Hi,

I have come on here in the hope that someone can offer their expertise, as having phoned a dog psychologist, vets, the KC and an experienced breeder but no one seems able to help!!

I have two dogs - a male rescue who we think is a German spitz and a keeshond female. We wanted to get the female spayed but we're told to wait until she is a year old (although many people have said that it doesn't matter what age they are?). She came into her second season on 14th Dec and so we immediately kept our male dog away from her. We kept her upstairs and him downstairs.

Around the start of Jan, her behaviour started to change and so we took her to the vets who said it was too early to tell if she was pregnant. We went back two weeks later and he said she was definitely pregnant and so he did a two part injection where she had one injection on one day and then another the next day. I was working away and the dogs were at my parents  (where they are all the time- my parents treat them like their children). And when I came back three weeks ago, I said to my dad that she has to be pregnant - her teets were swollen, she'd put on weight etc etc. The vet had told my dad it was a phantom pregnancy and that the abortion injection is 100%. I came back a week last Friday and I could just tell straight away something wasn't right about her. She's normally cuddly, but she was more cuddly than ever. On Saturday I took her to the vets and he felt her and said 'no, no, she's not pregnant - it's just a phantom pregnancy which is very common in dogs'. I mentioned that she'd had a bit of discharge and just as I was leaving he said 'I'll just do an ultrasound to make sure there is no infection'. He scanned her and I went back in and he said 'Congratulations, you are going to be a grandma, but I can only see one'. I thought I was going to faint. Breeding dogs is a serious task and having two is enough! I was on half term all week and the vet said to expect it in the next few days. Nothing happened and then on the Friday she went into labour. By the Saturday morning it seemed to have stopped, so I took her back to the vets and she said it was a false alarm but she would scan her, so bring her back at lunch time. Whilst I was waiting to go in, green fluid came out from her and the vet came out to see it and said that it wasn't normal fluid. She said she needed a cesarean straight away. Three hours later, I received a call to say that she was fine and the puppy (boy) was fine too but he had been in a lot of distress as he had aspirated all of his muconium and they spent a long time cleaning his airways.

We got them home and she didn't want to go near him and was terrified. She doesn't understand how/where he has come from. We feed him every two hours and have to cuddle her at the same time as making sure he feeds as we have tried everything to get her in her whelping area - we've moved it, put her treats in it, teddies...anything! Today her behaviour has changed as she has started whimpering  (crying) when the puppy cries and she just looks in his little box (we have a box which is heated with blankets). I put him on the floor and then in her pen and she did go up to it and then got in and licked him. I just found that she has wrapped him in a blanket in her whelping area.

She is on antibiotics twice a day and metacam once a day.

I have also tried covering the puppy with honey, butter and puppy food but that didn't work. My male dog thinks he is the mum and loves him - he licks him so he wees and poos and stares at him inside his little box with tears in his eyes - he's in love with him whereas my girl is scared of him!!

Any help would be appreciated!!

1.   Get ALL other household pets completely away from where she and her puppy are.    If you leave this situation and she gets unduly stressed, which she will, she could well turn on the puppy in an attempt to 'protect ' him
2.   We've had a lot of C.Sections (secondary inertia) but have NEVER had to bottle feed the litters.   Going into the whelping box with mum and encouraging her to lie on her side and latching one or two puppies onto the teats, talking to mum to reassure her, resulted in nature kicking in.   Yes a Sectioned puppy(s) won't smell like her but if you persist, she will accept them.   And if you want to cover him with anything, it should be her discharge so he smells like HER.  
3.   Change your vet.   What a mess.  For everybody.

I would also get legal advice once you are settled as you have done everything to prevent an unwanted pregnancy and have still ended up with a singleton puppy, a sectioned bitch, out of pocket and distress all round....