Calypso held out, she baked her babies to perfection. She did a great job of giving them the best possible chance they had at life.
We took her in on the evening of Nov. 30 for a late evening appointment to get checked out and an ultrasound on the pups to make sure everything was good and our Doc confirmed babies look good and strong. Only thing was even though Calypso was appearing more and more uncomfortable every day, and was now the day past her due date she had not come into her milk yet. It’d be a horrible thing to do her c-section before she is in active labor and bring her puppies into the world with no milk from momma. So we went home praying to God she did not decide to go in during the wee hours of the morning. She indeed held out until the following morning, MY GIRL!
C-section went according to plan. The Doc was in and out came puppy #1, the big blue beast of a boy, vibrant, loud, and ready to take over the world. That brings us to puppy #2 a gorgeous little chocolate fawn girl that looked just like Calypso did when she was a pup. She was not her brother. This little girl took a huge breath before all the gunk could get suctioned out of her airways and thus suffered from what is known as Wet Lung. That is when the puppy inhales amniotic fluid. That is a no no.
During a normal puppy birth, the pup gets pushed through the birth canal much like a baby birth, and usually, most of the fluid is squeezed out of the lungs and airways by the time mom gets the pup out. With a c-section that doesn’t happen. There is no squeezing through the birth canal but instead, they are removed from the uterine horns surgically and their sac is opened up. This little girl perhaps was eager to get out into the world and took a huge gaping breath far too soon and that breath caused her problems from the moment she was born. In the moment I knew working on her as long as we did was not the best move, I know what happens to puppies like this but you see… this was my 2 older daughter’s first c-section. In the moment of seeing new life you want to believe that it’s your turn for a miracle. So we worked on this little girl (we being the vet techs and I) for a good solid hour until she was finally breathing on her own and eating.
She was a strong active little pup but with a voracious appetite. However, something extremely odd about her was although she was breathing and eating and moving strongly she failed to make a single peep. In all of my years of raising dogs, I have never had one not make a peep that was this now vibrant and alive. 🙁 Her little chest was distressed, and even though on the outside she was active and eating, she sometimes sounded crackly when she breathed. We suctioned her around the clock, she cleared up, then sounded congested again. We did our best to keep her warm and keep her airways nice and conditioned but at the end of the day, late last night, she faded away. 🙁
You see Calypso is my daughter Ezriel’s dog. This was her first up-close experience raising a litter from the very start with me as a co-owner. This was a super hard lesson for both girls to learn their very first rodeo. We’ve lost puppies before, but this was the first time they witnessed it, this was the first time it was one of their own personal losses. I’m sure it will be something they will never forget. My daughter Ezriel took it extremely hard. All I could do was hug her and let her know that these are the sad truths to raising these wonderful babies.
Miss Coco is what Ezriel named her. Even though we want to blame ourselves for not helping her enough, we know this is one of the very sad parts of breeding. Coco did not live only to die in vain. She came here to this earth with a purpose. Her purpose was to teach both My Daughters and I a couple of lessons.
For Me: Next time, I’ll take over vs. waiting on the vet tech to get to the next pup, next time I will know the signs sooner if a pup inhales fluids faster, and the last lesson. was for my daughters.
For My Daughters: Life is short & take no moment for granted. She came here to teach my daughters a very valuable lesson last night. Being a good family breeder is not easy ro for the faint of heart. Raising babies can take it’s toll on all of the feels.
Rest in peace baby girl Coco. You were loved immensely by all 9 of your human family members but by my Ezriel the absolute most. Thank you for leaving a brother for my daughter to love on and rebuild her spirit and refill it with joy and love through this sadness.
