Educational tips for pet lovers
1221Singapore Sheltie kennel cough,  pet health and welfare educational for animal lovers, excerpts from Be Kind to Pets, sponsored by  AsiaHomes Internet.   Last Updated: 21 August, 2003

The Sheltie puppy has a wet nose


"My Sheltie puppy is very quiet, not active," said Mr Wong.  He had just purchased this handsome Sheltie from a pet shop.

"Is there a 24-hour return policy if it fails the veterinary examination?" I asked.  Some pet shops do have this policy.

"No," said Mr Wong.  I checked the puppy with flowing mane.  His rectal temperature was normal.  I lifted up his sleepy head, cupping his chin with my left hand to examine his face.  Both nostrils dripped a serous clear discharge.

"Has he been coughing?" I asked.

"No," said Mr Wong.

"Has he a vaccination certificate?"  I asked.  Mr Wong showed a certificate which showed that the puppy had two vaccinations at 8th and 12th week of age in Australia and the vet had stated that the next vaccination would be one year later.

Coughing in newly purchased puppies is quite common in Singapore. Many of them are due to kennel cough, a mixture of viral and bacterial infections of the upper respiratory system.  The puppy recovered after he was given a good rest. Most puppies enjoyed the new freedom from the pet shop cages and played for a considerable length of time with the family. This led to a low energy level and the puppy became tired and weak.   It is best not to tire the newly purchased puppy in the new home.

Educational tips for pet lovers
030813Singapore Sheltie dystocia, green water bag, pet health and welfare educational for animal lovers, excerpts from Be Kind to Pets, sponsored by  AsiaHomes Internet.   Last Updated: 21 August, 2003

The Sheltie has a greenish-yellow water bag!



"It had been three hours since the greenish-yellow water bag appeared,"  Breeder Ah Tee enquired over the mobile phone. "No puppy had emerged. What shall I do? What is the next step?"

The 14-month-old Shetland was in her 60th day of pregnancy and must have had minor un-noticed labour contractions in the morning.

Some bitches present a water bag with a clear fluid before delivering the puppy. If it burst and the puppy is not born soon, the puppy will die from asphyxiation. 

This Sheltie's water bag was intact but it was a coloured one. I could not figure out what Ah Tee was describing over the phone.

He decided to come to the surgery. A dark green water bag protruded from the Sheltie's vagina.  Bright yellowish strands radiated from one end. Yellow is the colour of the meconium (puppy stools).

"It is smelly," Ah Tee said. "The puppy had died." I could not smell anything in the 100-sq. ft operating room. 

Ah Tee had not encountered this kind of water bag before although he had delivered a few thousand puppies over the last ten years and knew much more about puppy development than me as he was a hands-on focused canine breeder.  He wanted a fast operation to save the other puppies.

"Just use the anaesthetic mask as the other vet did for my Caesarian," the breeder requested. 

"If the bitch had a great difficulty in breathing, I can't give emergency oxygen into her lungs without the breathing tube," I said. "Do you want to take the risk?"  Ah Tee did not want to.

It took at least ten minutes to prepare and anaesthesize the bitch.   To prevent bacterial contamination of the bitch's internal organs and to insert a breathing tube into the bitch to ensure that she had emergency oxygen if she had cardiac or respiratory failure during anaesthesia.

I was surprised that Ah Tee took a long time to decide on this Caesarian section as he was an experienced breeder. When the water bag appears, do not wait as the process of getting to the veterinary surgeon and preparation would take up another hour. Time is of the essence.


Now, was it too late to save the other two puppies? I took the scalpel and incised the swollen right horn of the uterus. I took out the first puppy from the right horn of the womb. The tissues of this horn was greyish black and not the usual healthy pink. As if the blood supply had been blocked off.

"This puppy is dead," Ah Tee said hiding his sadness. Smeared golden yellow by its own meconium inside the amniontic sac and detached from its breaking up green placenta. It had died some hours ago.

Further up the same uterine horn, a  second amniontic sac bulged through the incision. It  had clear fluid with several white floating specks.  Why white and not yellow? I had no time to think further as I took out a beautiful white-collar big-sized puppy and give it to Ah Tee to resuscitate it.

Was there any more puppy? I pressed the abdomen. There was one big bulge in the left uterine horn.

 All newborn looked dead inside the amniontic sac with translucent fluid free from meconium.  Eyes closed. Ears closed.  As the breeder was busy with the second puppy, I rubbed the back of this little one. It breathed and squealed softly. The first cry of new life in a Caesarian section is always magic to any veterinary surgeon as there is no guarantee that all puppies will be delivered live in cases of dystocia (difficulty in birth). 


What's the dark brown plug coming out of its anus? This puppy started to pass meconium.  I did not expect it to do so as most puppies do not pass stools immediately after Caesarian sections.

"The second puppy is dead," Ah Tee signed with a sadness only a breeder will understand. He had tried to revive the puppy outside the operating room for more than ten minutes. 

"See the pale tongue?" he lamented as he placed the limp body onto the examination table. "It is the pick of the litter."

"Did you perform mouth-to-nose resuscitation?" I asked the breeder. "Some puppies take fifteen minutes or more to start crying." It was not his style to blow air to inflate the puppy's lungs. There is a possibility of catching a canine infection.

This was his second Caesarian section within two days.  His friend Edgar had remarked that he had no need of Caesarian sections for the past two months and how fortunate a breeder he was.  A big productive breeder of over one hundred small bitches  is bound to have a Caesarian once a month.

Caesarian sections are an expense in the business of breeding and if there was none, it was a good thing. Was it really good?

Actually, it was not that simple. "If the bitch had a Caesarian early in the morning, we could have saved the second puppy," Edgar commented. Ah Tee did not feel offended at his old friend's feedback. The greenish-yellow water bag had not appeared in the morning.

Shetlands do not require Caesarians normally and this must have delayed the breeder's decision.  "The puppies looked much older than the 60th day of pregnancy as their coat was well developed and passing meconium," I opened my big mouth. "It could be 65th day," I hazarded a guess.  Mother nature always surprise human beings.  

It was a late 1.30 pm lunch for me. At two-thirty p.m, the breeder phoned: "My Maltese has a puppy stuck inside the womb. I had pulled off one leg.  I need a Caesarian section!"

This would be the third one within two days.  Somehow, bad events occurred in three's. Edgar must learn not to speak his mind freely as regards Ah Yee being the lucky breeder who had no need for Caesarian sections unlike the peers.   


Post Script:  The Sheltie would not eat on reaching home, unlike some other bitches when I visited her in the evening. "It will die as the toxic products of the dead puppy had overwhelmed her blood," the breeder predicted.

I had given her the necessary antibiotics and fluid therapy. I asked her to be put in a bigger floor area rather than being caged up.  I put the dry dog feed to her mouth. She sniffed and had no appetite. This was a bitch in no mood to eat and was not in the best of health for the Caesarian operation.

The next morning, I visited her to see whether she needed treatment. Bitches are more important to the breeder sometimes, than puppies as they attach a sentimental connection to them  over the years of upbringing.

Ah Tee was pleased that she had eaten overnight.

"It was my iron drug that brought back her appetite," he said. A great believer in iron therapy for sick dogs, he had several successes.  Of course, failures are forgotten. Iron was given to piglets in the early years of pig farming 30 years ago and Ah Tee was a pig farmer before the industry was wiped out by the government policy of no pigs, no pollution.

As long as the bitch was alive and well, I was happy that the the iron drug did it.  

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