Tuesday, August 22, 2017

PC Puppy Birdie Came home




Regarding when to let puppies go to their new homes: 

This is a bit hard for me to tell because it feels like a failure on my part but the lesson is huge.   I think this is an important story to tell and I hope none of the parties involved are here or offended.   Recently one of my 2nd PC litter pups came back to me.    This was an experienced Bull Terrier family.  There was more to the placement process than just an experienced home but in the end I let the puppy leave at approx 8 weeks due to pressure of my co-breeder to get the puppy asap to her new home to start bonding with the people and learning to play with the existing female BT.    This in and of itself is not exactly a problem but now that I am taking the dog back it is a problem.   This dog has missed out on 4 weeks of important socialization, human bonding, dog dog interactions and training that she would have had otherwise.   That 4 weeks is huge.    The reasons she did not work out were that she was too pushy for the existing female who is very soft and would not correct the baby at all.   She was too pushy with the child in the house.    She also had a lot of trouble greeting people she had never met.   If anyone has taken a 7 month Bull Terrier in the confirmation ring for the first time this isn’t exactly abnormal.   She was also barking and howling and spent long periods alone.   We did have some contact in the beginning and went over to their place to help them thru some of the dog interactions but I am not sure if they followed thru and had the time or patience and commitment to make it work.  
Now that I have her home with me, these are the problems I am dealing with.    She has no name recognition at all.    When given a choice she chooses other dogs all the time.   If no other dogs she will choose the human over being alone.   There is not a mean bone in her body but because she is a bit rude in her dog interactions I could see her becoming aggressive if the other dog reacts too badly to her.  As the play escalates so does she and it becomes more difficult for the other dog to remove itself from the interaction.   I have a big benevolent male dog who is sorting her out but I can see this going badly and have to watch carefully for signs that it is not working.   Luckily there is not a mean bone in her body and she adores the other dogs but has a hard time with impulse control (sort of normal for a BT, but exaggerated in her). 
I am a firm believer in the 12 week mark to let pups go home.   I was a believer before this situation and it was against my better judgement to let one so young leave.   I will never let a pup go at 8 weeks old again.   I can see 10 weeks for certain people.    I think judgement calls are important.    Look at the pup’s stage of development and the experience (and commitment) level of the new owners.   I have added level of commitment as a new requirement to look at for all new homes.    I am sure I did previously but now it is verbalized and written down and something that will have more discussion attached to it.    So some pups would leave at 10 weeks and other stay until 12 weeks depending on what I think the pup still needed and the new owners.    Believe it or not I have rarely if ever encountered argument about keeping the dogs from 10-12 weeks from the new owners, only other breeders want to defend and argue letting the pups go at 8 weeks.    
The Puppy Culture skills this girl would have learned at my home from 8-12 weeks are so valuable as life skills and would have helped her overcome every issue they had with her.   I feel I can attribute every issue to lack of early socialization.   Most of the behaviors would have gone instinct on their own with some diligence.   The barking came due to isolation because of the other behaviors escalating.      Taking this girl thru what she missed is hard when she is out of her imprint periods.    Many homes will not or do not have the time to do what needs to be done during that period because they really do not exactly know what needs to be done.   Something that is SOP for us breeders and performance and show homes is not so obvious to pet homes.   I suppose all breeds are slightly different, and each pup is different and of course all new owners are different but I really believe that 10 weeks minimum and 12 weeks is far better.  

Friday, August 11, 2017

The Sneaky Killer

Cautionary Tale

One thing that never ceases to break my heart is when a bitch dies due to complications of any kind due to pyometra.     I had never heard of it prior to getting a Stafford.  Since then I have heard of a lot of cases and many of them with sad outcomes.   I always wanted to think that pyometra was in certain lines, but that is not always the case.       I am sure for as many cases I have heard about there are many more behind the scenes.    I had talked to vets about it and they gave me some indicators, like usually is happens a couple weeks after a heat.   The bitch tends to drink a lot of water.   Temp may be higher than normal.   I want to tell you my very personal story which I did not discuss on Facebook publicly but I think it is worthy of sharing now that time has gone by and it was a happy ending.

At Daphne's last heat she had some thick white discharge about day 9/10.   I did not worry too much as she was acting normal.  We were also on the road so it was hard to worry too much.    On the way home,  a day later, she was not well, or appeared to be not well.     In fact I freaked out when we got home because she appeared to be unresponsive.     I got her out of the truck and she stumbled off and half ran to go potty.    She then ran to the house and went in her crate.   Something was not right so I called emergency to say I was coming and made a hour drive to have her checked out.   It was Sunday night at 10pm.   I must have been worried to not wait till the morning.     I got there and they took a culture from the inside of her vulva and everything looked fine.    We did an ultrasound of her uterus and it was fine.   We looked at previous xrays  and talked a bit about some degenerative disc issues  (too much jumping around in the show ring and at home).  So we decided that perhaps she was in some pain due to the height of jumping on the bed in the RV being straight up from a standstill rather than making a running jump.   So I put her on some pain meds for a few days.   I was worried that my ole girl was just showing her age and starting to slow down and wear out.    Over the next week I did not see the pain killers doing a lot but she did not have me as concerned and she seemd to be improving.  We had also ruled out pyometra, which was the big deal.   About a week later I was still thinking she was not right so I started taking her temp 2 times a day.   Finally about 13 days after the emergency clinic visit I decided to take her to the vet again.   I brought her in and they took her temp which was normal and another culture, also normal.   We talked some about Pyo and her back and her age and so I was a bit defeated and ready to leave when the doctor said how about we do an ultrasound and double check.    I said YES.    We took her back and held her for the ultrasound and she was full up of pyometra!!   She had an emergency spay that day.      

Daphne's signs were subtle.    Here are my unconfirmed suspicions:
  • Her discharge at 9/10 days into her heat was actually an open pyometra.
  • The 1st vet did not find anything in the culture because by that time it became closed.     She was also not bleeding anymore which could indicate the she was closed and her heat was over, but she was only on day 11.
  • The 1st ultrasound did not show anything because she had just closed, nothing has built up yet. 
  • Then she cooked that pyo for almost 2 weeks which puts it closer to text books cases (but who wants to to treat it as an emergency.  
  • I suspect that pyo actually starts much earlier in the middle of a heat and only shows up a couple weeks after the heat which varies depending on when the pyometra became closed. 

I am extremely alert to differences in my dogs activity levels, condition, general appearance and health.     Everything about Daphne's case was very subtle and she really had none of the clinical signs when it became an emergency.   I knew something was wrong and pyometra was on my mind but ruled out.    I still could not shake my intuition.

The reason I am telling this to you all is because everyone should know about this silent killer and how subtle it can be.   My guess is that everyone in Staffords has had a pyo death touch them, perhaps not their own dog but one they knew well.    There is only one thing you can do and that is to pay close attention to your dogs every day.    This is all we can ever do.    All signs mean something.    I am not advocating going to the vet for every little thing because I do not.   You should however know your dog.   The most important sign in Daphne was that she was ADR, "Ain't Doin Right".   I would not recognize ADR in my dogs if I did not keep a close eye on them at all times.   

Please watch your dogs like a mother hen and especially your intact bitches when they are in heat and right after.    Trust your intuition better to be wrong than devastated.