A senior dog that was dropped off at a Boone Area Humane Society shelter while pregnant has lost all 21 of her puppies. Thankfully, she is now in stable condition after a scary and quite dangerous pregnancy, and nearly $20,000 was raised for her by community members.
According to estimations, the mother dog went through labor for approximately 24 hours before being released to the Boone shelter on Saturday around 10 a.m. Immediately after that, she was rushed to the Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine to receive more extensive care.
Upon arrival, the dog was stabilized and then examined, and the ultrasound ended up confirming the pregnancy, the mother dog then quickly went into labor and gave birth to two puppies: the first stillborn, the second dyed minutes later. The dog was then prepped for an emergency cesarean section by ISU vet med staff.
The shelter was told at that point that the bill would be around $8,000, but thankfully, more than $17,000 was raised after the shelter took to social media and asked people for help. The mother dog is past the recommended age of breeding and is estimated to be between 7 and 8 years of age.
“She came in the back of a pickup truck, unresponsive,” Boone Area Humane Society director Vanessa Heenan said.
“Her abdominal area was swollen, her nipples were enlarged; you could tell she’d nursed pups recently, at least in the past.”
The shelter funds have been low because of COVID and needed some extra help from the community.
“After realizing her blood values were down, and that she was septic, that’s when the price estimate went up to $18,000-20,000,” Heenan said. “So we reached out to the public immediately, just because our funds have been depleted with COVID.”
Heenan believes that the dog wasn’t taking hormones and most likely wasn’t a victim of a puppy mill.
“I think she’s had a lot of litters and her uterus has been expanded,” Heenan said. “It also could have been that she was inseminated by multiple male dogs, so this could be two separate litters.”
According to Heenan, half the puppies couldn’t survive even after receiving blood transfusions since they were too underdeveloped to be able to survive, and the other half were stillborn.
According to the American Kennel Club, Labrador retrievers have seven puppies per litter on average. The largest dog litter is 24 puppies and it’s currently the Guinness world record.
“Having 21 puppies is extremely high, especially considering this mama dog wasn’t under the care of a veterinarian,” said Mindi Callison, founder of the Ames-based group Bailing Out Benji. “A responsible breeder would have had a scheduled C-section and would have had the mom and pups under veterinary watch.”
Here’s the full news report about the mother dog and her story:
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