A friend of mine has had a supprise litter out of an older bitch that was assumed baron for years, she had only 3 puppies, one died after 24 hours , a second is weak but they are trying to keep her going, the dog puppy is fine and feeding well, looks very strong etc.

The bitch isn't a natural mother and is really off her food, the breeder has been spoon feeding her to get her to eat.

the breeder does not want to risk putting the bitch under a GA and was asking if there is an alternative to spaying, i know the dogs can have an implant but whats available for bitches, can't find much online about it.

She doesnt want to shut her away permanently from the others as she has silent/clean seasons and can never really tell, but of course she does not want this bitch to go through a pregnancy in the future as for her breed she is already to old for a first litter.

I know it wasn't planned and totally unexpected, they had given up hope of ever having a litter off her long ago, then out pop three puppies on the stable floor, the breeder went to investigate what was up when all the other dogs were unusually stood outside the stable block peeking in LOL.

anyone have any ideas what they could use etc, if anything..!

She can be injected, but using the injection has the risk of causing pyometra in the long run and then she'd need a GA to be spayed anyway -when ill.

Bitches do not have a menopause so are never really barren, though as this case shows a bitch having a later first litter can lead to problems not least of which is poor mothering instinct.

How old is the bitch that she fears a GA for a spay, I don't understand why did the owner not have her spayed years ago if planned breeding was a non starter, especially with silent seasons.  I have all my girls spayed after their last litters, usually the spay is around 7 years of age, and they positively bounce back.

Spaying when the pups are around 12 weeks old is the best option for this bitch in my opinion, safer than other contraceptive methods which might lead to Pyometra and an emergency spay on a very sick bitch.

I've been doing a bit of research into the delvosteron injection, it's only a 0.2% increase in risk of pyometra which wouldn't be enough to put me off using it. What did put me off was the chance of a lump being left at injection site, possible hair loss around that area and that the jag is quite painful to administer.

I would be trying to talk her into a spay.  I have had surgery on older bitches, and todays anaesthetics are so safe that I would have no worries about having her spayed.  I've even had dogs with other health problems (not related to an operation they were having) and never had any problems with them.

Having her spayed when pups are 12 weeks will mean your friend doesn't have to worry about an emergency spay on a sick animal if pyometra rears it's ugly head.  I don't understand why she wasn't spayed for health reasons when all hope of a pregnancy had gone.

I've been doing a bit of research into the delvosteron injection, it's only a 0.2% increase in risk of pyometra which wouldn't be enough to put me off using it.

Those are however not the only problems, and when I used it on one of mine got several problems -and in fact ended up with a pregnant bitch (pregnant with deformed pups -as was found during the spay when they were removed) as seasons returned silently. In fact one interesting thing was that she became hypothyroid and had to have treatment for that, but a few years down the line that has vanished!

thanks for the reply, she is a giant breed and aged 6, which is to old really especially for a first litter, the bitch was left to run with a male as she did want a litter off her, but never did she seem to mate of become pregnant, so they gave up and just forgot the idea of her having a litter from her, then out pop 3 puppies litteraly..!

i would have the spay, but she wanted to look into other alternatives to it.

the breeder cares alot for her dogs, and folks always have there own ideas about how things are done.

thank you i will pass the info to her :-)

I have giant breeds and had my oldest girl spayed at 6 with no problems what so ever and she has a few other medical things going on.

To be honest most of my girls aren't spayed until they are around 7, so even with a giant breed this shouldn't be an issue.