Just had a call from a friend who has a very sick sheltie & two sick pups. Pepsi whelped 5 pups 8 weeks ago. This was her second litter. The first pregnancy produced 4 healthy pups all of who did well. Both whelpings were easy. This time 3 of the pups were small and died in the first week despite best efforts, but the other two were doing well. So was Pepsi until 7 days ago when she showed signs of a pyo. She was operated on immediately. One horn of the uterus appeared normal but the other was grossly infected. In the 24 hours post op Pepsi's temperature soared and has been hovering at 103 - 104 since. She has developed a bloody discharge from some, but not all of her mammary glands and is bleeding steadily (bright red blood) from the vulva. Although she is eating and drinking and is quite bright in herself, she is losing weight rapidly. The two pups were separated from her as soon as problems arose but both of them are losing weight and becoming lethargic although both are eating & drinking well. Neither of the pups has a raised temperature. Repeated swabs of everything have been sent to the local vet school (latests results due tomorrow). Pepsi & the pups have been on three different antibiotics (my friend who is to exhaused to think can't remember what they are).

I'm just posting this on the off chance that someone has seen or heard of something similar or has any ideas or suggestions

Don't have any advice to offer but hopefully someone will be along soon. just wanted to say how sorry Iam to hear that and I hope she gets better soon and the pups pick up. Wishing u the best of luck

Hi Jas.
Not too sure about this one but I suppose if anti-biotics are not helping then the plasma from a healthy dog surely can't do any harm? I know one of the causes of FPS is E-coli so if they feel that these pups have this then it would be worth a try. If the vets take the blood for the pups then maybe even worth trying on the bitch. I know it would all be a first but it was a first for my pups and thankfully it worked.
Let me know, better still you could always ask my or your vets as they have seen the results for themselves from doing plasma transfusions.
Good luck :-)
Glad to hear your pups are doing well and I would be interested to see their growth charts.

" Can't do any harm" at this stage is the breeders thought too. She can just about cope with the idea of losing th pups but would be devastated if she lost the bitch. I rang her and she says she will suggest it to her vet when she visits tomorrow. Since the bitch is ill there is no point in taking blood from her, dad is too far away and a sheltie may be a bit small anyway, but if the vet decides to go ahead she can 'borrow' one of my big ones.

I'll e-mail you the weight charts for my lot now. :)

Anne-Marie, I don't have an e-mail addy for you and attempts to put the chart on the forum failed miserably. If you let me have your e-mail address at jas@ntlworld.com, I'll send the chart off.