I helped a friend whelp her bitch on Friday.  She was a week early and had a green discharge which her vet gave antibiotics for and told her not to expect live puppies.
Unfortuneately she needed a c section after having a live pup, we knew there were at least another two pups there.  Took her to my vet who phoned to tell us that she did have two further pups, both dead.  One had stopped developing about 5 - 6 weeks gestation and the other was mummified.  One of them had ruptured through the uterus into the abdomen about 3 days previously.  Alan who is my vet and retiring at the end of July has never seen this before in all his years as a vet.  He said he couldn't find the words to stress how lucky we were to have Mum living never mind a live puppy.  Mum had to have an emergency spey due to the damage to the uterus.

Mum and pup are both doing brilliant, pup now 7 oz and thriving.

Poor girl. Give her a big cuddle from me and take care of her precious baby. The poor little thing won't have any playmates as it grows so your friend will have to give it extra attention.

This is always the real downside and worrying time when breeding. Very fortunate to have Mum still around. Hope they both go from strength to strength.

sorry to hear your news about your friends girl. she is very lucky to have mum still and i hope the baby goes on to be a cracking little puppy. i had something similar last year with my girls first litter, she gave birth to 2 live puppies and then labour ceased, after a very long day she was taken in for a c-section to find she had an anasarca puppy which had ruptured her uterus, the pup was about 3 times bigger than the rest! she was spayed and i thank god she made it through this ordeal as she is by precious baby!

give your friends dog a big hug from me bless her heart x

Similar thing happened with us just recently.  My girl was day 63, no signs of labour or temp drop, next minute the first water sac was presenting.....still no signs of labour, I waited a while, then we had the dreaded green discharge!!!  Dashed to the vet, where they wasted no time and gave her a c-section, during the op the vet came out, fully gowned, my heart racing 90 to the dozen,  to say part of our girls uterus was nectrotic (dead/dying flesh) and that they needed my permission to spay....which of course we gave them, they said another 24 hours or if labour had started her uterus would have ruptured and we would have lost both mum and pups, thankfully pups were all born alive and mum has fully recovered, I also thank god my girl made it through this, I don't think I could have lived with the guilt had she not survived :(

oh what an experience!! Glad mum doing well now and you have one pup, fingers crossed all goes well :)

and thoughts to you too SharonM - what a scary experience.....

it just goes to show that breeding is a traumatic undertaking!!!

It's not that uncommon, we had a Pomeranian do the same a couple of years ago, but luckily we did have a couple of live pups.

Gosh how scary, I am so thankful my girl had an easy time last year. I hope to try again next year as she only had boys, but if anything happened it would be so awful!

And people think breeding is an easy way to make money :(

I think anyone thinking of breeding should read some of the threads on here, its a risk to breed your bitch but something we have to do, Im just glad all these stories have happy endings or I would be a wreck by now! :)

Keep us posted on the special pup, I would say he/she is a keeper after what has happened ;)

My mums pap had exactly the same thing but hers wasnt detected till day 69 as the vet kept giving her chance to deliver natural. Mum kept saying something was wrong and when she insisted on c section the pups had ruptured the uterus died and alot of gunk was in the abdo cavity, resulting in emergancy spay and us nurseing & willing her to survive the night. Bless she now fighting fit if a little on the plump side!!!!

It's hearing these stories that makes you wonder why you breed. then looking at my fur kids i wouldn't be without them. Everything we do is not without risk when it comes to owning dogs.
Zoe x

So sorry to hear this. Very pleased mum and pup are coming along well.

sooo happy to read mum is doing ok ,how is the little one doing? x

Now five or is it six weeks on  (time passes so quickly) both Mum and Pup (Aria) have never looked back.

ah glad mum and pup is well, the joys and heartbreaks of breeding, its so sad