Whelping of Bulldogs is a tedious and nerve wracking experience, the same is true for either French OR English Bulldogs. These breeds do not whelp their own babies, a c-section is almost always required. You can occasionally hear of some Bullies that free whelp but this is not the norm. Most (not all) Bullies that free whelp are of ambiguous bloodlines and tend to have longer, taller bodies than our bred dogs.
The whelping of the puppies never actuallyoccurs here as we do not allow our dogs to attempt a free whelp, there are many reasons for this.
1) Females that attempt to free whelp will stress out and their puppies will stress while trying to be free whelped, this high stress situation causes more puppy fatalities than if you just opened up the female and took the puppies, usually even if the female is able to get the first one or two babies pushed out she will more than likely not be able to get them all out and in that case a c-
2)Free whelping stresses the uterus more which causes stretching and weakness, a weakened uterus is less likely to return to normal right away and can cause more problems in the future. A stretched uterus has more lesions and thin areas that can actually tear open with the pressure of a large litter, a torn uterus is a scary thing and can cause death of the female very quickly! We do everything we can to eliminate this scenario.
3) We KNOW all the puppies are out! There is no wondering if there is one more puppy in there, I often hear the stories of "we thought she was done" and then 2 days later.......the female passes a dead puppy and/or develops a very volatile infection. This infection can be deadly to the female, it can also cause so much damage that the female may need to have her uterus completely removed due to the infection, this is a good way to shorten the career of an excellent female. It is not worth the risk!
WHY C-SECTION?
WHEN to C-SECTION?
Since we do progesterone testing we know when our females ovulate, we breed according to ovulation and when the eggs are ready to be fertilized. This practice tells us when our females will whelp, usually in a 3 day time frame. Our experience has been starting on day 57 we regularly take the females temperature several times a day anticipating the familiar drop, the drop in temperature is not always present but we find that it is a very reliable indicator of imminent labor. Her temperature will start at anywhere over 38 C° and will suddenly start to drop, we take our girls in for their c-section when they hit the 37.5C° degree mark, by this time they are usually digging in their bed, looking forlorn, not eating and possibly laying up on their bellies. If you know your dog you will notice the "signs".
The C-SECTION?
Our vet does a tremendous job for us and he is very aware of keeping the incidence of scar tissue to a minimum. He takes great care to make small incisions in the appropriate places, he generally only makes one incision and tries to manipulate everything through that one hole, remember, scar tissue is the enemy of the uterine horns. He also
incorporates a certain stitch for closing the uterus so as to alleviate any excessive scarring. Some vets feel that filling the body cavity with a sodium solution before closing helps to reduce adhesions, my vet does this as well, whatever my vet does works well for us as our girls have excellent uterine integrity and the uterus is inspected during each c-
HOW MANY LITTERS?
About the most you can hope for from a Bully female is 4 litters, some only give 2-
