Breeding Labrador Retrievers : What You Need to Know (2018)
tonight we’re here to talk about
Labrador and you know what guys
we already did two of those webinar
today we are great discussions with some
of your some of the other Labradors
breeders who joined us and before we
start before we get into all we dive
into the content I have one question for
you one very simple question when you
think of Labrador or this grid you like
so much
what do you immediately think of tell me
on the chat what our Labrador known for
tell us on the church what what is the
first thing that comes to mind when you
think of your favorite grade and again
don’t be shy because you know we are all
Labrador lovers here and the cool thing
is we will be able to compare your
answers with the ones we got from the
two produced webinars which is super fun
when we do the 9 p.m. so tell us on the
chat what do you think of when you think
of Labrador
what’s the first first thing that comes
to mind
I’m seeing the answer appearing I like
yours dr. Kessler 5 4 3 2 1
okay and you know what guys the way you
answered is very similar to what you’re
the other okay the other level of video
10 service afternoon and earlier this
evening you guys mentioned the hunting
the retrieving the great temperament and
also the fact that those dogs and Rose
rose mention it as well I have a
voracious appetite so and you know I’m
sure our Labradors will deny this but
this this is a fact this breed is known
for its ability to basically swallow
everything in a hobbit strong appetite
prone to obesity do not a genetic
background behind it has even been
described recently it was scientific
literature if you’ve learned about the
canine policy gene well this one is in
Labrador Retrievers associated with
increased appetite and risk of obesity
so they also genetic background behind
it so you see that’s why we have diets
formulated for Labrador the table where
energy density that is why the shape of
the cables used in Labrador diet is
meant to decrease the speed of ingestion
and that’s what Naga dogs are really
know known for indeed and today tonight
we’re going to talk about repositioning
Labradors this is a topic as you know
it’s very very dear to my heart but one
might wonder and to tell you the truth
inside some of you told me up front
while I was preparing the content hey
Doc why should I return I already know
everything here I believe so you see
this right here
it contains world’s big world some of
those big words we will find only in
canine reproduction textbooks
those are condition these orders that we
will encounter on a daily basis when we
work in at we
crow vet clinic basically and if we were
to look at those from let’s say Labrador
Retriever perspective so to speak what
do you think would happen
our Labradors known to be predisposed to
any of those hey do you know to be fair
not really a brothers are not known to
be predisposed to be very specific
reproductive disorders and usually when
I was working in the vet clinic
it wasn’t even quite the opposite when
it comes to canine reproduction
Labradors are often described as an easy
breed however let me remind you guys of
the philosophy behind already now an
ounce of prevention is worth a pound of
cure
as dr. kids have told me earlier I
should say a gram of prevention is worth
a kilogram of care sure
never dogs are not that difficult when
it comes to breeding that’s a fact no
doubt about that that’s the general
situation however there are definitely
there can definitely be some
reproductive challenges if you read labs
I can tell you that one way or another
you will face them that’s a reality when
we breed dogs and that’s why today
that’s why tonight we will discuss three
of them will talk about buttercup we
talked about Liggett and we’ll also talk
about living well obviously I got some
help
renaming those switches because those
are not the original name but but keep
in mind however that those are three
clinical cases we did encounter during
our careers those who are Labradors and
still those were Labrador that were seen
as three reproductive challenges and
those challenges who knows maybe one day
you’ll have to deal with them so in
order to help you guys being prepare
when it comes to that you know what now
let’s dive into those clinical cases and
see what we can learn from both Labrador
reproductive challenges so from now on
I’m gonna leave the vehicle floor to dr.
Kittner will chair we will switch to the
English part of the presentation
duk-soo job I leave them in
thank you dr. Fontaine appreciated them
so I get to start out with the first
clinical case and it’s kind of exciting
for me because this clinical case that
we’re going to go through first sort of
reminds me of the first lab that ever
walked through my practice many many
many years ago for a reproductive
problem and and back then with a similar
problem we didn’t have the technology
that we have today so it’s kind of nice
to go through this clinical case and
talk about Buttercup so this is the
story of Buttercup and obviously she’s a
lab and a beautiful lap so Buttercup
just turned three years old and her
owner really thinks she has lots of
potential in the breathing world she’s
in great health that’s one thing that’s
nice we know that from basically tests
that we run and we also know that from
her energy level so that’s a good thing
she’s also has a great temperament as
many labs do so that’s why we’re talking
about lab today because most of them
have great temperament and on top of
that she has great genetics so her only
owner definitely thinks she would be a
great addition to a breeding program
there is one thing tiny problem though
and as far as her owner can tell she is
basically never been in season and
that’s kind of a bummer especially if
we’re going to use her in a repro sono
season it all obviously means no
breeding so in our veterinary jargon
this is what we call primary an estrus
and there’s a lot to read use that
primary and Esther’s to Kirstin so
basically we’re going to start off with
a poll question for you all so what
could cause this that she has not come
in to eat by the time she’s three years
of age
could it be stressed is it because she’s
overweight
because genetics or is it a general
disorder so please take a few minutes
and participate we’re looking forward to
your answers all right we get a little
bit of everything here that’s good so
let’s get to the results so they’re
pretty much even we get stress up in 33
and genetics 33 so to be fair all those
could potentially play a role in
buttercup’s condition here so that’s
good the answers are right where we want
him to be um however because this is
Labradors and we were talking about here
there is one that we absolutely need to
emphasize and you guessed it it’s being
overweight and when we talk about being
overweight we mean excess fat and one
thing you need to remember about that it
is not only about energy storage without
hormones so fat is also an endocrine
tissue this means it produces hormones
sex hormones in particular so these
include estrogens progesterone
testosterone and those hormones are part
of the dialogue between fat and what we
call HPA HPA stands for hypothalamus
pituitary axis so basically that big
word means that’s the command center of
the reproductive function inside our
dog’s brain so when a dog is in adequate
body condition there that’s not a big
deal however an overweight dogs assess
amounts of these hormones are secreted
in the reproductive function is all
about balance and this type of condition
throws the balance way off
so therefore in Labrador suffering from
fertility issues there was always
something we want to assess you
corrective and corrective needed so body
condition score that just means a very
simple thing we only want to bri lab
bitch is an optimal body condition score
that’s what bc yes their stands for
so when you breathe oven doors this is
your top priority make sure they’re in
proper body condition score there are
tools available that can help you out
and you can discuss this with your
veterinarian however this is really an
important takeaway because remember what
we all mentioned at the beginning
optimal body condition score and
breeding Labradors must be your top
priority so I mentioned earlier that
Buttercup is an optimal body condition
score so we can pretty much rule that
out as a cause of primary and estrus she
is a valuable breeding subject and her
owner really wants to breed her and
investigate the problem why she’s not
coming in to eat so we have another poll
question for you what do you think she
should look into here should we check
her thyroid should we check her
progesterone
how about performing genital Walther
sound or performing a vaginal smear so
give us your answers and we’ll go from
there
everybody jump in here we want to hear
everybody’s results
all right give you a few more seconds
and then we’ll go to the result all
right the results this is pretty much
similar to the other webinars we had
check your thyroid has basically been
the number one answer that we’ve
received so in a case like we’re seeing
here there is just one thing that dr.
Fontaine and I would not see any point
enjoying and I think we hope by the time
this is over with today that you would
agree with us that this is called the
thyroid thing so we would not be
checking her thyroid I mentioned it
because well hypothyroidism which means
low thyroid levels is something that we
often see on top of differential
diagnoses list and reproductive cases
today however
we have clear evidence that if abit
suffers from thyroid problems the first
reason for consultation would certainly
not be infertility you will see skin
problems we see dogs being overweight we
see dogs having low activity levels but
certainly not infertility indoor primary
and estrus so that’s something that we
want you to understand and take away
from this there is a whole body of
literature confirming this all the other
tests I mentioned in the question will
be helpful because they will give us a
clearer idea of the status of the
bitch’s reproductive function so let’s
go on and decide about primary and
estrus we need to rule out what are the
most common causes of primary and estrus
so silent e what about them you guys
also call them ghost eat the bitch gets
in season but the owner does not notice
it because there are no clinical signs
associated with it
she is not losing blood it’s not
swelling males are not interested so
keep this in mind though some people
some breeders often tell me that silent
eats will be texted by the male’s truth
is that is rarely the case it could
therefore be a cause of primary and
estrus something else that we need to
take into account our vaginal defects if
there is a genital malformation at the
level of the vagina again the bitch
might not exhibit any clinical signs
when she is in season no bleeding no
swelling so an interesting fact if you
type in reproduction plus Labradors on
PubMed which is basically the search
engine for scientific papers you will
find several clinical cases of the labs
presenting the vaginal defects so it’s
definitely something that you and your
veterinarian want to check on a case
like buttercup so what else are we
thinking about how about ovarian disease
ovarian disease could be a defect such
as ovarian cysts ovarian tumors any of
those defects could prevent the bitch
from exhibiting her season and we need
basically to investigate that and then
the last one that we want to talk about
distress so I know we always blame
stress for everything these days but
when it comes to reproduction there are
very good reasons for doing so stress
leads to production of cortisol and high
levels of cortisol in the body will
definitely inhibit ovarian activity so
the bitch is super stressed she might
never exhibit clinical signs as she is
in estrus so Buttercup owners wanted to
find out what was going on so that’s why
she consulted with me
so in Buttercup case I would definitely
rule out stress when we saw her in the
clinic she was our typical friendly
Labrador did not seem stressed at all so
we went for a typical approach on a case
like that so let’s start ruling out so
doctor Fontaine here wrote vaginal
toucher or Touche so now to pronounce
that in franglish but basically in the
United States we would call that a
vaginal exam and we confirmed that there
were no vaginal abnormalities so then
the next thing that we wanted to do was
perform a vaginal smear the computer
basically agrees with us so doing a bad
you know smear basically determines what
stage of the cycle she’s in and so when
we did it it looked like this so those
cells tell us basically she’s in an
estrus not much happening there we know
she’s not in heat from the vaginal snare
so then basically what do we do next
we wanted to move on from there so when
we’re looking at in deciding we wanted
to do a progesterone
so the progesterone gave us a result of
basal which is basically baseline which
means she shows no sign of ovulating she
showed no signs of being in heat so
again we’re back into why is she in an
estrus and why is she showing no signs
of heat so what do we do next
we want to do an ultrasound we want to
make sure there’s no abnormality that we
can detect by ultrasound when we did it
the ultrasound showed us basically this
and when we look at this ultrasound we
see basically a normal looking over so
we basically have a normal vaginal exam
we have a normal vaginal smear that
tells us she’s in an estrus we have a
progesterone level that basically is
baseline and we have a vaginal I mean a
ultrasound that doesn’t tell us much in
the way of except that she’s warmer so
what do you think
is she sterile did she do a silent he
does she have an ovarian cyst that we
didn’t find an ultrasound where is there
nothing wrong with her go take a minute
give us your answer your thoughts all
right
few more seconds and we’ll jump to the
results so we have answers for each and
every one of them
so the fact here is there was nothing
really abnormal that we we detected
which is good doesn’t tell us exactly
why but basically it tells us that we
didn’t detect anything so the vaginal
smear again was typical of an estrus
sexual rest there was no warm monel
impregnation of progesterone
so it was baseline ovaries look okay – I
saw an ultrasound didn’t stand assist
really nothing abnormal so based on what
we just saw she is apparently in an
estrus
this phase is a cycle when there was
just no hormone impregnation so the
owner has never seen her in season so
according to you what would be the next
step another poll question so do we just
wait and see and see if she comes in to
eat
do we do vaginal smears every two weeks
and see if we can detect when she’s
coming into heat how about doing ovarian
ultrasounds every two weeks and then see
if we can detect that or do we try to
induce her in season there were all
different ways to approach it so let’s
see what you would do give me a few more
seconds here and we’ll go to the results
so we have a few wait and see we have a
few to do vaginal smears every two weeks
and then we have a couple that would
induce her in season so we basically
could do the waiting Z we basically
could do vaginal smears but we thought
basically the good option since we
didn’t find anything abnormal on her was
to induce her in season and that’s
exactly what we talked about doing so
again there is no hormonal impregnation
know where ovarian defects or cysts so
once we check that is normal estrus
induction can definitely be in attempted
okay there’s lots of protocols out there
for inducing estrus and in bitches so
let’s talk a little bit about each and
every one way back when when I started
practicing reproduction this is what we
use we use Grenada tokens in Grenada
tokens gave us results that were
sometimes sometimes bad so in the past
we use them these basically are
equivalent of the pituitary hormones and
they will help stimulate or supposed to
help stimulate the ovarian activity this
is what we still use in large animals as
well as in pigs however in canines we
just didn’t get the results that we
wanted to so asterisk induction was
anywhere from zero to sixty percent
ovulation rates were about forty to
sixty percent in pregnancy rates were
zero to fifty they’re not the greatest
result
that we’re looking for we’re inducing
estrus and in in females today so let’s
roll out the use of genetic opens and
that’s pretty much what I’ve done in my
practice so what do we do next so now
there are two preferred options one is
called dopamine agonist and this is
something that we use a fair amount and
when we talk about that asterisk
induction about 80 percent that’s pretty
good
ovulation 100 percent that’s great in
pregnancy rates up around 80 percent so
nothing to argue with there we’re just
getting some good results from dopamine
agonist and then the next thing that we
might want to talk about is basically
gnrh a implants okay
and if you are among the lucky ones
whose vets have access to these this is
something that we will basically want to
think about using here so what kind of
rates are we doing we get estrus
induction about a hundred percent can’t
beat that
ovulation rates of eighty and pregnancy
rates of sixty to seventy percent so I
think both of the last two options or
something we definitely want to consider
and we certainly want to rule out the
use of genetic token sets as our choice
so what do we do we use dopamine
agonists here with buttercup and
basically as long as everything else
that we ruled out and we did rule those
out or normal then certainly we can we
can go and induce asterisk so Buttercup
was treated with the dopamine agonist
and then she wasn’t even after ten days
so after three years of not seeing any
signs of heat and we rolled out any
abnormalities she’s in season after 10
days and the beauty of this is she got
ten puppies so buttercups owners were
happy we as veterinarians are happy and
obviously we have ten puppies on the
ground that are healthy so
everybody’s happy here so always rule
out some abnormality before we want to
go and then do testers but once we rule
those out estrus induction is certainly
a possibility and certainly one we want
to use today
so with that I’m going to turn it over
to dr. Fontaine and he’s going to tell
you about two cases of reproduction that
he was involved in and so learn from him
thank you I’m dr. kay flow and again I
really like the Buttercup case because
it really shows what we can do today
thanks to those fantastic protocols we
we have access to but now let’s move on
to the to the second case because now we
are going to talk about another Labrador
we are going to talk about this one here
liddie and before we get into ziggy
biggest clinical case we need to look at
her history and in fact our story really
started two years before the first time
I saw her in clinic because this bitch
in fact she was bred when she was true
and you see when she she was seen at the
vet clinic for a pregnancy diagnosis
look this is what we could see under
ultrasound here you can clearly see that
there are held wheels so obviously when
the owners were told that she was
expecting at least expose you can’t
imagine that well they were super happy
right because when we breed dogs that’s
what we expect we we want to have those
puppies to improve our genetic selection
program and to improve our genetics and
well here she was bad she was pregnant
fantastic so the owners were really
super happy and they couldn’t be they
were really looking forward to having
those puppies so what they did is that
they estimated Ziggy’s due date they
estimated it and there they were waiting
for her to deliver you know those at
least six beautiful nominal puppies but
things didn’t go as smoothly Oh blue
obviously two days after be estimated
due dates well kill nothing
Ziggy was acting normal
didn’t look like she was about to give
birth to a puppies you know no animal
news obviously were a little bit worried
I decided to wait you know they said one
day or two and we’ll go to the red that
sounded like a reasonable approach for
them at that time but however the
evening before they were supposed to go
to the clinic something happened they
didn’t show any sign she was about to
give well during the day but now in the
evening she was they could clearly see
this green discharge coming out of the
Buddha and then you
they knew that green this charm in the
pregnant bitch means placental
detachment they knew that there was
something wrong because again she had
absolutely no clinical signs she was
about to give birth so obviously now as
you can imagine there were freaking out
they were freaking out and what they did
they did the right thing to do want
something like that happen they rushed
to their vet clinic for an emergency
consultation so I’m going to skip to the
details but it ended in diggie’s having
a c-section
she had a c-section and the sad part is
because it was an emergency c-section
and by the time they got there and they
started to to do the c-section and
fortunately two puppies didn’t make it
and you see that’s how big is breeding
career stop it was a lot of stress for
the owners it was a lot of stress for
the beach and for the long time they
were really wondering they should greet
her again because they didn’t want to go
through this again and you see time
passed almost two years in fact before I
saw her in clinic and when we saw her
she was in season and the owners they
had this question there they were
looking for an answer should be breeder
one more time or should they rather
avoid doing this because again they went
through a terrible experience the first
time they bred Ziggy so let me ask you
guys if you were in their shoes if you
were to take this decision you have this
very valuable breeding bitch from a
genetic standpoint
but you have these bad experience in the
past what will you do tell us what would
you do here would you decide not to
breed up again because you really don’t
want to experience that one more time
will you decide to breathe and see what
happens would you decide to breed and
immediately ask for detection or would
you decide to breed and ask for an
embryo transfer what would you guys do
here if you were in the shoes of the
gaze owners
five four three two one
okay and most of you are going for let’s
breathe and see what happens so I’m
always a little bit sad because in the
tree within us we did nobody picked
breathe and asked for embryo transfer
I’m just kidding here because embryo
transfer is not something that is
available today in routine veterinary
medicine for dog breeder but who knows
in the future it might totally change
the way we approach canine repo but
anyway I’m disgracing here so one
important fact I want to point out here
and I really believe it’s important
because this is something we are asked a
lot about in the field is that you see
the fact that the beach at the previous
section does not always mean that she
will require another c-section in the
future and that is in my opinion
something really really important to
point out here because again we get this
question a lot be aware that with the
optimal surgical technique the uterus
will feel super fast
I mean sometimes fifteen days after we
perform the c-section we can’t even see
the stitches on the body of the uterus
and that’s really quite amazing when you
think of it technically speaking after a
beach other c-section there is no
further increase in the risk of having
another of this section later in our
life and again I’m mentioning that
because I truly believe that’s an
important fact to keep in mind because
again I’m very often asked the question
in the field and keep this in mind
because it’s not because she had one
first dissection but she’s gonna have
cystic all that is going to be always
dissection but you know here in the
escape there’s one thing that could
totally change the discussion if we had
a better idea of why Ziggy in fact was
not able to deliver her puppy in the
first place if we knew that then we
could may take a reasonable decision we
could say okay we this is what we should
do because we know what caused the issue
and in the first place and there’s one
thing we need to keep
in mine here which in my opinion is very
important is the fact that Ziggy here’s
a Labrador and we learned what we were
saying at the very beginning what I told
you in the introduction nabla Delta
often described as easy welders they are
described as an easy breed in canine
repo at least that’s what we think of it
when we are in vet clinics because they
are in the scientific literature there’s
not much well there’s not much when it
comes to Labrador and reproduction but
there’s one thing which is kind of
interesting when you look at partition
and when you look in the scientific
literature
when you look for Labrador in population
you might find this number 20%
what is this 20% so you see there there
are some studies that were done on this
section in bitches especially emergency
c-section in bitches and one of them was
an epidemiological study that was trying
to point out the risk factors or the
most common factors on bitches we see in
an emergency clinic for dissection and
interestingly enough 20% of those
bitches that were seen for an emergency
c-section
we’re on Labradors 20% that’s a lot when
we think of it in the canine in the
canine species we usually encounter
around 15% of what we call this dystocia
difficulties to give them up to 20%
Labradors presented for emergency
c-section that’s really really high when
we think of it and of course some of you
might say all but the study might be
biased because of the population they
studied etcetera that’s always the
possibility but still the fact that they
are mentioned as a breed where in which
section is not uncommon is really really
interesting because that’s not something
that she’s reported in many of the
textbooks and typically that’s not the
breed you expect to see when it comes to
c-section and there’s something else
which is interesting if you keep digging
in saturation in Labrador you might see
this term primary you terminal inertia
that’s something we see quite a lot in
fact I’ve
lots of lab leaders talk to me about
this primary uterine inertia means
basically that the uterus doesn’t
contract or does not provide strong
enough contractions and the time of
partition that obviously leads to
difficulty to give birth that’s
obviously leads to c-sections and
potentially that really can lead to an
increased neonatal mortality rate
because again this one can quickly sky
look at up to 40% so tell me guys what
can cause uterine inertia in Labradors
is it bad luck is it a genetic on its
position is it overweight is it stress
tell me what could potentially cause
uterine inertia according to you in the
nose
five four three two one
okay great and I like the way you guys
answered because you know what in fact
the current the correct answer here
would be all of you both
except I mean obviously bad luck because
there is no such thing as you know in
dog breeding I mean we’re just dealing
with the complexity of biology and we
know that when we breed dogs right
so in Levin all something important to
keep in mind is that today there are
some evidence that certain lines could
be genetically predisposed to develop
the uterine inertia again that’s what I
hear from you guys in the field and in a
recent paper from the guide dog breeding
center this is something that was
clearly mentioned so to quote the
studies basically it said that the
weight of the bitches as well as the
maternal and paternal factors that could
influence the weight of the puppies
themselves to be involved in the
decision to perform a c-section in
Labrador so one recommendation that came
out of this guide dog study was this one
that with an adult body weight
substantially below average should not
be selected as breeders in this colony
and I think that’s a very important
point that’s really something the hand
beside so you see in this study below
average meant below 25 kilograms and
again they obviously insisted on the
fact that this is something that might
only be relevant to their own population
of dogs because they were only working
with certain lines there but we did
point out that the rule genetics could
play in a given breeding population here
so definitely something to keep in mind
and if you guys not interested in this
study be aware that this one is freely
available for download online so you can
go online find the study download it and
read it and you have all the details but
that was something very interesting to
keep in mind in my opinion here and at
the very beginning we talked about what
everybody knows about Labradors the fact
that they are produced
the way the fact that they are basically
working food vacuum cleaners I mean the
breed does have a clear predisposition
here and this is something that has been
proven to that they are genetically
predisposed to but this is not something
that was pointed out by the guide dog
study but the reason might be quite
simple in fact because in this colony
they are trying to they were trying to
make sure that all their dogs and all
their breeders were within knowledge 1.5
kilograms around their adult target
weight so they were trying to make sure
all those dogs were in optimal body
condition as dr. Kessler mentioned at
the beginning so and we know overweight
and obesity can have an impact on the
strength of uterine contact contraction
maybe you guys remember this graph that
I showed you introduce ready now you see
when it comes to partition at the time
of working this is what a normal pattern
of uterine contractions look like but
looking individuals that are overweight
in even given Georgia
Obie’s you see less contractions you see
weaker contractions so fat can
infiltrate the uterine muscle and fat
and therefore can impact the strength of
the contraction can decrease the
strength of the uterine contractions so
you see we already touch on the
importance of optimal body condition
score it’s important for fertility but
now you understand that it is also
important when it comes to whelping and
obviously here we absolutely need to
mention stress as well because stress
can inhibit uterine contractions and
this is something to always keep in mind
when it comes to premiere Paris bitches
you know those bitches that are giving
birth for the first time it was biggest
first liter if you remember so it could
definitely definitely have played a role
here as well so very quickly too quick
words on stress and punctuation the
current recommendations are first we
recommend to isolate the beach in a
maternity at least a week before she
gives birth because this one-week
adaptation period will ever get more
familiar with this new environment and
can definitely help prevent the stress
of saturation
on top of that certain odors will also
recommend to use pheromones
you know those amazing appeasing
molecules in the maternity so that to in
order to replace the beach at the time
of whelping so I’m sure you get the
priority here we want to make sure the
beach is in a stress-free environment at
the time of partition no loud sounds no
not a noisy environment not many animals
around you know your bitches you know
how what will make them feel comfortable
or not but again one thing you really
need to focus on as well is the
environment they are giving birth in you
need to make it as stress free as
process as possible and especially meet
awaaz bitches this must be a top
priority here so you see in this
specific case in Ziggy’s case the owners
they finally came to the clinic and they
were questioning us you know what we
want to breed
we definitely want to breeder they were
aware but they didn’t know for sure what
was going on what was causing the issue
but they say okay let’s breed her so if
you were to take this decision what do
you think would be the next best step
here
should we start by defining the right
feeding plan should we should they learn
how to better manage whelping should we
focus on doing a timing of ovulation or
should they focus on determining the
number of puppies the beach would be
expecting so tell me again this is a
beach that has a history of difficult
well they went through c-section a very
painful experience now they want to
optimize everything they can to try to
prevent this risk what would be the best
next step the next best step what do you
think what would be the thing to focus
on here in your opinion
five oh three two one okey-dokey and
interestingly enough many of you
mentioned oh they definitely need to
work on the right feeding plan and I
truly agree that definitely something we
want to focus on but you know what the
correct answer here is in fact a whole
of the above
in fact all those those are things you
will need to do guys if you ever deal
with the case like biggie and the number
one thing I will recommend here
obviously is to do a timing of
innovation because contribution 101 you
need to add a clear idea of the day of
saturation when you know when the witch
is going to give birth you’re
immediately more accurate and in fact we
know that from population to partition
there is there are 63 models one day so
and that’s very accurate in Labrador if
you know when they ovulate you know
roughly Mallis one day when they’re
going to give up and that’s definitely a
data you want to have here because that
will make your life much easier that
number two would be to clearly focus on
the right feeding plan and again we know
that the right feeding plan during
gestation will help optimize embryonic
and fetal growth because that is
something that will impact neonatal
survival rate but at the same time if
you control this if you have the right
feeling plan it will help you minimize
the risk of of the way you’ll agree that
again we know that this is what is
supposed to hit and this is something
that can be achieving a two-step way the
first thing you want to do is to
properly fit the beach during gestation
the turning point during the station in
k9 is 42 days that if there’s one number
you need to remember when it comes to
gestation is this one 42 days of
gestation this is when you need to
increase the caloric density of the diet
and you need to increase it like that
plus ten percent energy intake two week
after day 42 of gestation until
punctuation
this is at 32 days this is typically
when the bitchiest switch to what we
call it growth diet puppy diet typically
because it is more energy than and it
will allow to provide the energy the
bitch need in a smaller volume which is
important because think of it uterus is
growing compressing the stomach so that
will limit the ability of those bitches
to ingest the the amount of energy they
require a four to to maintain two to
sustain embryonic and fetal growth well
I know we are talking about lab result
yeah so we might wonder about that but
you see if you get way you get what I
mean here and the second thing you want
to do is to clearly monitor the weight
gain of those bitches during gestation
and again we have recommendations here
we know that at the time of saturation a
bitch should be 115 to 125 percent of
the optimal body weight right before
whelping so you know the optimal body
the body weight of your bitches
so basically knowing that and knowing
those numbers I just shared with you you
can do the math and you can basically
monitor if they stay on track during
transition to gestation if they go
overboard if they gain too much weight
you can try to cross correct but this is
something you can monitor throughout
gestation and again I really think
that’s an important thing to to for you
get to keep in mind in this breed so if
you like to do the math very easy if you
don’t like to do the math you can reach
out to people like dr. k7i because
basically that’s what we do on a regular
basis and over the years we created
excel sheets that can help you get help
you guys out here so if you need them
feel free to reach up we’ll be more than
happy to share them with you so you can
properly monitor that because that’s
something you can very easily monitor in
ever dose and the step 3 would be to
determine the later side there’s
something you know we call the single
puppy syndrome I’m sure you’ve heard
about that lovely beach is only
expecting a single puppy we know that
those animals are the higher risk of
dystocia again difficulties to give
birth
the reasons are mutable I mean there are
vegetable there are just a couple of
reason well a single puppy might be too
big because it has lots of room to grow
or maybe because there’s just a single
puppy the signal the puppy sends to the
mother at the time of partition isn’t is
simply not strong enough to induce
attribution so thing called poppy
syndrome could be an issue and you want
to make sure the bitch is not expecting
a single puppy but there’s an important
fact you guys need to know here they are
data in fact in Labrador showing that in
fact when dealing with the singleton
litter 50% of the both Labrador bitches
will require a c-section 50% singles and
leaders in Labrador require a c-section
this is a study that was presented a few
years ago at the seminar I attended and
I got very interesting because it means
that when you have the singleton little
one bitches of two will require a
c-section so this is something you want
to bring to the attention of your
battery now and especially when this
single puppy they are expecting comes
from a very valuable breeding
so again important fact to have in mind
when you breed Labrador and except for
is obviously to get ready for the
partition by decreasing the stress
adding everything on hand and you know
we could speak for hours about how to
better manage parturition I think I have
a tree I will semi now just on that but
you know what we’re not going to do that
tonight again don’t you worry guys we’re
going to try to keep this light and
sweet but one thing we did a couple few
years ago we did a webinar on how to
better approach maturation in canine so
feel free to refer to this one it’s on
YouTube it’s available to anybody we
want to take a look at it and during it
this we share with you some of the tips
and tricks we learned over other year on
how to optimize the management of
well-being in canine so this is
available feel free to reach out and if
you can’t find it just let us know we’ll
share the link with you there is no
available way to be a hundred percent
sure of what to expect during Ziggy’s
partition and to do that
we would need to be able to monitor the
uterine contraction which can be done if
we have access to something like that
here this is a toko dynamometer the
machine that is basically monitoring the
strength of the uterine contractions
that should be using human medicine and
by the way they serve this lightly
something that was used in the guide dog
study I previously mentioned that’s how
in fact they were able to point out that
weak uterine contractions will
predispose the beach to c-section and
they could use this as a marker to make
the right decision you know
unfortunately the problem is those
machines are not yet easily available in
veterinary clinics that’s that’s being
said that’s always something we look
forward to because clearly this is the
future of canine obstetrics and that
will make us much more accurate on
what’n on what needs to be done in a
case like Ziggy so you see here in siggy
scale she was bred and she got pregnant
who did all the steps we just mentioned
because again they really wanted to add
everything under control
so she was pregnant she had 9:30 and she
had nine puppies that were born without
any assistance so obviously here
everything ended up well but keep in
mind one thing when you deal with those
cases there is always a part of the
certainty and because of this part of
uncertainty the monitoring is parenting
those four steps we just went through
those are critical and those are things
you can do in partnership with your
veterinarians for some of them those are
things you can do to optimize the
condition and again try to prevent the
problems as much as possible and that’s
why we need to focus on and as you can
see this is especially important in
certain lines of Labradors because again
uterine inertia either will think that
you guys need to keep in mind in this
grid and now let’s move to our landscape
let’s search on the story of Lily and
you see this time as you can see right
now it is a Labrador newborn puppy story
Lily’s
and she had she was very couple of
months ago and you see she she gave a
letter a liter of seven new bomb puppies
just a few days before and I mean
according to our owner or Liddy is a
great mom and she’s producing tons of
milk and nothing surprising here because
as you might have noticed lovin although
you really quite good at this be honest
I’m not too concerned because we already
had two litter and things always went
pretty smoothly all light seems doing
here
so so far I mean the puppies they look
great
they look great they are very active and
they are gaining weight neonatology 101
if there’s one thing you need to add in
your maternity I keep repeating myself
here but you need a scale if you don’t
have one
please order one right now in Amazon or
go and buy one of the department store
but you definitely need one again
neonatology 101 newborn puppies LP
puppies gained weight on a daily basis
so everything is fine here
everything except that Leona just
noticed something you see has something
a bit weird in fact the newborns tools
they used to look like this you see they
are this orange e color that is totally
normal in newborn puppies that’s what we
expect to see newborn puppies if we are
fast enough because you know especially
Never Knows the mother will eat them
will swallow them pretty quickly but
that’s what the owners were used to see
and suddenly today they realize that
well the stools turned white and that’s
pretty unusual pretty unusual and they
are really wondering what is going on
here so tell me guys what would you
think what do you think is happening why
where are those tools turning white is
it because of the powerful infection is
it because of the cook severe infection
is it because of the toxic milk syndrome
or is it because of overconsumption what
do you think is happening here
five four three two one
mmm that’s great you guys do know your
Labrador 101 here so very quickly
parvo infection is not something we
expect to see in newborn puppies because
parvo is typically a disease that we
encounter on the time of winning so and
this is something we covered in many
other webinars with dr. Kessler so I if
you want to learn more don’t hesitate to
watch those but definitely not something
we would expect here coccidia and well
there are cases of neonatal coccidia
that have been described or whether or
to my knowledge and in my experience
those are really really not uncommon we
look for them from time to time when we
really don’t suspect anything else but
the main true reason newborn puppies
will develop this white to color is
because of a toxic milk syndrome or
handle their consumption because in fact
the the one thing I can say for sure
when I see Stu stunning white in you
dump it it is that they are no more able
to digest the milk properly
this is a typical clinical sign in fact
of mild rejection issues in newborn it
usually starts like this and then it
eventually turns into a diarrhea
neonatal diarrhea as I’m sure you’re
aware is never a good thing on
individuals that are basically made of
nearly eighty two percent water so when
you start to turn white in new balls we
know that something is wrong and in new
bones as you guys pointed out there are
mainly two potential causes here
bacterial infection when dealing with
newborn and when dealing with neonatal
diarrhea and change in color in the
stools that’s always something you want
to keep in a corner of your mind that
because those bacterial infections are
very common in newborn puppies and there
are three world you need to remember
when it comes to bacterial infection in
newborn puppy the first one is here we
coli ecoli is a number-one infectious
cause of neonatal mortality newborn
tetanus the number one bacterial
pathogen that we call issue in newborn
puppies
second world you need to know
is mastitis because basically those
bacteria can can potentially have only
two origin they can come from from the
milk and basically this is related to a
mastitis and inflammation of the mammary
gland in canines there are only
bacterial mastitis have been described
so far or they can come from the
environment again the environment can be
a source of bacteria and that’s why when
those newborn puppies are born
sorry about windows news on you want to
these are born they are two things we
want to do immediately we want to
properly disinfect the umbilical the
terminal end of the umbilical cord shoot
three times a day until it falls down we
want to make sure the last stays as
clean as possible and again with this
last part comes back to cleaning and
disinfecting we have again tons of
videos and blog posts on that topic
those are really two things you need to
consider here so there is a potential
bacterial infection in a case like that
so first thing you want to do because
you know that it can come from the
mammary glands of the bitch is to check
on a Larry Glenn you want to check if
they have known mastitis developing and
what you would expect to see are red
swollen painful the Mary Glenn that’s
what we would expect when we are dealing
with the clinic on the studies in Lily’s
came that’s the first thing we checked
and you know what there was nothing
nothing to be seen no clinical symptoms
when we were palpating the mammary
glands the tissue looked totally normal
the milk the color of the milk was
totally normal as well it wasn’t red it
wasn’t brown it was milk it was white as
we were expecting it to be so in a case
like that we might think oh you know
what maybe we can rule out
mastitis maybe it isn’t a mastitis but
here’s one thing I need to point out
here remember that in canines
subclinical mastitis is the thing we
touched on it in a webinar a couple of
years ago
this is a disease that is not well
understood yet in bitches I mean we
don’t have clear it’s not easy to
diagnose in practice we don’t have all
the tools and veterinary clinics we are
they have no consensus on what’s the
best erotic approach on the bitches that
are suffering from this disease but my
point here is it is the thing so it’s
not because you don’t see any clinical
signs on the mammary gland of the beach
but it means that there’s nothing
there’s always a potential risk or
subclinical mastitis and that’s
something I want you guys to keep in
mind here and the other thing you
obviously need to keep in mind that I
see that you guys know about that is the
overconsumption thing we’re dealing with
lab result here remember what we said at
the beginning the ratios appetite and
tell you one thing this starts right
from the beginning as soon as they are
born they have a tendency to over eat of
the drink not really sure what’s the
best term to use here but they will also
consume milk and when we do that when
they do that in humans upon those
newborns are doing that it will overload
their digestive capacity it will lead to
something we call osmotic diarrhea so
they might develop diarrhea simply
because they eat too much and they don’t
have the enzymatic equipment to properly
digest it always something to keep in
mind here so you see we have two
potential causes we always need to
mention especially in Labrador puppies
so knowing that what should we do what
should we do here nothing we should stop
giving antibiotics we should go for a
nuclear pacer or we should go for milk
replacer plus antibiotics what would you
do in a case like that again so these
are white stools and we know that there
are two potential causes bacterial
infection and overconsumption what would
you go for here
– five four three two one and we don’t
really have a consensus here apparently
but you know what it’s okay because you
see in the past when we were dealing
with those cases we we tended to to go
first for antibiotics because we really
wanted you to to fight the potential
bacterial infection even if we will not
really show if this is what was
happening today we know better we know
that antibiotic treatment in newborns
can potentially severely disturb the
microbiome the digestive microbiome
those bacteria that we find in the guts
of those newborns and this disturbance
can have terrible consequences in in the
future for those animals we have
evidence in humans that when kids are
receiving too much antibiotics while
growing up well their immune system will
be weaker when they become adults and
that’s something we do suspect as well
in canines we still have blood something
tons of things to learn about the canine
microbiome but we do know one thing it
does play a role in the immune system
maturation and that’s why we want to
avoid giving antibiotic as much as
possible especially in newborns so
that’s why you see more and more in
those cases like that especially on top
of that because it’s lab results we’re
dealing with here the first thing I
would recommend is to go for a milk
replacer is to switch them to a milk
replacer because the first thing I would
suspect here would always be and
overconsumption especially remember in
this case the puppies are doing great
they are they don’t have any other
clinical signs they are not losing
weight yet so because of that we will
suspect crossed another consumption and
trusting we switch them to a milk
replacer and when we use the milk
replacer there are few things we need to
keep in mind first we want to use a
canine milk replacer I insist on that it
seems trivial but again I spend a lot of
time on Facebook forums I get a lot of
emails and very often people will tell
me that well they use goat milk when
they want to bottle feed their puppies
and today we know better we know that
the canine milk is more energy dense
than those milk we know that the goat’s
milk
your small allottee which means that it
has a higher it can increase the risk of
neonatal diarrhea in puppies because it
contains more lactose so we know for
sure that there’s nothing better but
something that is really close as close
as possible to the beats milk and I know
as me some of you might tell me yeah
we’ve been using go speak for 15 years
and we never had any issue maybe but on
the other hand I have tons of people who
also tell me they use goat milk Swan and
their neonatal they are in their puppies
so my point here is we know better on
that today and if we do the best thing
we can provide those new moms up is with
is definitely a canine a dedicated
canine milk replacer but it’s not only
about the products you’re going to use
it’s also about your using or the way
you’re using it and one important thing
that I really want to emphasize is that
you need to use it to propel dilution
keep in mind that in newborn puppies and
also in babies in human babies one of
the most common mistake we see when
using milk replacer is that those milk
replacer are not properly diluted which
means that there are higher risk of
constipation diarrhea just because the
milk is over all and they are
concentrated so really make sure you’re
sticking to the recommendations when it
comes to preparing actually the milk
replacer because it can make a big
difference here and because again we’re
suspecting overconsumption here the
great thing I like when using a milk
replacer here is that you can easily
control the quantities those puppies
aren’t drinking you can monitor them so
therefore you know they are getting
exactly what they need and that’s
important because you know newbomb
Labrador I can tell you one thing some
of them they will drink one bottle and
they will look at you even in their eyes
are still closed because well they’re
still young but we look at you asking
for another bottle so you need to be
able to monitor those quantities and you
are the feeding guidelines to help you
out here if you want to be more accurate
you can do some maths and again but
something we do on a regular basis and
you can reach out to us for help here
but you need to be able to make sure
they’re receiving enough make they’re
not over drinking also eating colleague
however you like and on top of that
whatever you do in those new bonds you
always want to keep monitoring their
weight gain remember a healthy puppy
gains weight on a daily basis you have
your scale
you still need to weight them on a daily
basis to make sure they are not doing a
plateau or they’re not losing weight
that’s I’m repeating myself I’m always
doing that but again guys that’s
something very simple that can help you
win big here and in a case like that I
will always be be focusing on the first
24 hour of tallian after we switch them
to milk replacer because you want to see
clinical improvement which means
basically here stools returning to their
normal color in the next 24 hours if it
is not okay or if they start doing a
plateau or losing weight you know that
you need to go to your veterinarian
because there will be something you will
name with an adjuvant treatment that we
didn’t start with here
so clearly the 24 hour period is
critical and you see in the case of
buttercup o protector of Lily
24 hour after giving them the milk
replacer well the stools were back to
normal
it didn’t get worse because I believe
that the problem was detected as soon as
it appear and we took the right measures
right from the beginning so that will
test that definitely helped in my
opinion prevent any casualty and I’m
mentioning this because again this type
of neonatal diarrhea is very frequent in
Labrador that I mean during the entire
afternoon all of you guys answered first
of the consumption so you guys know that
when you breed Labrador this is very
common and that really something if you
were not aware home you need to be aware
of it because that’s really common when
we’re breeding Labradors and as you can
see there are things we can do to to to
better support those newborns
you see tonight we covered three
clinical cases discussing reproductive
challenges you can and you might
encounter in in Labrador Retrievers
Buttercup Lily
Vicki you see those were considered
reproductive challenges and very often
in the field when I hear from people
that are facing cases like that you know
very often they will tell me oh but doc
nothing could be done nothing can be
done
you haven’t seen today that in fact
that’s not always true in those three
cases at least well those challenges we
were able to overcome them
those are cases I believe you need to be
prepared for as we said earlier several
times and I will and we will keep saying
an ounce of prevention is worth a pound
of cure that’s what that breathing is
all about so you can only prevent those
things if you know about them
and what I hope is that at least tonight
you thought a bit about those cases now
you’re better prepared on what to do if
you ever were to deal with something
like this and that will make your life
eventually much easier I hope when you
have a better understanding and a better
idea of how to approach those cases and
this is it we just reached the end of
our webinar so again thanks again so
much guys for taking the time to join us
in this virtual conference room of ours
and actively participate in the
discussion this is something dr. Killam
and I greatly appreciate and we are
really grateful that we have the
opportunity to spend those moments even
if it’s online it’s always great to
discuss and to share with people that
are as passionate as we are so and you
see we always say the women are and yeah
but the discussion continues in a moment
we will do a quick Q&A so if you have
questions start posting them right now
on the chat and but my point here is if
you have questions on similar or
different cases in the coming days in
the coming weeks in the coming months
feel free to reach out to us
again we’ll be happy to help if we can
and you know what we time you ask a
question we learn and this is thanks to
the questions we received from you guys
but we are able to create those kind of
webinars but are based on our experience
in real life so keep sending us your
questions and we’ll try to we’ll keep
trying to answer them and you know what
we’ve used all ventures to help as many
readers as possible so thank again and
thanks again everyone it was a pleasure
I wish you guys a great evening good
morning for those of you who are on the
other side of the planet I’ve seen we
had people from Japan and Italy but in
Italy and Australia sorry about that
but thank you very much and I hope to
see you guys very soon maybe in real
life it would be great but whatever
happens you know what we see each other
online
have a great evening guys bye bye
