Not mine, don't worry!

A poor soul on another forum has an 11yr old lab, who has apparently not had seasons for 6 yrs.  Recently her (then) entire male was trying to mount the bitch - the owner spoke to the vet who have said 'don't worry, it's just adolescence', 'she hasn't been in season', 'it's a false pregnancy' and 'it's false, she's a bit chubby but can't feel any pups'.

The poor dog is now due to give birth in the next few days.

The owner I expect is absolutely fuming - I would be - but can CDers offer any advice?  Far as I know this will be the dog's first litter and age is not on her side for this!

I'll point the owner in this direction too.

Oh My.  Have they now any idea of litter size?

I feel so sorry for the owner and the bitch - and hope the vet feels sorry for giving such dreadful advice when a mismate injection could have made this worry unecessary.  I don't have any direct experience of this, but hope to give perhaps a little bit of hope for a trouble free birth following a family experience from the '60s -  my Grandma had a smallish mongrel bitch, when she got to about 11 or 12 she suddenly put on a lot of weight but no-one thought much about it, just over feeding and lack of excercise, pregnancy never occured to anyone in the family as the bitch only got out for slow toddles with grandma, always on a lead, only allowed out by herself into the back yard which had high brick walls (well over 6').  Grandma came downstairs one morning to find a very happy Mummy with a litter of 4 (I think) fat and content pups all tucked in and drinking.  We know it is very far from an ideal situation for your friends bitch, but fingers crossed for an easy birth.  The best advice I can give about the situation generally is to change her vet.

Oh dear...why oh why did the vet not scan her? Nothing to be done at this late stage except be very watchfull. Make sure the vet is on call and ready to help at any moment. Has she anyone who has helped out at a birth before? if so then they also need to be on call.
I once lived near a woman who had a small mongrel who at age 11 escaped while in season (Some 20 years ago, she never strayed..never escaped from the garden before but obviously felt this was her last chance to be a Mum!) She too caught, 1st pregnancy and she had 4 lovely babies with no trouble at all. She was a wonderful Mum and all survived. The pups were weaned early and Mum had nothing but the best to eat.  So fingers crossed for the same result. Mum went on to live to 13 years and had the unexpected company of her daughter in her old age! Fingers Toes and paws crossed for a happy outcome
Aileen

My Afghan X came from a similar situation to what Merlot described.  The bitch, a parson-russell type terrier, was about 11 years old and was 'got at' by a large dog that managed to get into the garden.  They thought she was past the age of having pups    4 pups were born, very easily and she was a great mum.  All the pups survived and the son kept our dog as it was the smallest and had a long coat.  We got the dog as the wife wouldn't allow him in the house and they had been keeping him in the garden 24/7 (the dog, not the husband  ;) ).   My brother's friend lived near them and knew the large dog that was allowed to roam ;)

The other 3 pups grew HUGE compared to the mum and were smooth coated, while ours was a miniature Afghan at about 17 inches :)

Hope the Bitch in this case has a trouble free whelping and only a couple of pups.

I can beat you all!  I knew a blind JR that had her first litter at 15 yrs old.  He owner thought she had went through the menopause?!  No-one noticed her in season or getting caught but she never went further than the garden without her owner.  She went on to have a healthy pup(just the one) and raised him beautifully.  She lived till 19 years old.

Despite the seriousness of the situation I can't help but smile at the resilience of mother nature.

Nothing really to add except to say I fervently hope that there is a similar happy ending for the op and their bitch......and that the vet should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.  :-(

I would hope the litter is small (no more than 4 puppies).

Also Mum should be given the best of nutritional support as it will be a big drain on her system, especially protein and Calcium.

I would be monitoring for Eclampsia, and supplementing with Calo Cal D if it proves to be needed after the birth.

Also during whelping monitoring for Inertia, if whelping is slow Oxytocin may be needed to speed things along so Mum isn't as exhausted.

The extra Veterinary support should be provided free of charge as compensation for such poor advice/diagnosis.  Weekly checks on Mum and pups through rearing thrown in (good training opportunity in breeding/puppy rearing for the vets).

Does anyone have a spare copy of The Book of the Bitch that we can send to help this lady?

You guys are lovely, knew you'd be helpful!  I have copied some info across.  There's been no mention of how many pups there might be, I'm assuming the owner has no idea - and as there have been no scans courtesy of that horrendous vet, can't say I'm surprised.

Personally I think it quite important that they get an idea of numbers just in case the contractions aren't as effective as in a younger bitch and the bitch stops half way through.  Also if there is a fair size litter arrangements for foster care can be made, etc.

An ultrasound has been done - just the one pup, maybe 2 or 3 at most :-)

In some ways I hope it's the two or three as singletons more likely to cause whelping difficulty or inertia.

Will watch with interest.

Just a little update - Molly ended up having to have a caesarian yesterday, there were only 2 puppies in the end but neither survived sadly.  Molly is still rather sore but doing well though.

Thanks everyone for the help and support for her owner :-)

Sorry to hear your news about the pups.  Hope molly recovers well from her section.  is she coping with not having the pups.

Sorry the pups didn't make it.

I hope the vet spayed her so this doesn't happen again.

Glad to hear Molly is okay.

Poor old girl, hope she recovers ok and doesn't miss the puppies. :-(

Poor baby!

Hope she recovers quickly and doesn't miss her pups :(

Hope they spayed her at the same time so she doesn't have to go through another op. 

To be honest it was for the best that she didn't have to rear the pups.