May Pet of the Month

Shorty is a beautiful 2 year old black and tan Chihuahua. We first saw Shorty here at Rock Bridge Animal Hospital in December of 2012 for having a plastic object stuck in her mouth. In March of this year, Shorty came in for vomiting, and her parents had told us that it was possible that she was pregnant. It turns out they were right!
 
The average gestational period for a dog is about 63 days, so we

knew that it wouldn’t be too long before the puppies would be here! On May 6th, Shorty’s parents called us and said that she was in labor, but she was having quite a bit of difficulty. Her amniotic sac was protruding from her vulva, and nothing had happened for several hours. When the mother is having difficulty giving birth, it is called dystocia. Dystocia can happen for several reasons, such as the puppies being too big, or the mother isn’t having strong enough contractions.
 

Dr. Sappington decided to take x-rays to help determine the reason for Shorty’s dystocia. When looking at the x-rays, we could see that there were three puppies, and also that their heads were just too big for Shorty to give birth to them naturally. At this time, Dr. Sappington and Shorty’s parents decided to go ahead with a Caesarian section, and also to spay her at the same time.
 
 
The surgery went great and all three puppies were delivered

without any problems. Shorty gave birth to two males and one female and they are all extremely adorable! Shorty and the puppies stayed here in the hospital for a few hours so she could recover from surgery, and they went home the same day. Shorty and her puppies are doing very well at home and we are excited to see her and her puppies here at Rock Bridge Animal Hospital soon!