Hey, I had a bitch that, on her first littler, whelped 8 but it took a long time and back and forth to the em.vet. Her second litter she stopped her labor after 2nd pup. Took her to the vets office (whelped in the middle of the day) and she had the 9 pups there...The third litter, upon xray, had only 3 pups so after all of the midnight runs, oxytocin until I thought her uterus would explode , and general nervous breakdown during whelping ( I could not stand the thought of loosing her over puppies), I decided to spay her after the litter was born...Upon whelping the first pup was born then no more pups...Took her down spayed her and the other 2 pups were stillborn. The strange thing was that, after spaying, her milk dried up (always had an abundance of milk) and had to hand rear the pup....BUT she did everything else for the pup and after that, until she died, (5 years later) she would help the other mothers and clean them and seemed so happy when she was doing that. I made the right decision for her and have never second guessed myself..Do what you think is best for your dog...Your gut instinct will guide you...Patty J. In a message dated 11/8/2009 9:57:19 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, irrenhaus4@xxxxxxxxxxx writes: Jodi Bobin wrote: > Hey List, > Gotta question for you...how many of you schedule a c-section for your bitches when it is not required, just to save the bitch the misery of whelping? Would you feel this is too risky??? > Jodi Bobin ??? > Sacred Heart GSDs > www.sacredheartgs.com > = *How ridiculous!! Whelping is the process that triggers maternal instincts, milk production, etc. Any c-section is risky, but an unnecessary one is idiotic. Doris E* ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2009. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================ ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2009. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================