Hello,
I am looking to get as many opinions as possible on when to breed my Dogue de Bordeaux bitch again.
She had a litter in July and as alot of you know she failed to produce milk due to being left go over by our local vet. Due to the prolonged labour and the vet failing to get her started she developed eclampsia and as you know the first source of calcium her body went for was her milk. Due to this the pups were taken from her after a day and a bit. Due to this she went into a deep depression as her babies had gone and we had to hand rear them.
So she had a litter in July but did not spend the usual 6 weeks rearing them.
She is now, thanks to Fit and Fertile in fantastic condition and is back to her old self.
Some breeders have recommended I breed her next season to allow her to be a proper mom whilst some say to leave her till the following season.
I am happy to do it either way but wanted to know what others would do in the same circumstances. Either way I know she will not be left to go over her dates by our new vets!
Any advice will be greatfully received!
Thanks alot

Just mho , but wether she reared them or not, she had to give birth to them, and had a bad time afterwards. If she was mine, Id leave her a year till her next litter.

Thanks for that. That was my intention before but when some said she may benefit from having pups it did confuse me as I just want to do right by her. I am more than happy to wait the year, still geting over the lack of sleep from hand rearing those pups!!! lol

Hi Anne-Marie, agree with Phil. Although she didn't raise the pups, she carried a fair sized litter and didn't have an easy time whelping or 'emotionally'. I'd leave it.

Thanks Sharon, see I knew I'd get some sound advice on here. Thank goodness for the forum, glad I started using it.

Another thing to consider is the KC. I think I am right in saying they will not register two litters from the same bitch within 12 months.

They will now, it has recently been changed but only for unlicenced breeders - those registering 4 litters or less in 12 months.

Yeah they have changed the rules again to allow more than 1 litter in a year to un-licenced breeders. Think it was due to having so many requests for permission on medical grounds. I know one of my staffies had pyometria when her first litter was 3 weeks old. Thankfully it was an open pyo and she had the prostaglandin (think that was the name) injection followed by a course of Marbycil. It was then recommended by the vet to make sure we bred her next season, which we did and thankfully ever since she has been fine. I know from speaking to some vets and reading some articles it is their opinion if you have a good brood bitch and she is healthy it is better for her to have her litters young instead of when she is 6 or 7. Must say that does seem to make sense.

Thanks for putting me straight. Sometimes I think live in a cave with just my dogs for company...I get so out of touch.