The Challenges & Solutions of Solo Puppy Litters

• Why do singletons occur?
• What evidence is needed to justify a c-section?
• How common is whole litter and puppy reabsorption? 

In this episode we unravel the intricacies of canine fertility, whilst delving into the unique challenges posed by singleton puppies. Sara shares eye-opening statistics from her white paper on solo pups, and what proactive approaches significantly improve a singleton’s chance of survival.

From discussing whether body proportions can contribute to reabsorption causing small litters, to unveiling the supplements proven to boost fertility, we cover many aspects of the canine fertility puzzle! But it takes two to tango. Stud dogs can be a fertility-ticking-time-bomb, especially those seven years and older, so we look at the importance of fertility testing too.

We begin to untangle the multifaceted factors impacting a dog’s fertility, from diet and condition to age, and even discuss how different breeds have varying fertile windows. So whether you're a seasoned breeder or a newcomer to the world of canine reproduction, this episode of Breeders Brew is packed with invaluable insights and actionable advice to help you optimise fertility and navigate the unique challenges of singleton pups.
 
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Transcript

Isobel: 0:02

Welcome to the Breeders Brew, the dog breeding podcast hosted by me, Isobel, the canine nutrition coach,

Sara: 0:08

and me, Sara, the canine family planner.

Isobel: 0:11

Together, we'll be promoting responsible breeding by unpicking the minefield of breeding myths and methods for owners wishing to expand their whelping wisdom. In this episode, we'll be discussing singleton litters. I'll go through my personal experiences with a singleton. We will discuss reasons for why singletons can occur and how you should. Best proactively manage a Singleton litter.

Sara: 0:35

Back in 2018, Isobel, I wrote a, yeah, it feels like a lifetime ago, I wrote a short, like, white paper on what I observed from a point of view of scanning for pregnancy and When there was a solo pup, so a singleton puppy litter, how did the rest of the pregnancy unfold and the delivery? So back in 2018, I actually emailed all the people, because I'm quite good at record keeping. I emailed all the people that I scanned for a solo puppy and said, could you just answer a few questions? And it's basically, how was the puppy born? The measure that you took, would you repeat that again? Do you think that was the best approach that you took? Would you change anything? If so, what? At that point I scanned 1100 dogs. I'm in the five, six thousands now, which is hilarious. And what I found is that I was more likely to scan for a solo puppy than I was for a litter of 10 plus. Obviously some dogs would never ever carry a litter of 10 plus such as a Datsy. Well, I don't, I don't think it's happened. A mini Datsy. Well, who knows? Yeah, who knows a chihuahua, you know, there's just some breeds that it would be a miracle if they actually carried 10 where every female can carry one puppy. So people need to bear that in mind. At the time I said there was around a 6. 4 percent chance of a solo puppy and only around 2. 3 percent chance of a litter of 10 plus. Of the scans that I carried out, 72 percent of those females were pregnant. Again, these statistics are slightly. Impacted by generally only proactive breeders scan their dogs for pregnancy. So there's, there's plenty out there. Just leave it be, I would never know about because they never crossed my path, so to speak. What the interest in statistics, and this has been quoted by other veterinary professionals I have, you know, from the females that I scanned. With a solo puppy, 62 percent said they whelped naturally of which there was an 85 percent survival rate of the puppies. Even with a whelp of more than one puppy survival rate, if you're lucky it's a hundred percent, but if it's not a hundred percent, that's no surprise really to anybody. Multiple birth deliveries always adds a level of complication and generally means that you have non surviving puppies, which is kind of why they have multiple puppies in the first place. So 62 Born naturally, 85 percent survive. Of the 38 percent that were born by C section, only 42 percent survived. However, of the people that C sections that decided on an elective section. So it's pre agreed because we have one puppy. This is the way we're going to deliver this puppy by an elective C section. When the puppy is a full term, a hundred percent. survived. So this goes to show an emergency C section on a solo pup, you've had less than a 50 percent survival rate, where if it's selective, It's a hundred percent naturally whelped is an interesting one. So again, it's over 50 percent because when people used to ask me, it's about 75%. I think the important factor on a natural whelp is whether the female has whelped a litter before or not. And if she has whelked her litter before, then I think a natural whelk, the survival rate of that puppy increases. Where if she's never delivered pups before, I believe the survival rate is actually lower. So there's a few sort of caveats and clauses to those statistics. That paper was just to give people a general benchmark of if you have a solo puppy, this is how it might unfold. And these are some of the interventions you can put into place to increase your survival rate. I always say to people, the worst situation you want to end up being in is that you have to pay for a C section and you have a non viable pup. It's distressing to the dam, it's distressing to you and your, your purse just seems all a waste of nothing. It seems a complete and utter waste of time. When somebody has a solo puppy due, and again, this is something that we see online, a lot of questions being asked, you have to be at the highest level of proactiveness to manage that pregnancy and that delivery. And Isobel, haven't we, we've seen it time and time again, where I scan a solo, we advise them on the route of best action, either they don't agree to it or their vets don't agree to it, and ultimately they end up in a situation of a non viable pup and a big vet build to boot, which is just the worst case scenario. First of all, let's have a discussion as to why the likelihood of only having one puppy in a litter, and again, this comes down to how relaxed or not you are when it comes to breeding your dogs, how much effort you want to put into ovulation testing, I'm going to talk from a best practice gold standard level of if you're breeding a dog and I don't care what breed it is, but if you're breeding a dog, this is the benchmark of doing things correctly. And only then if something doesn't work, it should be investigated to a particular level. Because if you haven't bred to that benchmark in the beginning, there's loads of gaps and sections that you're missing all underneath. And you're just rooting around trying to wrap different ends of things and plug them in together. If you are breeding your female, she needs to be in good condition. She needs to be of a breathable age, which means and suggests that she's of a age of good fertility. So you are working within a window. And the same for the males. If you breed too young, that's going to impact fertility. If you breed when they're too old, you're going to impact fertility. Different breeds have a different breeding window. Giant breeds mature slower and they age quicker, which means their breeding window is a lot smaller than an average dog that has a life expectancy into 14 years old. You need to be aware of your breeding window and your breed's fertility development. Another thing to be aware of is is that if you decide to breed your healthy female to a healthy male, what ovulation checks are you doing to know that you're breeding at the right time? So you're breeding as optimal as it possibly should be. And then at that point, do you want to Fertility check the male. So the female, you assume you're doing that you're doing some form of ovulation testing. Gold standard would be progesterone ovulation testing, but that actually pinpoints when a female is ovulated. So you know exactly when to breed or organize your breedings. And likewise, when you're. When was the male last fertility checked? So he may be up and good and a proven stud dog, but when did he last have pups on the ground? When did he last sire a litter? And, or if not, when is he last had a fertility check to know that he's abnormality rate is low, that his concentration rate is good. I've covered a lot in that short window, but there's some bare bones essentials. And if you tickle those boxes, you are steering yourself away from having a solo puppy litter.

Isobel: 7:54

I can just interject here with a personal story that will bring to light exactly what Sara was saying there. A couple of years ago, I had a bitch that we were planning to breed. We had planned the breeding for a very long time, particular stud in mind. He was an older boy, but it was an intentional pairing. He was exactly what I needed and I was willing to take the risk on a nearly 11 year old dog. He had side puppies relatively ish within that window with several litters on the ground. So. It's worth a punt for me. My girl, lo and behold, they always like to chuck us a curve ball on a breeding season. Came into season much earlier than planned. Fortunately, we caught her, but potentially maybe not the first day because we weren't looking out for it and weren't expecting her to be in season for at least another six weeks. So it does happen to the best of us. Lo and behold, we sort of looked at her, realised she was in season and thought this must be day one. Before we knew it, she was standing, flagging, doing all the things incredibly reliably and On our watch, that made our only about day three, day four, we were absolutely shocked. All systems go, did what we could do in the time window we had, which we were coming into a bank holiday weekend, I think off the top of my head as well. Of course, at that point, all we had open to us was going down the route of cytology. Fortunately, our vets weren't able to get us in for progesterone testing, that it just wasn't feasible. And that obviously is gold standard. We already had significant number. of odds stacked against us. We had chosen an older male. We had to go down the route of cytology because it was better than nothing. Lo and behold, we were told that our girl was ready. I think day six of season or five or six off the top of my head. It was a couple of years ago. I don't have the notes in front of me. Obviously I keep all my breeding logs. We did go and mate her, had two successful matings, ties, the works. We were very happy. However, lo and behold, came around to scan date and we did end up with a Singleton puppy. I think personally, this highlights, to a T, the reason, the, the, the basic bones that Sara mentioned there. I intentionally stacked the odds against myself. I had very good reason to, I got exactly what I wanted out of the pairing, and that was our fantastic keeper, so it was Worth it for me, however, it just does literally go to show that by ticking those basic boxes of following best practice to the point of breeding, it really can reduce your risk of ending up with a singleton.

Sara: 10:11

Yeah, I mean, and you was proactive because you had us scanned, you knew what you was expecting, yours did unfold and end up being a C section.

Isobel: 10:21

Yeah, absolutely, I was in that bracket.

Sara: 10:24

Yeah. She was a maiden female, so she's never had pups before. And then you're landed with a solo and it ended up in the C section. You kind of experienced it all within one pairing combination. Yeah, exactly. And I highly recommend if you mate a female, you always scan that female. To me, there's no excuse. She doesn't look pregnant. I'm not going to scan her. We hear that all the time. What do I say? She doesn't get more pregnant.

Isobel: 10:51

Or conversely, the other thing I always hear is, oh, she's definitely pregnant, so I don't need to scan.

Sara: 10:57

Yeah,

Isobel: 10:58

it's one of those, you can surmise, you can look at all sorts online and do all sorts of human pregnancy tests that don't work. You can do, there are dog pregnancy tests, but they can give a false reading up until 35 days when you can ultrasound scan at four weeks, 28 days, and then actually have an idea of development.

Sara: 11:21

What you're seeing, are there any issues and numbers? There's just no reason why if you breed a female, you do not have a scan.

Isobel: 11:29

Well, I learned literally firsthand how imperative it is to scan, because had I not scanned my bitch based on the. fact that we had done ticked some boxes, e. g. the stud was proven. We did some form of ovulation testing, albeit not what I would have wanted to do, but we were constrained by time and we got two good ties naturally. We had, and she was showing all the signs of symptoms of pregnancy obviously being experienced breeders. We could put two and two together that we were likely to get a positive scan. If I hadn't have scanned my bitch, we would have had a completely different outcome because she was one of the girls ended up in a C section. However, even still, that was a C section on my watch rather than at two o'clock in the morning, you know, 67 days plus coming home with a non viable pup and a large vet bill. So all ended well, but that was purely down to the fact that I was proactive with my scanning. I had a scanned at 28 days. We saw more than one pup. We were confirmed as a multi pup litter, potentially two, which for my breed wasn't unheard of. She was a petite bitch. I was happy with a litter of two. That was brilliant. However, there was some. Indicators wasn't there. There was an indicator. I scanned with Sara. For those of you that, that don't know, obviously I went down to Sara for my scanning. Cut that out if you want. So we were scanned in part with two with one sack looking potentially slightly less viable. I don't understand the ins and outs. I'm not a scanning technician. So we thought let's be proactive and book a, book a progress scan anyway, especially with her being a maiden bitch. It was a great idea for us to be checking puppy development in the final week before she was due. Went for our progress scan and I'd like to say it was a big shock, but it was one of those things that we were then confirmed at that point that we had a singleton puppy and there were no other puppies that were viable present. So it gave us a week to proactively manage the situation and make sure that we were coming home. Whether that be birthed at home or at the vets, we were coming home with a viable puppy. Knowledge was absolute power in that situation. Low and behold, we went through what looked like first signs and symptoms of labour. We had the temperature drop, we got digging, we got to the point where she was nesting, all over the weekend. And all of a sudden it stopped. By Sunday lunchtime she was asking for a dog walk with our other dachshunds, jumping up at the door, barking, getting ready to go out the door. I obligingly thought, I'll take her in the car. And still no signs of labour whatsoever. So we Got as far as beginning stages of first, we could very quickly identify primary inertia. It was very, very obvious to us, not that we had got as far as what some people would consider sort of labour, but because we were proactively managing the situation and keeping 24 seven observations of her in that stage where we knew that if there was a puppy Jew, we need the puppy to come naturally. It meant that we were hyper aware of when things went backwards and stopped. So it meant that for me, it was a very easy decision come Monday morning, I was on the phone to my vets explaining the situation, the fact that she was due a couple of days beforehand, that we had gone into what seems like labour and installed. They were. Partially obliging to go in at that point and offer C section. It did take a significant amount of discussion, a very lengthy vet consultation first thing in the morning, discussing our weighing of options because understandably a lot of vets aren't keen to C section when not necessary. It is a major operation with any major operation comes potential surgical complications and risks. So I think, again, this is where, for me, knowledge was power because had I not been armed with the information that she was due a singleton, I would have happily let her go over another couple of days, especially bearing in mind, I hadn't progesterone tested at the beginning of the pregnancy to know exactly when ovulation was. So it would have been very easy for me if I hadn't scanned to have let her go far too far. The fact that I knew it was a singleton, I was aware from having read this, this white paper that Sara published as well about the sort of mortality rates the later in gestation we go. I don't know if you mentioned that in your white paper as well, but that information to me was particularly useful.

Sara: 15:40

Yeah, once you hit 65 days, the survival rate of that pup is severely diminished. Really is your, your deadline is 65 days from ovulation. The problem is, like you said, if you have an ovulation tested, you don't know when that is. So that is one of the bonuses of doing that upfront. Not only are you breeding at the optimal time, but you know ovulation. So you technically know when full term is. The interesting thing that you said, I understand they don't want to see section two early because people start making updates and they start getting anxious and then they want to pop out and it's not the right time to take the pop out. So I totally get that's double, triple checking, but now that we can reverse progesterone tests, which is. The same test for testing for ovulation, but you're looking for the numbers to decrease rather than increase, the decrease tells you that puppy is ready to be born and your vets did exactly that, didn't they? They reversed progesterone, tested her before they did the C section. There are a lot of vets out there that do that now, which is absolutely great because there's no doubt about it. It is fact. If the numbers allow that puppy is ready to be born. I don't think a vet should ever dismiss. Somebody and say, no, you need to wait. They should be saying, I understand your concerns. Bring her in. Let's do a reverse progesterone test. And if the numbers are correct, then yeah, we're going to C section. If the numbers aren't correct, then yeah, you can't C section because that puppy. Is not ready to be born.

Isobel: 17:13

Absolutely. And I think it's worth saying here that if you know that information, when you step into the vets and you ask them for a reverse progesterone test and you give them the gestation date and, you know, and the mating dates, the other end, they, my opinion will be far more obliging to work with you because you're showing a genuine, proactive, approach to breeding. You're not just saying, Oh, I want to section because it's going to be easier. Can you get the pup out, please? It shows you're showing a level of, of caring and understanding for your bitch. You don't want the pup out too early, but at the same time, if you go in and potentially offer that as a suggestion, you might find that your vets are a little bit more willing to, to talk about cesarean at that point.

Sara: 17:53

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Almost to a degree that open to negotiation and yes, it is. It is. Yeah.

Isobel: 18:00

Having said that it's worth saying here, the caveat is not all bitches, progesterone levels will drop with a singleton or not to the point where they would naturally for a labour. And if you are faced with primary inertia, which is exactly what our girl went through, depending on which point they stall at. So our girl went into first stages and then stalled. So her progesterone levels had started to drop. So hence our vet was willing to go in and c section at that point. However, if she had had primary inertia, before or a little bit prior in that process, the chances are her progesterone levels may not have dropped. And then that does open a bit more of a complex conversation that needs to be had with the vet.

Sara: 18:39

And likewise, that can still be countered with, well, let's do an ultrasound scan. Let's check puppy heartbeat. Yeah. Is it showing any foetal distress? What's the size of the pup as well? You can do skull measures then. If it's measuring, I would say fully cooked, they're cooked or not cooked. If they're fully cooked, there's lots of other little steps. It's not just a yes or no. It's actually, no, let's look at the evidence to see whether a C section is the right approach to be taken. Just to skip back, because obviously you touched on reabsorption in the situation that you were in, and I think we need to just Cover that in a bit more depth, whole litter reabsorption is very rare from my experience. I read that it happens daily online, which is a bit of a joke. I think that's a questionable skill set of the person that scans the dog or they're not scanning in the optimal timeframe. Which for me is 28 to 35 days after last mating. You'll be a bit earlier if you know ovulation dates, but because I deal with Joe Public, not everybody ovulation tests, we go from 28 to 35 days for last mating. That is your optimal window for checking for puppies, looking at viability and also being fairly accurate with numbers. Puppies generally, if they're going to be reabsorbed, it happens up to 35 days, though I have no doubt it can happen afterwards. It's just not as common or as regularly seen from that point onwards, but I have no doubt it does happen at a later stage. But generally 35 days is a cutoff for most people. And so just to have a little conversation about puppy reabsorption. I believe, from my experience, that sees are quite high in the brand of reabsorption. And I believe it's because they're long in body. So they've got long horns. So the eggs go, Oh yeah, I can implant here and I can implant here. And there's loads of room. And then as the puppy start to develop and the abdomen increases in size, they suddenly realise that, Oh, actually there's no space between us and the floor. Where are we all going to go? And then I think at that point, puppies get absorbed Into the body to make room the entire litter. So I think it's actually, cause the fact of the legs are so short in your breed, they're more prone to that the body.

Isobel: 20:59

Really interesting concept that is actually, because as a breed, I can absolutely attest to the fact that reabsorption does seem to be a lot more common than what I hear about in friends that have other breeds. I don't just think it's bad luck, you know, it's not just myself. I've, I've got other acquaintances in the breed. And it's very common, and I hadn't thought about it in that, in that concept, because it is interesting, most dogs are square shaped, aren't they, so their uterine horns are likely to be as long as they are deep, and then the space for the stomach to grow is, again, as deep as it is long, whereas Yeah. Interestingly, the Dachshunds have the long body, which you understand about conformation and things like that. Generally for a brood bitch, people will actively choose in other breeds slightly longer bitches due to their ability to potentially carry a more successful litter. In theory, Dachshunds have got that lovely long body and those longer uterine horns, but you're quite right. They don't have the depth of, of sort of stomach area to carry a large litter.

Sara: 21:58

Exactly. And I think different breeds have their own quirks, but I'm, I'm so used to seeing bulldogs pregnant and generally they look like they swallowed a beach ball. They're waddling around. They're a square breed. They're as tall as they are, wide as they are, long kind of thing. Yet they get this big look to them and they can be prone to reabsorption. I actually think with them is actually to do with because they're short in back. Yeah. It's almost the opposite. Other way around. Yeah. Cause they're short in back, but they've got the depth of body, it all ends up going outwards. And that's where they look like they swallow a beach ball, but to the point where they're still equally uncomfortable and the body is still struggling to cope because they don't just don't have that length of back. My biggest bulldog litter was 11 and that was in the longest bitch I have ever bred from. She was interesting. The terminology we have over here is like as long as the train. I was talking to a Norwegian friend and I. You know, I was just talking to dogs and said, yeah, that dog's as long as the train. And so he ended up calling one of his dog Cooper after Mini Cooper. Cause he said, look, look how short he is in the back, which makes me laugh. It can't be a coincidence that my biggest litter of 11, all surviving, the bitch breezed it, she partially self whelped but we did have. Turned up c sectioning because we didn't know that we had 11 at that point, but she was under no distress in any way, shape, or form because her body just had the room to carry all these extra pups.

Isobel: 23:25

I mean, it's a very good theory because even if you think, even if you go from toy breeds up to sort of larger average size breeds, it is the average breed of dog that generally, from what I see from my clients, I presume it's the same for you, that actually you're probably more likely to scan a large litter in sort of an average, ish, square breed, I would imagine something like a Labrador.

Sara: 23:46

Yeah, the Labrador, like my Labrador, she had the smallest of belly, paunches, like it was just a little, she was pregnant. You could tell she, but she didn't look uncomfortable. She could still lay how she normally laid. She was pregnant because they've got all three of the, yeah, she, she had all the proportions. Exactly. So to her, it was like, yeah, I'm carrying extra weight and I'm a little bit uncomfortable, but she can still run, jump, play, roll over. When you've got a dog that has certain extremities and then you breed with that, then the body just suddenly goes, Oh, I can't quite do this. So we're going to have to absorb some of these pups in. It's just something that I've observed. And so I think it's just worth. people looking at their breed that they have and thinking, is there any excessiveness of this, that, whatever dimension proportions? And how is that going to impact my female? Should she be in part with a large litter? Okay. To put the shoe on the other foot. What about if you've got a female, you did everything you thought you did everything right. And you're breeding her again. She's had a solo. What is there anything you should do differently? Knowing that she's previously had a solo, I know we've said about ovulation, so say they did an ovulation test, okay, we do ovulation testing, but in regards to diet, yeah, what would you suggest in regards to diet?

Isobel: 25:06

There are a few things that stick out to me immediately There are three supplements in particular that I would recommend in this instance. You can use them for any bitch. They don't just have to be bitches following a lower fertility litter, but it's a given if you're, if you're coming off the back of potentially a bitch that's lost all, all pups or just had a singleton. The first would be selenium. Low levels of selenium in a bitch's diet have literally been linked to reabsorption. So, there are studies out there, you're welcome to have Google, or I can chuck some links in the show notes. But making sure she has high enough levels of selenium in her body through that crucial early gestation window, and to be honest with you, I continue my own bitches on it right up until whelp, makes a huge difference. Yeah. Not all selenium supplements are created equal, and selenium is, is something that is naturally found in some shellfish, for example, so it is quite a niche nutrient, and it would be very easy for a bitch's diet to be too low in. Just be conscious of, of brands of selenium because some will either be too high. If you're buying sort of a human supplement or something like that, the chances are that the dosage of that will be far too high for a dog, particularly if you've got a smaller breed, someone like me with the four or five kilogram Dachshunds. So make sure you're buying a lower, a lower dose. Canine formulated supplement and make sure that it's got dog safe fillers in as well as a given because there's no point you giving selenium that is laden with extra fillers in there that could potentially do far more damage to early stage embryos and things like that. Any history of a reabsorption or a solo puppy, the first thing I'd be recommending to a coaching client would be pop your girl on selenium up to three months before she's due in season. It's not one of those that you don't want to wait until last minute and go, Oh, we've made still, let's pop her on selenium now. Yeah, that is still better than doing nothing because absolutely you will be topping up her diet, but it is going to take her body a certain amount of time to metabolize those nutrients and actually start building the levels in her body. The other supplement, which is widely accepted is wheat germ oil. It's something that I find a lot of breeders are aware of whether or not they're using it is seems to be sort of hit and miss. But it is something that a lot of people know that is around and they know that they probably should be using it, but wheat germ oil is particularly fantastic because it is just. What it says on the tin, it's dead natural, particularly if you go down the route of getting an organic wheat germ oil, I'll add this in as a caveat as well, because it's completely safe the whole way through pregnancy and lactation, it's been grown and produced without pesticides and any sort of things like that on the crop, so you're not going to get any dangerous transmission through the oil, so I'd go down the route of an organic, again, that can be given Months before she's due in season, but for me, it's particularly important because it's an anti inflammatory it's full of antioxidants and antioxidants is something that basically mops up the immune system. So if there's anything a bit funny going on or any toxins building up, particularly in her sort of fertility system. The antioxidants in the wheat germ oil sort of mop it up, which is brilliant. If you've got a low fertility bit, it's a given for me that any of my breeding girls go on to this, and obviously it's a great source of natural vitamin E as well. The reason that I say this is because wheat germ oil has. a million different benefits and I would bore you to death if I went through them all. But particularly in this particular situation, it helps a healthy development of the early embryos, particularly during the implantation stage. And it helps thicken the endometrial lining of the womb as well as improving egg health from the fact that it's an antioxidant. So if you look at those early stages of pregnancy, we want there to be healthy eggs. We want there to be a nice thick lining for those. Hopefully fertilise eggs to then embed in and implant in so that implantation stage is fundamental because if all of that goes really well, then you're much more likely to have a viable part. There is one more supplement that I recommend to anyone following a small size litter, particularly if you have already ovulation tested and it's not your timing is something called natural royal jelly. It's not something a lot of people know about, but. I have done an awful lot of work on the topic because it's fantastic. It's a completely natural supplement. Essentially royal jelly is something that the I know your dogs aren't a bee, but it is something that the queen bee of a hive is fed on solely for the entire time that she is reproducing and creating eggs for the hive to replenish the population. It is a very nutrient dense and very abundant source of natural nutrients. There have been Tons of studies on natural royal jelly that even as humans, we are turning to it a lot at the mument. So it's, it's very common for there to be ethical stock problems as in not, if you're not worried about where it comes from, I'm sure you'll always be able to source it, but from ethical suppliers, there can be doc problems because of the fact that it's becoming a very. popular supplement for very good reason. It's got great results in women, men, and also dogs. There are a lot of studies out coming out about dogs. The part of fertility, particularly in women, that this helps and female bitches and mammals is. With the fact that it's so nutrient dense, it helps the follicles of the ovaries burst in a more healthy pattern, releasing more abundant amount of eggs and healthier eggs. So it's one of those things that the ovary side of things that the, this natural royal jelly helps with the early stages. So if you are finding a bitch just is potentially not producing enough or enough healthy eggs in those initial stages and that, because again, it's worth me saying here just because, you know, she could produce a ton of eggs. But if they're not truly healthy eggs that are then being fertilised, the chances are they could very well be those early foetuses and sacs that are the ones that are reabsorbing if they were never viable initially. So improving the health and number of those eggs in the very early stages could go a long way to reducing reabsorption and having a larger litter. Again, it's worth me saying here with royal jelly, it's not going to all be created equally because again, depending on where those hives are. And how those hives have been looked after, you know, the royal jelly is obviously being sourced from will have a big impact as to the density of nutrition in that supplement. So do your due diligence when it comes to sourcing that one. And as always, if you've got any, got any trouble, drop us a message, but you can find it on my canine nutrition coach website, of course, as well.

Sara: 31:41

So royal jelly, selenium and wheat germ oil. Triple threat, fair enough.

Isobel: 31:46

Yeah, so just make sure your wheat germ oil is organic, make sure you're getting the right dosage of selenium, because it's right, it's good to get that one right, and the royal jelly, make sure it's an ethical source that's going to actually provide the good quality nutrients. But that is what I consider is the triple threat, so if your bitch needs a proper fertility boost. or she's potentially a little bit older, or she's coming off the back of maybe a bit of an illness in anticipation to the run up because any girl can get ill, plagued with a bit of illness before she's due in season, anything like that where you need to give her a bit of a boost or you're just trying to do the best and set her up holistically as well as you can for the marathon that is breeding, this is the triple threat that I would always consider and I personally will always use on my own bitches to give them the boost that they need when their body's going to go through so much.

Sara: 32:28

And I'm assuming this is transferable to stud dogs because the question that I get asked all the time is who dictates the size of the litter? My answer is always it takes two to Tango because she can drop all the eggs that she wants. If his fertility is no good, then he can't fertilise them anyway. And likewise, he can put all the semen in and sperm in, sperm toser in that he needs to, to actually fertilise some eggs. But as you say, if hers are all substandard, poor quality, whatever we've just covered, and then it makes no difference as well. So it literally takes two to tango. I don't know how much I need to emphasise. You can ovulation tested at the perfect day. And I see people doing this and then they're going to use 11 year old stud dog. And he's not a proven stud dog. He may have never had a litter in his life. Yeah. Well, we thought he's getting on a bit and we really want something from him. So we're going to give it a go. Well, you should have had him on supplements before that point. You should have. Fertility checked him to make sure that what he's producing is actually up to the expectations it needs to be. Because if it's not, then at least you know what potentially is coming down the line of it could be a smaller litter, she could miss, it could all be a waste of time. I'm assuming the triple threat is all applicable to a stud dog as well?

Isobel: 33:50

Yeah, absolutely. For completely different reasons. And it's just by pure chance that those particular three natural supplements have astounding, brilliant impacts on males with poor semen quality as well. I think you touched on a great point there, which I think a lot of breeders don't always realise, but as a stud owner, you do have a level of responsibility to make sure that if you are charging a bitch owner for your services. That you are providing a fair level of service. I know a lot of stud owners don't like to think of it as a service and that, no, I'm allowing other people to use my fantastic boy. I'm just sharing his good genes. Absolutely. You are. But when there is money exchanging hands, it's important that you are upholding, in my opinion, this is, that's part of being an ethical breeder. And if your boy isn't being used or he isn't producing litters or he's missing bitches or having small letters in particular. It's worth me adding here, you probably should have infertility checks because he might have a great semen concentration, but if everything that's there has got crooked tails or dodgy heads or anything in between, that semen needs to be able to swim in a straight line. It's no good just saying, Oh, well, we've had it on the scope once. And what's there is abundant. You need to know what's there is, is again, as we said, with the egg health, it's all well and good. You're a female producing eggs, but they need to be healthy eggs. And it's the same with the boy's semen. Also, don't be put off by having a fertility test. It's not, if you have your boy tested, all hope is lost if what he's producing is, is not great. There are things that absolutely can be done to improve semen quality. Supplements is just one part of the, the puzzle that is, that is that. There have been, you know, Thousands probably if not more of studies that you'll be able to find all over Google scholar and the likes to what natural supplements improve semen quality but selenium is a great example of one of those it increases concentration it improves motility which is how well it swims correct me if I'm wrong Sara the fact that you can give something as simple as a natural supplement that increases concentration and motility for me is why would you not be proactively managing that as a study owner. Get your boy checked. Don't worry if it's not as good as what you're hoping. There are things you can do. Selenium is absolutely one of them. Goes without saying that diet is obviously another. Because again, if you're feeding your boy the equivalent of a McDonald's, why would he be producing fantastic semen? He may not be. Royal jelly is another one. I know your boy is not a female queen bee in the, in the hive, but royal jelly is so laden in such a broad spectrum of nutrients. Studies have been released to suggest that royal jelly again, increases sperm count, which is concentration and motility again, which is how well it swims. So both of those two supplements. We're obviously in different ways, but both contribute to it, improved demon quality there. So if your boy's getting on, has been missing bitches, maybe not proven, anything like that, natural supplements are a great way forward. And on the other hand, if your boy is being used regularly. It's probably another reason to be putting him on supplements to make sure that his semen quality doesn't sort of degenerate with the fact that he's being used frequently as well.

Sara: 36:57

Yeah, obviously stud use is generally supply and demand. So stud dogs are used infrequently, will struggle more than dogs used routinely. But likewise, a dog use routinely, it still takes like three months to grow sperm. If you suddenly up the demand, the supply will just push through immature sperm because it hasn't yet been through the process because it hasn't yet worked out. Actually, we need to turn up the manufacturing to meet the demand. Supplements goes away to helping that. If there's any reason, as I've already highlighted, that you feel that you need to fertility check your mouth and do so, litter size getting smaller, he's been unwell, he's been on certain medication. But also, my opinion, every dog from seven years old should be routinely checked if they're to be offered at stud. Because I say to people, it's almost like a ticking time bomb and you just Don't know when that bomb's going to go off. And for some dogs, it will be, they don't even get to seven at six and a half. It's done. And for other dogs, there's still be 14 and still be going short. I don't know. 14 might be a stretch, but yeah, at least 11, 12, they could still be going strong. Once the chain in the manufacturing break, then it's broken. It's broken. And you just don't know when that's going to be. And also, like Isobel said, you could have a male could have quite high concentration. But the abnormality rates really high. And I've seen it before where, so a superficial check of a collection from a mogul. Yeah, it looks really good. It's really white, really dense this out and whatever. But then you look under a high powered microscope and it's just a bunch of heads with no tails at all, or can't actually swim to the egg. So it needs to be in depth fertility check, just putting it on a microscope and seeing a little load of black dots on a screen isn't in depth enough. It needs to be a high power microscope. And also just to add on, even if there are some elements that have been picked up on your fertility check, some of them might actually be fixable at the point of, if it's insemination. Which is all the grey area, but if the dog is being inseminated, you can have additives added to the collection. So a semen enhancer or a semen booster that will actually improve the quality of the semen that's being used. So there, there are various stops, as you say, from dire all the way up until the point that that is actually put in that female. And even to another level, still reproduction specialist fair, it might be decided the only way that you're going to get this female who impacted this dog is that you do a TCI trans cervical insemination where it literally does no swimming at all. They put the semen through the cervix. A perfectly timed window where the eggs are fully ripe and all the sperm has to do then is fertilise the eggs that are sat right in front of them rather than having to swim here, there and everywhere, find the cervix, swim through the cervix and all that kind of stuff. There's lots of interventions and things that can be done in between all of what we said. It isn't just a case of the dog's too old, write it off. It's a case of unpicking this process of elimination. And I'm kind of one of those, I get it. Most people want to go if it's not. Broke, don't fix it, but if you don't prepare yourself, you're going to experience failure at some point and it's quite disappointing when you, yeah, it's just when, and when you've planned a breeding, you've planned a breeding, but it can be quite disappointing that the female misses or it's a smaller litter and you've got a wait list or. You wanted to keep from this last litter, and now there's not going to be a girl in the, you know, all these kind of things all come out in the wash, just try and act as best you can to like best practice and gold standard, regardless of whether you've had historical issues or not, you will do at some point, it is just the case of when.

Isobel: 40:50

Absolutely. And I think it's worth noting here that all of this advice we're giving, obviously, this is in the concept of trying to Negate a singleton puppy and a small litter, but actually, if you follow all of this advice, even if, like you said, you're having all the luck in the world, you're consistently hitting big litters, you will just find your bitches have an easier ride, you should have healthy, lovely litters, and it just, it increases the odds forever in your favour by following best practice, which at the end of the day is all you can ever hope for.

Sara: 41:19

This could be potentially controversial, but if you scan your female, you've been told that you've got one puppy due. If you've scanned early enough, you still have the option of a mis make jab. So Alizin is used to basically abort the litter. And I know that's controversial, but it is seriously to be taken into mind because to have a C section on a female for a dead puppy is equally as horrendous in my opinion. It's an option there that We said, when you go forearm to the vets of this, this is the situation. This is what I know. This is what I know is possible. Equally miss mate is our feasible option. And I've known people use that as an option and then breed the female on her next season. And she's gone on to produce a typical litter and the drama has been averted. I personally feel a solo puppy from a female that's already delivered a typical litter. generally they can breeze it. It's the problematic females that have never had a litter before that I find you tend to get the extra complications. So maybe that's the caveat of, you know, if it's a maiden bitch, then maybe I should be mis mating rather than, you know, seeing this through, but obviously that's down to personal preference, opinions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Isobel: 42:34

Absolutely. Yeah. But this is the whole point of us having these discussions is to potentially bring to light options that people may have never heard of, or may never have considered. And what suits one person will absolutely not suit another. And this is the whole point of these discussions is hopefully we help someone somewhere think outside the box whilst we also think outside the box.

Sara: 42:53

That's actually that outside the Outside the whelping inbox.

Isobel: 42:57

Yeah, exactly. Exactly that. So out of interest, if you were to have a singleton, and let's say we scanned your girl at 28 days with a singleton, is there a certain protocol or is there certain things you know for a fact that you would be doing?

Sara: 43:12

Typically what I advise most people with a solo pup is you don't change her diet in any way, shape or form. She can stay on the same food until that pup's born, then they need to consider it, does it need to be Change for milk production point of view, that puppy, what she has carried in our own reserves is enough for one puppy and you do not want to encourage exponential puppy growth because they are not sharing with anyone. So they've got all this room to stretch out and do everything they want to. I. Always recommend a progress scan as close as due date as possible, to be honest, but at least after 49 days gestation, where we can check heartbeats, we can do skull measures, we can actually see how is that puppy doing for size. If a puppy is standard size, it doesn't mean that they're not going. To get stuck in delivery, because what we can't measure is the female's pelvis to know the ratio of puppy to pelvis and then inertia rates and late. So it's still only another part of the, of the jigsaw puzzle. They have to have their vets on standby. They have to have had the conversation of I've got one puppy due. These are our dates of my expected due date. What's the provisional plan? What's their availability? It is saying how. Do they foresee this going down? So for me, initially off the top of my head, it is, you don't change the food. You definitely do a progress scan and you definitely have a conversation with your vets as to how this is all about to unfold.

Isobel: 44:43

Absolutely. You know, I think that's a really important little overview you gave there because I completely agree with every single one of them.

Sara: 44:50

Good. Well, you did all of those, so.

Isobel: 44:54

That's why. Yeah, but if I hadn't, then it wouldn't have been such a positive outcome, would it? That's the thing. I followed all of those. Despite the fact we didn't change diet and pup was lovely and small, unfortunately, technically, he was ready to be well. We did the progress scan. He was head first. It was everything we were expecting. However, we were faced with primary inertia. But the thing was we, We had everything else lined up in the pipeline. We'd spoken to the vets will be it. They weren't quite as keen as we had hoped, but all of the boxes have been text. I think that's just really important with, with a singleton is, as we mentioned at the beginning, proactively managing the situation will completely change the outcome. It's not uncommon for people to leave it too late before they seek help. They're hitting the high 60s of gestation and they end up with no puppy and it's just devastating.

Sara: 45:38

Yeah, yeah, no decision or action is still no decision or inaction, isn't it? So by not doing anything, you're actively not doing something and we see it. So I've had a few solos in where they've gone full term and we've done checkups and some people have gone, do you know what? I'm going to take her up the downs today. She's going to run like crazy. She can chase all the rabbits and that's literally kickstarted a labour and all's gone to plan. And equally, we've had. Rescans in where I've said, if she was mine, I'd be taking her down the vet and doing a C section and they haven't. And then they've ended up in a C section and a dead pup. So yeah, there's only so much guidance and intuition you can go with. And then, yeah, I just think I'd rather that nowadays there's no reason to C section early. There are enough protocols in place to make it. educated guess as to this is the right thing to do. And you know what, if you are early, you only did it with the right intent anyway rather than just being really laid back and lackadaisical and not doing anything. And then you end up with a vet bill and no puppy to show for it. So I just think there's just so much there on offer nowadays. If, if you don't act on it to a degree, yeah, there is no excuse. It's all preventable.

Isobel: 46:59

Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, when Pup's born, that opens the next challenges of having a singleton, doesn't it? Where actually you have a pup, but they have no litter mates. So there are probably other things that then are brought into action. So again, if you've had a scan and you know, you're expecting a singleton, then you can get organized and be ready for the post birth. whelp side of having a Singleton. I know from personal experience and all over the internet, a lot of people like to use something called a heartbeat sheep. Sorry if that's a brand drop there. Basically a teddy bear that you can pop in the microwave that becomes warm that has a heartbeat. So that's particularly great if you've got a Singleton pup that naturally would otherwise be snuggling with litter mates to keep warm. So I should add in here a heat source, a Proper heat source is so much more important when you've got a singleton or small litter because they can't do the whole penguin huddle. In my opinion, a heat mat is the way forward. Absolutely, if you've got a singleton litter or small litter, I wouldn't be messing around with a heat lamp because it's going to be quite hard for that pup to, you know, to seek the right level of temperature.

Sara: 48:03

If mum's there with them, obviously she can offer a certain level of comfort anyway and they would know no different. I think it might be slightly different for people that use puppy boxes, pups actually getting taken away from mum and then equally they're just by themselves, which is quite sad, isn't it? These heartbeat teddies, I think is an amazing idea. I've not read a solo. I've had two, I've had two in a litter, and I've always felt that though they might have slight disadvantages, In the early stages where of that comfort learning from siblings, even having that stimulation when their eyes first opened to go, Ooh, something's moving over there and I'm going to head towards it. And Oh, look, it's another one of me where they lack that engagement. They might be slightly slower. I think that they gain it from a point of view that with those type of puppies, you can mix them with the rest of your adult dogs, probably sooner than you normally would do with a big litter that's unruly. I found they've learned from. other members of the family quicker and they have that engagement. So they have auntie and uncle and all the rest of it to annoy much to their distaste. But I think something key that we've touched on a little bit is about ENS and how that might be quite important for solo puppies, which is.

Isobel: 49:22

stands for early neurological stimulation.

Sara: 49:26

Excellent. I was going to say system for some reason, but yeah, stimulation. And so that's basically a, I'm going to say a pattern of events, but that just sounds really... Isobel: It's a set of practices. Yeah. It's practices to exactly that is to stimulate the puppy's neurological system. So off the top of my head, it's things like you hold the puppy on its back. Is it for five seconds? Yeah, and

Isobel: 49:51

Every descriptor of ENS will be different. So, ENS is just anything that's stimulating that puppy in a way that is different when it is just lying in the whelping box. So, although some people get so worried about particular types of ENS, I'm sure there are studies done that follow a particular set of protocol, and depending on whom potentially has released I'm sure you could go online and probably buy an ENS guide pack or something like that. They might have different, different sets in there, but yeah, like you said, hold the puppy on their back, tilt their head below their bottom is another one that I've heard of. Popping puppy when they're a bit older on a damp towel, so their forefeet are touching a damp towel. Obviously, don't do this as newborn puppies when they can't regulate their temperatures, please. Yeah. The other thing I've heard of is a Q tip or an earbud and tickling in between the paw pads. And that can be done from newborn touching and stimulating from nose to tail, a newborn, newborn puppy is, is again, just very light touch. As pups get older, having them be stroked with different textures. So a rubber glove, fuzzy cloth, basically as many different types of textures as possible. And that's then when it goes from ENS into socialization, and there is a bit of a slippery slope from one to the other.

Sara: 51:07

Yeah. I just think it's making the effort to handle a puppy. And again, I've probably mentioned this elsewhere, that different breeds naturally accrue a different way of handling. So I find Bulldogs are very heavily handled because you're moving them from puppy boxes. You're taking them off teats, putting them on teats and they respond very quickly to human touch. I was amazed having a bulldog litter and a Labrador litter so close together to see the direct comparison of how they were different was actually quite astounding. But the Labrador puppies are very content to be with mum. They didn't really want to get picked up too much. Even to the point when eyes are opening, there was still a bit awkward, me picking them out to weigh them and that kind of thing where I found bulldog puppies actively seek. They love that touch. You can sort of rub them on the neck and they all curl into it. And how tactile I showed the same level of tactile on this with both of them. Yet as breeds, I responded totally different and it made sense because of their purpose, because of their DNA. So I actually put more effort into my Labrador. Pups and handling. Then I did my bulldogs 'cause it just came easy with the bulldogs, but I consciously, but the Labrador put that effort in. And so I think likewise having a solo puppy knowing the background of that breed and whether you might have to do a lot more than what I would like a, a Labrador puppy compared to a Bulldog puppy. So I think, yeah, you just need to be conscious of how best is it for your breed to avoid solo puppy syndrome.

Isobel: 52:37

I have heard that term banded around where? Some people will find that you are potentially more likely to get a more boisterous or unruly or call it what you want come to adulthood. Yeah, because they've not had that. Socialisation window is different. Yeah, exactly. So I think the same way we sort of, so ENS, in my opinion, is really important if you've got a particularly small litter or a solo pup, because naturally, if you imagine a litter, we generally have littermates climbing all over each other. So if you've watched puppies go to the milk bar in the early stages, their eyes are closed, for those of you that may not know. So they are literally sort of sniffing out, nuzzling each other, climbing over each other, sort of almost looking quite rough, the way that they will bulldoze each other out of the way to find a teat. If you have a singleton pup, they are not having any of that physical stimulation. They're not having the tapping of puppy feet all over them or the nuzzling. And I think when you actually take yourself out of that and look at the bigger picture, in my opinion, ENS would be particularly important. However, that ties in quite nicely to the socialization again, as those pups get older, bite inhibition, learning to play, learning when Too much is too much and they're told off by another pup, they don't necessarily have that. You're right, I think some caution has to be taken to make sure if you have got adult dogs, it probably is a good idea to socialise them a little bit earlier than naturally you would do to make sure that pup is still learning those very imperative social skills. Yeah. But that pup will be an adult one day.

Sara: 54:04

The rules of life. So this probably brings us on very nicely to our next couple of episodes where we're going to focus on Puppies rather than the Dam side of things, aren't we? The next few episodes, we will look at weaning. We will look at puppy management and we're going to look at methods of supplement feeding stroke hand rearing. Turn the tables a little bit, focus on the pups going forward.

Isobel: 54:30

Super. Well, I hope everyone found that episode as enjoyable as we did nattering away.

Sara: 54:35

I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did Isobel. So the usual sign off. Make sure you share us, make sure you join the community.

Isobel: 54:43

Yeah. A Breeders Brew Facebook group. We'll be ready and waiting for you. It'd be great to hear your comments. Find out if you enjoyed this episode. If you have any questions as well, heading over to the Facebook group would be a great opportunity for you to pop your questions in there and pick mine and Sara's brains a bit further and just get involved in the discussion. If you agree with anything we've said or maybe disagree and you've got another opinion to voice, we'd love to hear it. We always love chatting dogs.

Sara: 55:05

Yeah. We want to keep learning. That's the whole point of this is that the world keeps turning, doesn't it? And, and breeding is part of part of that. So just because that's what we did 10 years ago to now doesn't mean that's what we're going to do in the future. So we always still need to keep learning and sharing our experiences with each other to help each other out without a doubt. That's it. We're signing off. Share us with like minded breeders. Thank you.

Isobel: 55:31

Bye.

Sara: 55:33

Hey, just a quick one before you go. Head to breedersbrew. com to claim your free critical care sheet and to receive your invitation to join the Breeders Brew Community Forum.