Gun Dog Forum

I'm feeling rather defeated at the moment. I'm sure this is not a new subject on this particular forum so apologies if my story is just an oft repeat of others. I own two Brittanys, one 8-month old French Brittany female and one 10-year old American Brittany male. The 8-month old female recently went into heat. I'm a school teacher and today I went back to work. My family is gone visiting inlaws across the country hence the need to lock her up. Of course I think I securely lock up my in-heat female in her crate while I'm gone but lo and behold I'm back from work and she has busted out, destroyed the house and I'm pretty sure been mated by my 10-year old. The good? They're top quality gun dogs with great biddability, strong prey drive and different bloodlines. The bad? This was unplanned and IF she is pregnant, will whelp at 10-months old. I'm very worried about her health. Have any of you had experience with a dog giving birth that young? What were the long-term physical effects? Neither vet in town does puppy abortions and says to maintain her health, I should just let her whelp. Thank you for your feedback and help!

You might want to try another vet. Find out if she is bred and at her age you might consider getting her the shot. Once that is taken care of she will come back in and you will have learned how to handle that situation.

I would invest in a couple sturdy outdoor kennels ASAP. Family life is hard enough. Having a safe place for the dogs to flip the off switch while home or away makes things much easier.

Garrison

First: I have not experience in this at all. But I would think if the dog was old enough to get pregnant, she would be old enough to carry to term and give birth. Certainly, not ideal but rarely in life are things ideal. There would be plenty of extra vet visits in this case so you need a vet with whom you can trust your dog's life -- that does not sound like you have one yet. I say make the best of this situation and go with your trusted vet's opinion.

My question would be: Do you plan to breed her in the future? If the answer is no, I'd abort the pups and have her spayed. That will then eliminate and future unplanned breedings.

If you decide to go the spaying route, they don't have to abort first. They do charge a bit more, the same as spaying an obese dog, but everything comes out with the uterus. Maybe just abort. She would likely have the puppies without a problem.
If she wasn't at least a week (probably 2 weeks) into the heat cycle she very likely did not breed or it didn't take. So, you could talk to your vet about determining pregnancy to decide how to proceed..........Cj

Depends on how long she's been in heat. If she just came in, she probably isn't pregnant. If she's been in for a few weeks, give her the shot.

She would be at about 48 or 49 days now, so I guess there wouldn't be much doubt. How did it go. ........Gj

mask wrote: ↑

Wed Aug 10, 2022 10:47 am

You might want to try another vet. Find out if she is bred and at her age you might consider getting her the shot. Once that is taken care of she will come back in and you will have learned how to handle that situation.

Exactly right. For that matter, you should look up the name of the shot on the Internet or visit a conformation board, where the people there will certainly have the name of it. (It is not exactly an abortion; it is a shot.)Then tell the vet what you want and if they don't come through for you right away, find another vet indeed. If you have never had a litter, you don't know how much unpleasant work it is for a full-time working person, and there are clearly risks at her age.

CChills and others have a good point, in that she may not be pregnant. Figure out where she was in the cycle to see. But if it is a good possibility, do not delay on this. If she is not, you will have six months to get spayed if that's what you want to do and most informed people will tell you to wait most of those six months before getting it done .

As I posted earlier, this dog woold be at about 2 weeks from delivery now. Pretty much no doubt if she is pregnant or not, probably not much can be done now.
It would be interesting to know how it went.......Cj

cjhills wrote: ↑

Sat Oct 01, 2022 5:28 am

As I posted earlier, this dog woold be at about 2 weeks from delivery now. Pretty much no doubt if she is pregnant or not, probably not much can be done now.
It would be interesting to know how it went.......Cj

Well, unless they are browsing the site without logging in, the OP has not even read the first reply to this topic - the last time they were logged in was 2 hours after making the post.