luis de Aguiar, board-certified specialists in theriogenology, or animal reproduction, will share information about common pregnancy complications seen in pets and signs to watch for to indicate these animals need immediate veterinary care.
Transcript:
DANA HILL: From WUFT-FM, this is Animal Airwaves Live, our weekly hour long call in show devoted to the discussion of the health and welfare of animals. I’m Dana Hill and I’m really happy to welcome today to the program two guests, which is a sort of unusual treat, but I’m glad to have doctors Audrey Kelleman and Luis de Aguiar. And today we’re going to be talking about canine and feline pregnancy and how to ensure your pet’s health kind of during pregnancy, but maybe what to do if some complications arise. So let me welcome both of you to the program.
DH: I’m really glad to have you here.
AUDREY KELLEMAN: Thank you. It’s nice to join you today.
LUIS DE AGUIAR: Hello. Thank you for having us.
DH: Yes. So when we talk about pregnancy in pets, you know, there’s probably some of the same considerations that we might have if it was a human loved one. But by and large, I mean, nature has figured a lot of this out. Do most animal pregnancies kind of go off without a hitch?
AK: Well, I’ll start by answering that and I’ll say yes. In many cases, as long as our patient or your pet is healthy to begin with, pregnancy is a very normal physiologic event in life over many, many years. Correct. But certainly, we do see patients that have troubles and may not be healthy.
DH: And ensuring that a pet is kind of in good shape beforehand is probably advisable. But, you know, we may not always know. I mean, I’ll just kind of go back here and tell a story from, you know, when I was a boy. And I’ll say that, you know, when I was a kid, there was maybe less attention paid to making sure your pet was spayed and neutered. Neutered.
DH: And I remember it was just totally normal that people just opened their doors to their homes and just like dog or cat just goes outside and kind of roams free around the community. And I don’t know, I guess if you were unlucky, maybe people thought, I don’t know, your animal came home and it was in the family way. And then the next thing you knew you were going to have a litter of puppies or kittens and there was, well, what are you going to do? Right. And you hoped that your animal was in good health to begin with.
DH: But let’s just talk about kind of in nature in general. Do in the sort of natural environment, would unhealthy animals get pregnant in the first place?
LDA: Yeah, I guess, yes and no. There’s two ways to see this question, but I think if we are talking about animals in the wild or other canids or other cats. Usually if they are not really healthy, it’s really hard to get pregnant. They feel like for some reason they have a metabolic disease, they are overweight or underweight. They are usually taking care of their own health first and then they gonna be able to reproduce.
LDA: So we kind of our. We deal with a luxury of, you know, I would say a luxury specialty of reproduction. Because usually when everything is okay, then yes, you can reproduce. So most of the times if nothing is 100% perfect, they might not get pregnant. But on the other hand, there’s some species, I would say, and we are talking about domestic animals, but they, I guess in a way to help their survivability of their species, they can sometime overcome some problems and get pregnant.
LDA: But I guess the short answer will be they need to be healthy first and then they can get pregnant.
DH: Our dogs and cats who live with us, ideally, we’re making sure that they’ve got annual checkups and they’ve got their different vaccines that they need in order to be in good shape. And you know, maybe when we think about their overall health, that is something that someone who will be breeding an animal probably wants to consider. But are there any special things that someone might need to add? Like are there any special vaccinations that you might suggest to a person who, who says, yeah, I am interested in breeding my pet?
AK: Well, I’ll maybe answer part of that. I would put it into two different groups. There are the normal health things that we recommend for all pets, and then for those that are special and are chosen to have offspring, then we want to be informed by what kind of particular health matters may be a problem in that particular breed. So some of the general health things would be making sure that the animal has the vaccine coverage that they should have for that species or that environment. Want to have those done before any pregnancy, make sure any disease testing is negative.
AK: Heartworm disease is really prevalent. We don’t want to have a female dog who is pregnant and has the problem of heart failure because of the worms in the heart. So we want to make sure that they are negative for that disease before going ahead as an example of that. And then other particular things, like for instance, some of the large breed dogs, golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers are very popular dogs. And historically we know that they can have hips that have arthritis problems, hip dysplasia.
AK: So we would like to choose those dogs that are normal for choosing, for mating, so the female can get pregnant with an appropriate male. Good hips, good eyes, good elbows. Some of those breeds also have genetic diseases that run into families, so we’ll require or recommend certain other tests as well, depending upon the breed.
DH: Yeah, So I hadn’t even thought about breeds and this just shows how little I know about this topic because it’s kind of outside of my world. But there are really wide variations in dogs, less so in cats. Like, you know, some cats are bigger cats than others, but there’s not like 80 pound cats and like seven pound cats. So, I mean, yes, there are like tigers or whatever, but I’m talking like the house pet cat is they’re all going to be about, you know, the same range and size, but with dogs, oh my gosh, there’s so much variability and these dogs can reproduce with one another. So you can have, I don’t know, a Saint Bernard and a Chihuahua, I guess, and they could.
DH: But I mean, that’s. That’s probably not suggested.
LDA: Yeah.
DH: How. How do, how does nature accommodate this?
AK: Well, sometimes nature has a way, doesn’t it? Right. So when you talk about crossbred dogs, again, there’s health concerns for each Chihuahuas. Chihuahua health concerns. They can have kneecap problems sometimes.
AK: Many Chihuahuas are very pleasant dogs, great temperaments. Some are a little dice, big attitude, good guard dog for small size, if that’s what I’m saying. Not a negative, a good thing. They might have some brain issues sometimes water on the brain type problems. St. Bernard’s big breed dogs might have hips, elbow problems, might have neurologic problems, things like that, depending upon their heritage, what part of the world they come from.
AK: And most of our clients, our purebred dog breeders, so many of them are registered with the American Kennel Club. There are other registries for those of you who are not American Club members. And certainly that’s a very helpful thing as well from a standpoint of education and knowledge and so on, so forth. But if you are considering that kind of a mixed breed, which we have never in my knowledge done a Chihuahua, great Saint Bernard cross. But you do have to kind of be engaged in what the health concerns are for each party and.
AK: Yeah, each party.
DH: And I wasn’t. I certainly, I mean, I was mostly just kind of a joke hypothetical.
AK: Right, I understand.
DH: In this joke hypothetical, please, please make the St. Bernard the mom, I guess.
AK: Yes. Right. Because then it would be easier for her to give birth to all those little puppies that are the little squirts. That’s right. Yeah, that’s true.
DH: But even.
AK: But yes, they are all the same species, so. Correct. They’re all kind of related in the big dog family, yeah.
DH: Okay, so your clients are often, as you say, folks who have purebred dogs, and it is possible that purebred dogs can have some health issues that maybe are not seen as much in dogs that are different breeds, like crossbred dogs. Right. Is that because if there is a genetic sort of thing in one breed, it can sort of be perpetuated as they reproduce with just the same breed.
AK: You guess you always have to be a little careful on how closely related the dogs are in that breed or how big it is. There’s lots and lots of Labradors, Labrador retrievers in the United States. Very popular, some sort of a rare breed. There may be less individuals in that population, so that gene pool is a lot smaller. So, yes, you do need to be concerned about the choices.
AK: Where that really comes into play is the endangered species that are captive in the zoos, where they have very small populations, and they have to be very particular in choosing the appropriate mate for that animal in a zoo situation for the betterment of that endangered species. Yeah. Where it’s a very small genome.
DH: Yes. And in those cases, of course, the veterinarians there and zookeepers are so eager for these animals to reproduce and. And, you know, some of them are painfully loath to do so. Giant pandas are famously not the most romantic animals, you know, and they try really hard to get these animals to reproduce. And there’s so many issues.
DH: But with, you know, it would seem to me that if we’re talking about, I don’t know, two different golden retrievers, I don’t know how difficult it is to get them to reproduce, but let us say that you. You can without considerable difficulty. Is it best to know beforehand whether the two animals are in decent shape and don’t have any particular genetic issues that might be passed on to the offspring?
LDA: Yeah, I think it is very important. It is one of the things we really try to enforce at the veterinary school because there’s some problems that are known by. Every breed has the known problems. Usually the breeders also know, and they’re really worried about that because at the end of the day, they will. Some people are interested in the puppies.
LDA: They want really, that these animals thrive in the future. But you’re really enforced to. To do genetic testing and all the. As Dr. Kelman was saying, saying, for example, hip heart, eyes testing, just to make sure these two are healthy, both male and female. And usually we try to do this way before Breathing and try to recommend to not breathe if that is the case.
LDA: And also, if possible, knowing that this is a little more complicated. But to make sure these animals, as Dr. Callum mentioned too, they are not related because, you know, usually when a dog is champion, everybody’s interested in that particular male. I wanted to breed my dog with that important male, let’s say. And then that might be the case that you have, you know, many puppies in a generation that are from the same father, and you don’t want the new generations to be any closely related because if they have a chance of having a genetic disease, you have a chance also to potentialize it in the next generations. Just because you are crossing so closely.
DH: Related animals, is there a certain degree of separation that then becomes probably safe, like a certain number of generations or distance in terms of how related they are?
LDA: That’s a good question. I. To be honest, I don’t know the straight answer for that. I know that it’s possible because it is done in, for example, breeds that were, you know, made hundreds of years ago. Just many dogs are put together, let’s say poodle, I don’t know.
LDA: I was given a random example. And then to make that breed, at some point they have to crossbreed the same animals. So I don’t know how many generations, but it is possible. But we try to avoid as much as possible because then you know that you are most likely avoiding a lot of genetic problems.
DH: Yeah. Now, the audience who’s listening to the show today probably doesn’t include a lot of breeders because they’re going to hear this and they’re going to already know a lot of this information. But just my general audience here may be as curious as I am about what kind of documentation do folks bring to the table when their dogs are going to breed with someone else’s? I mean, do they come with, you know, a health checkup and they show that, hey, you know, this animal’s had these vaccinations, it doesn’t have heartworms and so forth.
AK: Right. We will, as part of our examination and our appointment, we’ll review those things and make sure that those eyes are dotted and those T’s are crossed. And we will also review their genetic profiles, if they have those for them with us or if they have questions about it, that type of thing. So we do try to help the client with those concerns. And yes, we do require that they be healthy, adequately vaccinated, free of heartworm disease, free of venereal disease as well.
AK: There is a venereal disease of dogs that’s spread venereally and that will be screened for a negative too, to make sure that they’re healthy. It’s called Brucella canis and there are other similar versions that are in other species. Brucella suis in pigs, Brucella abortus in cows, which has a federal control program because these can make people sick as well. So we also take a simple blood test from the dog patients and send it off to the laboratory to screen that there is no underlying unknown venereal disease that sometimes can be picked up by simple as ingesting infected material, eating it or licking other, you know, dogs. Dogs do things like that where they could pick up things as well.
AK: So that’s part of our screening. The physical exam of the dog as well should be healthy, of course, as well. So that, yes, we help with all of that.
DH: Now, I have heard of friends who had some genetic testing of their pets done and they did it largely just out of curiosity to see, you know, maybe what they could find out about their animal. Because these were folks who just had mixed breed dogs. And I think that they had some curiosity now that that is an option for people. And I do not know, you know, how accurate and thorough these sorts of genetic tests are. And I still wonder whether folks who are interested in breeding dogs, especially if they’re interested in breeding purebred dogs, do they do those sorts of tests to determine whether or not their dog indeed is what they think it is.
LDA: I think there is this more general for general public tests that people are doing now that is very interesting. But also there’s some universities, I think here at UF you have some, but there’s some. Not all the laboratories test for every breed or everything, but there are some breeds that they have very known diseases that are very, are most common than other breeds. And these laboratories offer these specific tests. So usually the breeders, anyway, we try to do as much as we can to recommend that to test at least for those and probably more disease, the ones that you know that your breed has a high risk.
LDA: And usually they do again because they’re very interested in keeping a good healthy dog. Healthy puppies is good because whoever has the puppies later will be super happy. Usually, they are very responsible for that. But yeah, you have, depending on the disease or the breed you can test and then if you want to go even further, you can do some other specific, let’s say just randomly say, I don’t know the exact. Let’s say a Labrador has a large incidence or doesn’t have a large incidence of heart disease.
LDA: But the breeders are willing to test just to make sure, you know, there’s nothing behind that you’ve never seen. Maybe your dog was always healthy, but there’s an underlying condition. Then great. We try to do. But most breeds, we just do the, the diseases that are really known to cause problems or more incident in that specific breed.
AK: But those mixed breed dogs, again, mixed breed dogs, we’re not trying to underestimate their delightfulness.
DH: No, certainly not.
AK: But those genetic tests can be helpful for them too, because some of these things like their ability to break down medications, you see that in mixed breed dogs and you see that in purebred dogs. So those genetic tests can give information for mixed breed owners on some health concerns. And then it’s kind of fun. Well, what’s the parentage of my dog? Maybe there’s a little German shepherd there, maybe there’s even some poodle there.
AK: It’s kind of fun to look at that. I’ve had a mixed breed dog and I thought it was very interesting and insightful to see what the genetic panel shows.
DH: Was there anything surprising because you were somebody who’s way more informed than the average person. Right. So if you were surprised, that would be interesting, right?
AK: Yes, it was quite insightful because my mixed braid dog was a carrier of a number of genetic diseases which I found to be of interest to me. None of those which caused any disease, but it’s that hidden. Hidden in the background type disease genetically.
DH: Yeah. Now this is not necessarily related to disease per se, but we do know that some breeds of dogs have certain physiological concerns. And I wonder if the physiological concerns of any individual. Now maybe not every individual in that breed might. Let’s, let’s say we’re talking about dogs with the kind of sort of flat faces, like a pug or something like that.
DH: Now, we’ve had discussions on this program before when we talked about how sometimes these animals might potentially have some problems with, I don’t know, breathing or something like that. Maybe I’m incorrect when I’m thinking about which breeds I’m talking about. But if an individual in that breed has that particular problem and maybe gets a treatment and is okay, would that present any problem in breeding with another individual of the same breed? If one individual had the issue and it reproduces with another, is it likely to create that or is that still just. You’re kind of like it’s the luck of the draw with that breed itself.
LDA: Yeah, I think those are the most, how do you say, that, that you can actually see the problem. But I think it goes with the same things we are saying. We really try to.
AK: Improve things.
LDA: Yeah, to improve and recommend to do all the testing before because if they really need, as you said, some problems can be treatable. But if, if it was a problem in the first place that we had to, to treat, probably that is not a good candidate to breed, you know, because the next generation probably will be the same and maybe even worse. So we really recommend to not that happen.
DH: Yeah. Okay. Well, I think this is the place where we’re going to take our first break of the program. I want to remind listeners that this is Animal Airwaves Live here on WUFT-FM. I’m Dana Hill.
DH: My guests from the UF College of Veterinary Medicine are Drs. Audrey Kelleman and Luis de Aguiar. And we’ll be back with more right after this. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Animal Airwaves Live here on WUFT-FM.
DH: I’m Dana Hill. My guests from the UF College of Veterinary Medicine are Drs. Audrey Kelleman and Luis de Aguiar. And we’re talking today about how to ensure your pet’s health before, during and after delivery and pregnancy. And when we left off, we had been largely talking about how to know that your pet’s in pretty good shape before pregnancy.
DH: And maybe in this segment, doctors, we can talk a little bit about pregnancy itself. Do dogs and cats have similar gestation periods?
AK: I guess I’ll take that one. So, yeah, more or less. It’s two months. We have better ways of determining how many days, but yeah, it’s about two months.
DH: And regardless of breed, like a big dog has the same gestation as a little dog.
AK: Yes, that’s right. That’s a good question, though, because what can sometimes change it a little bit is if it’s an extra large litter, it might be a day shorter than the average litter for that breed. Yeah.
DH: So when we think about the litter size, what determines that.
AK: It’s a little bit on both parties, but how many ovulations the female has, so how many eggs are available to be fertilized and then how many are fertilized? So, yep. So that is also how fertile a male would be as well.
DH: So, okay, so I guess I don’t know why I’ve never thought about this. So the female is releasing multiple eggs. Right. And then every one of those eggs is then available to be fertilized. So in that respect, it’s just like a whole bunch of fraternal twins.
DH: Is that the way to think about it.
AK: Yeah, I think that’s a good example. Right. Fraternal twins. So, they’re not the same egg that split into two identical twins, but they’re all, they’re all siblings in that litter. And a fraternal twin is a simile.
AK: I’m a fraternal twin myself.
DH: Oh, okay. So, yeah. So, but, you know, that explains how in a litter you might have, you know, I’ve seen litters of kittens born, litters of kittens born. And some of them, you know, might be like orange tabbies, and some of them might be just black and white and, you know, they all came out of the same mom and some look like the dad and some look like the mom. So, you know, that’s pretty interesting.
DH: But with the size, I mean, I’ve seen cats give birth to one kitten and then the same cat in a later pregnancy give birth to five. Is there anything that can explain that or is that just a totally anecdotal example and is not reflective of reality?
LDA: No, I think it can be very variable for many different reasons. It can start with the health of the mom. Sometimes they are not completely healthy for some reasons. They might have some pregnant pregnancy loss, like right in the beginning or some of the eggs are not perfectly good. So it’s kind of a…
LDA: A checkpoint, a nature checkpoint to those are not fertilized. And that particular time, for many reasons, most of them probably we don’t know. Sometimes even the. The male side is a different male. His sperm was not as good as a different cat.
LDA: Or maybe the animal got sick during pregnancy and then you don’t know what happened there. There’s many variables. It’s really hard to say. But those that I said might be some of the ones we can consider, I guess.
AK: Right. And age can play a role in that, too, where we know that if you look at dogs over years, too young is maybe not appropriate.
DH: And what would be too young?
AK: Well, that’s a good question. Generally, we are. Some of the testing things for breeds are finalized at 2 years of age. Their musculoskeletal health, like their elbows, their hips, they will give them a score of like, for instance, excellent, good, fair. Or problems, hip dysplasia, elbow dysplasia.
AK: So elbows and hips that aren’t formed right, they will go on to lead arthritic lives. We don’t want to use those. But at two years of age, they’re skeletally mature. So oftentimes two years of age is what is a rather common time to begin with dogs for breeding.
LDA: Really.
DH: But they’re physically capable of breeding before that. Right.
AK: Even potentially as early as 6 months of age in some breeds. And again, they’re not really completely mature and it’s generally not our suggestion to breed too early in case they’re still growing, the pregnancy is there. Maybe they’re not big enough to give birth by themselves. Get a little bit more size and maturity on. On your pet so that they don’t have problems.
DH: But two years then you’ve kind of any problems might have been identified by then anyhow.
AK: True.
DH: And might have presented themselves. And the animals you say it’s skeletons in better shape is that.
AK: Well, for larger breed dogs they take about. They can take time to mature. Smaller breeds mature earlier. So that’s not a line in the sand by any way shape or form. But it’s a reasonable…
AK: It’s a reasonable consideration.
DH: Wow, that’s fair.
AK: But again, they do know that litters over time will get smaller as the dog gets older in age. So you can’t have a smaller litter within an older dog. And then it’s probably time to consider retiring from breeding for having puppies. Yeah.
DH: The resources that it takes for an animal to have a large litter are those greater than it would be for a small litter?
AK: Well, that’s a good nutrition question, isn’t it?
LDA: Yeah. So yes, usually especially in larger breeds, especially also in the last two weeks of pregnancy, the demand for nutrients TR for those puppies is really normal. It’s because, you know, some breeds can. Can get 12, 14 puppies. You can get a Great Dane with a lot of puppies and all them, you know, have bone formation, especially in the end of the pregnancy.
LDA: That requires a lot of calcium, a lot of nutrition in general because the puppies are pretty big. And so the mom is. Has a now like a larger belly full of puppies don’t have a lot of space to eat. And we still have to find a way to give enough nutrition for that mom to be able to, you know, be in good shape, healthy and also make sure the puppies are okay. So yeah, the demand is.
LDA: And also you need to remember that right after birth then they have to start producing milk for all those puppies. So. So it’s a lot of energy required.
AK: And I think it’s profound how much energy is required and how much food is required. Because when we see our patients, we’ve diagnosed them with pregnancy, probably with ultrasound and seeing them later in gestation also we will do based on their weight and their fitness, their thinness or their fatness, try to figure out how many calories they need and how much food they need. But we us have a calorie need for about 2,000 calories. Kind of a medium weight dog with a big pregnancy number of puppies in there. You know, the larger litter size, maybe a 50 pound dog, she may require more than 2,000 calories.
AK: She might require six, even 8,000 calories when she’s milking. It’s crazy. And it continues to astound me when we actually take the patient, we get the weight. We know how many puppies are in there. Sometimes fetal X rays, not fetal X rays.
AK: X raying the mom to see how many puppies are there is helpful for feeding, for knowing when she finishes giving birth. And those puppies late in gestation are just little puppies. So the X rays are safer for them than earlier in pregnancy. But we calculate how much they need to eat. And I tell people they need to be an eating machine.
AK: Eating, drinking, you can’t forget drinking. Cows need a lot of water to milk. Dogs need a lot of water as well to lactate. But the calories that they need and the food they need is profound. Sometimes while they’re pregnant and when they’re nursing the young.
DH: Okay, so I have a bunch of questions now with pregnancy, with feeding in general. Many people will feed their dogs on a certain schedule. They don’t just leave a bowl of food full all the time. Does that recommendation change when an animal is pregnant?
LDA: I would say it changed a little bit. First we try to give a more energy dense diet, especially in the end of the pregnancy. And so since most likely going to be changing food, so need to transition slowly so they get used to it. And then mainly like the, I’ll say more, the general concerns are in the end of the pregnancy again that they don’t have a lot of space. You have to give way more meals and smaller because they just, if you, let’s say you’re feeding twice a day, they just don’t have space to eat twice a day.
LDA: And then if you do that, they might not eat. They start, might get started being sick. So it’s very important that you offer more time, less that they keep eating and make sure they are getting enough calories to, as Dr. Kelleman said, to maintain.
AK: And in late gestation and during, definitely during nursing and lactating, having food available at all times and water available at all times is a smart choice.
DH: Yeah. Now some people are probably pretty good at just looking at an animal and knowing whether or not it’s going to be a big litter or a small litter, but is there any real sure way to know? Because some dogs are big and they got lots of fur and stuff like that. I can imagine that it’s a little bit harder to gauge, but does that if you suspect your animal is going to have a large litter, should you, as the owner, behave any differently in terms of your care of that pet?
LDA: Yeah, I would say nutrition wise especially goes by the general terms that we discussed a little bit, make sure they have enough calories. I think a good way to see is sometimes we recently had a case that sometimes they are big and something else is happening is not only the pregnancy. So it’s very important to at least ultrasound the dog to make sure you know a general number of puppies. And especially as Dr. Kelleman mentioned, in the end of the pregnancy you can do X rays to know this exact number. And then that is important too, because you don’t want to overfeed the dog as well because if they, they are overfed, they might have problems during the parturition.
LDA: Yeah, I think he’ll say, do you have any more comments on that?
AK: Well, while we’re talking about nutrition and they need to eat and drink adequately during pregnancy, one of the problems you can have is if your pet starts having vomiting or diarrhea, that can really be a big problem because they can’t. They lose fluids, they get dehydrated, they get weak, they feel bad, they don’t eat, they get low blood sugar. So that can really be a problem. So if there is vomiting, diarrhea during pregnancy, needs to have some veterinary care, stop the vomiting, maybe have some fluids and move forward to make sure that everything gets healthy. You know, goes back to a healthy plan quickly versus having, well, bad vomiting and diarrhea that just wipes you out and could prove to be harmful to the unborn puppies.
DH: One of the things that people love about dogs is taking their dogs out and enjoying the outdoors and exercising or even just like taking your dog with you when you’re going to go to the, the pet food store or when you’re gonna go and run some errands or what have you going to the beach, do you recommend that people change their activities with their pregnant pets?
LDA: So the, the general recommendations, you don’t really need to change much. But of course it’s very important that we don’t do too much exercise, especially in the end of the pregnancy. Probably the dog won’t be willing to do that anyway. But we try to avoid that. And then like, for example, if you have a pregnant dog, we try, sometimes you go to the dog park.
LDA: You don’t really know the general health of all those animals. It is important that there’s some virus, for example, herpesvirus, that is a problem in pregnant dogs. So we try to avoid contact with too many animals because we just, it’s a lot of work for the animal to get pregnant, to maintain their pregnancy. And so you try to avoid extenuating exercise, especially in too many contact with dogs of unknown health history.
AK: Well, I think that’s good advice. Yeah.
DH: I mean, and the good news is if this animal’s, you know, pregnant for just a couple months, then it’s not like forever that you’re not able to do these activities with your pet. I mean, you know, some if, if it was like a nine month pregnancy, I could imagine that that would be like, oh, well, gosh, I’m not going to be able to spend much time with you when we go places. So with pregnancy, do you recommend more frequent visits to the veterinarian during pregnancy?
AK: We generally recommend two. The one that’s mid gestation for evaluating for pregnancy with an ultrasound to see if there are puppies present and she achieved pregnancy, and then later in gestation, in about the last 10 days or so, to get a count of the puppies that are there with radiographs. And we also talk about what to do in case there’s an emergency, how to make sure we’re feeding enough. Deworming also is very important because some of the worms, if you will, that dogs get can actually travel through the mom’s body and into the pregnancy, through the womb and into the puppies that are in the womb and cause infections. So we generally do at least two.
AK: If there have been problems in that patient in previous pregnancies, then more will be scheduled based on the need and the patient itself. Yeah, and then we’ll often see a patient after they’ve finished giving birth with the puppies for a wellness check to make sure things are going well. Now some people will go back to their regular veterinarian for that too.
DH: Gotcha. All right, well, that sets us up, I think, really well for our next segment. But let’s take another break right now. Our last break of the program. I wanna remind you that this is Animal Airwaves Live here on WUFT-FM.
DH: I’m Dana Hill. My guests from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are doctors Audrey College Kelleman and Luis de Aguiar will be back with more right after this. Stay tuned. Welcome back to Animal Airwaves Live here on WUFT fm. I’m Dana Hill.
DH: My guests from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine are Drs. Audrey Kelleman and Luis de Aguiar. And we’re talking about caring for your pet’s health before, during and after delivery. Here’s where I want to ask you both when animals, by way of setting this up, I’ve witnessed cats give birth before and they pretty much handle everything themselves. But that may not always be the case.
DH: Is it ever recommended that a veterinarian be present for delivery?
AK: Well, the answer is yes and no, as Dr. de Aguiar said earlier in the conversation. As you said, many breeds are fairly well versed in being able to give birth to little puppies or kittens. We’ve talked mostly about dogs, but we all like cats, too. I have cats myself. But yes, cats are overall because like you said, they have same shape, same size mostly.
AK: They, they do things fairly well and they’ve done that well for years and they’re very prolific at that, shall we say?
DH: Yes, for sure.
AK: Oftentimes we’re trying to not have too many kitties, but we certainly do see purebred cats as well. So cats do better. Some of the animals that have an abnormally shaped physique, like you said, some of the dogs with the short faces, the brachycephalic dogs, they need to have attendants. They really need to have planned C sections. So that is where there is a veterinarian attendance.
AK: But the dogs that are of normal shape in many cases are reliable at giving birth on their own and at home in a quiet, comfortable environment that is free of distractions and free of lots of other animals or machines that go ping. But yeah, so that’s kind of a yes and no answer right there.
DH: Well, okay. So if I don’t mean to ask a horrifying question, but if no one is there to do a C section, what happens? Is it catastrophe?
AK: Well, unfortunately, it could be labor and delivery go smoothly for many dogs, many cats. But if something becomes, for lack of a better term, stuck and isn’t able to be passed at birth. Absolutely. That can make the mother very sick, clearly. And it can have cause for stillbirth also in the offspring.
AK: So, yes, that could be a catastrophe. That could be a catastrophe that could be life threatening for all parties involved. Right. So when to know when it’s an emergency is probably something that we should talk about then, too.
DH: Well, right. Because, you know, animals have been doing this, as you said, for a long time. And they kind of just instinctively know things that in a way that we as people would maybe feel uncomfortable. Just deciding to go alone into a room and deliver our own children is probably not a prospect that many would look forward to. But, you know, cats and dogs can just do that.
DH: But it’d be much better, I think, in many cases to kind of keep an eye on things just in case anything goes wrong. What kind of things can go wrong and what can people do?
LDA: Yeah, usually I would say the general recommendations, we just look for some clear discharge as the first signs. And usually there’s three stages of parturition that we call. Usually the first stage is preparation, and the second, when the animal actually is pushing the puppies or the kittens. So that is usually the most important part because we need to be looking for. If you see first if the animals actually actively contracting and no puppies or kittens are coming, something might be wrong.
LDA: And especially after one of them might pass and you have about 30 minutes an hour, you should expect another one. Sometimes that time can be, you know, very large in between then. But usually by the time you. You look to that, and then you might call the veterinarian, you might drive to the hospital. So usually we already consider an emergency when you receive the call.
LDA: So that is very important that they keep coming in about an hour. It’s very nice if you know the number so you can inspect. So those are things that you can see. Other things are discharges that are different color if you see blood coming, or a green secretion that might indicate hemorrhage. Or sometimes the green liquid coming can indicate that there’s no attachment from the placenta with the puppies.
LDA: Sometimes they don’t have enough oxygen. So those are things that we can see and seek for help when we see them.
AK: And usually, like he was saying, 30 minutes to an hour between puppies. If it’s longer than that, there can be risk of stillbirth. So, seek veterinary care if it’s longer than that.
DH: You know, I feel bad now because I maybe didn’t do a great job keeping track of time. And we are now right at the end of the program. But best advice, probably have a relationship with a veterinarian. Right. So if case there’s anything that goes wrong, that you’ve got somebody you can talk to.
AK: And if in doubt, the emergency room is something that should be thought about as a point of care for your patient if you have a problem, your pet.
DH: Yes. Great advice. Well, let me just say thank you so much, Dr. Kelleman. And Dr. de Aguiar, I’m so glad that you could be here. That’s Dr. Audrey Kelleman and Dr. Luis de Aguiar from the University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine, where I also want to thank Sarah Carey and Amanda Buckley for their help with the program.
DH: And thank you all for listening today to Animal Airwaves Live here on WUFT-FM.