Hi all. This is my very first post on the forum. My dog (GSD) Sitka was mated on 14Jan 2010. Her previous litter was 14 months ago.
At the time of the mating (2 x ties, 2 days apart) she was fit and healthy. However, she fell ill with babesiosis (very high prevalence in our area) only 14 days after the mating. I took it for granted that after being quite ill, and injected with Berenil RTU, having a fever etc, that she would not have pups. Or that she would have reabsorbed them.
However, the last 10 days I have been noticing changes in her that indicate pregnancy, so off to the vet we went again. Different vet this time. They did blood smears for me to confirm that she is clear from the dreaded disease, and a sonar, which confirmed that she is indeed pregnant. We could not count the pups, but there are more than three.
Now, my question is, will the pups have any ill effect from the medicine? Like bone/eye/teeth/hearing/organ defects? Shucks, I really dont want there to be. She is such a good mom, it would be terrible for her not to have viable pups.
Sitka is 3 years old, registered, and had all the necessary tests done. This will be her second, registered litter. She is my only dog - one day I would like to have 2 or 3 bitches and expand my goals and vision for my own kennel, but at this stage I don't yet have enough knowledge or commitment for that.

What did the vet say? They are better suited to answer this question than us. Maybe get an xray in a couple weeks when it is safe to do so.

I am curious by your wording that this was her second "registered" litter - has she had unregistered litters?

Good luck, I hope your bitch has healthy pups.

Since Berenil is a Intervet product they would be the first place I'd start. I imagine since this product is used on cattle that they would have information for that species concerning effects on unborn animals and likely the same information would apply over.

I won't get into the why you bred this dog shtick if you have no intention of retaining a dog since that really has no bearing on the outcome of this.

The vet nearly went ballistic when she questioned me on my dog's diet and heard that she is fed a raw diet. Gave me a long speech about how thin she will become and how she will get milk fever (english?). Then she told me to buy Vets Choice puppy food for her. She, the vet, did not answer my question about the Berenil. I did not return to the vet who gave the medicine, because of their lack of sonar equipment. So now I just have an added vet bill with the same lack of trust or understanding in the new vet. The woman looked like she wanted to report me for cruelty, and Sitka is a picture of health even though she had been ill.
To answer your question about the wording of registered litter/s:
Sitka was bred once aged 28 months, now again at 42 months (more or less). Both litters are/will be registered pups. English is my second language, which makes for some grammatical/language mistakes sometimes...

Just an update. Sitka is doing very well, her belly is getting big and she is just a generally very happy dog. She gets excercise by joining me on my rounds on the farm and playing wildly with our Jack Russel. She is starting to calm down and sleep more, and becoming increasingly serious about her food!
So far, so good.

Another update. Sitka has given birth to a litter of 9 pups. 6 males and 3 females. 8 of them is doing well and are with mom. The ninth one can't suckle and is being tube-fed with Ed Frawleys mixture. However, I can't get her to stop crying and she has diarrhea. Her crying is breaking my heart. Poor little thing. Maybe I should have her put down, I don't know. She tries to suck but cant make enough vacuum, but she seems to have the need to suck. She can't compete with the rest of the siblings and gets cold if I leave her there. Plus, mom Sitka is entirely willing to jump through the glass window if she sees me taking the pup away. So I 'stole' it and keep it hidden where she can't hear it.
Does anybody have advice on the diarrhea and the crying? I will drive to the nearest town to a pharmacy tonight, 50 kms away. All I have with me is some amoxillyn tablets 40mg, and some Gastropect, plus some oxytetracycline both injectable and water-soluble (which we use for large farm animals).
I have tubefed her the last feeding with some electrolytes and gastropect, 12cc.
She weighs 360 gms. The others all weigh 490 and more.
Any advice will be appreciated. The vet just says to put her with her mom and let nature take its course.

Has your vet actually seen this puppy? Did he check for cleft? How old are these puppies?

I would imo return this puppy to it's litter. She will do a much better job caring for it and it will reduce the pups stress. Simply take your girl out of the room and either crate or kennel her when you need to bottle this puppy. Then let her back in the room. There is no good reason to put this kind of stress on this puppy. Eventually it'll need to go back to it's litter anyways.

Thanx for your reply, Melissa. Unfortunately the puppy died late last evening. I'm actually feeling slightly relieved, it was very heart-wrenching to see her suffer.
She was born not breathing, and unlike the others, it took us ten or fifteen minutes to get her breathing eratically. Tubed her since she couldn't suck or swallow, and had poor movement. Put her back with mom, but when mom cleaned her she would get pushed to the side and not crawl back, cooling off every time, so I had to put her in the house. Even when with mom she cried, and mom Sitka would pick her up and bring her close every couple of minutes, which made her scream more, like she was hypersensitive or something. Last night, in my house, she was fed well, in a warm place, with a dummy in her mouth (which made her calm), she fell asleep/coma and then died in her sleep.

I guess that we all have experiences like this. I learnt a lot. And I gained more respect for my girl's mothering abilities. I still have 8 healthy pups left now, now I need to figure out if I must supplement them.

You're a little quick to jump on supplementing them. A healthy GSD bitch should be able to handle a litter of 8. Give it time. Weigh them twice a day and keep track of growth. The rule of thumb is that they should get bigger, not smaller. If their growth levels out or they shrink then it's time to start supplementing them.

Keep your bitch hydrated and well fed. I would even mix water into the kibble if that's what you're doing. Bait water if you must.