10 January 2009

cesareans for dogs!

a dalmatian, Button, in England gave birth to 18 pups - by cesarean. Sounds like it's not her first litter & maybe not her last - I wonder if dogs VBAC?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah, they do. Actually, lots of animals VBAC. My mom is a vet and she has told me lots of stories about animals she learned from in vet school - I recall a sheep which had something like 8 or 10 births by caesarean (I can't remember all of the reasons, but it was done that way intentionally) and then the sheep would wind up having an accidental VBAC if she went into labor prematurely.... Also, some dog breeds have all of their puppies born by caesaren b/c of the characteristics for which the breed has been selected -- mainly dogs with big heads (pugs, I think, I can't remember what else) -- heads are too big for vaginal birth so all puppies are born by c/section!

DoulaMomma said...

Interesting - thanks Lynn - makes sense, I guess. I wonder if so many cesareans cause issues such as placenta accreta and percreta in dogs? At least dogs are not being induced with drugs (that know of.