MY FRIGHTENING EXPERIENCE WITH "ECLAMPSIA"

We had an incredibly horrible case of Eclampsia about 10 years ago.

I was alone with a huge, newborn litter. Bill was out of town. 36 hours after they were born, mama started panting like there was no tomorrow. I moved the heat lamps away, thinking she was too warm. She was. A temp of 105. I expressed beautiful, clean, white milk from each faucet. I called the vet at 1:00 a.m. (NOT John...he was not on call) and was told I simply had a 'nervous new mother" because she was digging in the whelping box so furiously that puppies were flying everywhere. I called again and told the vet on call that something was very wrong. She had gone rigid and collapsed. I had to beg her to see her..

When I got her there, I told her I was sure it was a calcium thing. She was horribly engorged with milk, and the vet said she had mastitis. Taped a nipple and sent her home. I asked if she should have calcium, and that was pooh poohed. "They don't get eclampsia", she said, "until the pups are about 3 weeks old." Told me to go home and relax. I was too uptight. She got worse, and I could not get John at home. (he told me never to hesitate to call him if I needed him) He was out of town, so at 3:00 a.m., I called a friend who was a vet in another state. He told me from the symptoms, he felt it was definitely eclampsia and to try to get her to drink milk, etc., until morning when I could find another vet. He said it certainly would not stop the problem, but any calcium I could get in her would help. At 7:00 a.m., I knew we were going to lose her. I called and another vet was now there. Rushed her up there. He drew blood and checked her calcium level on a little machine they have. The other vet never told me they could check it in house. Takes 30 minutes to warm the machine up, and obviously, she didn't want to be bothered. Calcium came back very low, and they immediately gave her a shot. Within 15 minutes, she was a new dog. However, it plummeted again several hours later. My vet gave me calcium glu conate tablets (which are very safe...IV calcium can kill them if they don't need it), which I was instructed to give her every 4 hours. She straightened right out for the duration of raising her family.

KV Vet Supply sells calcium gluconate in bottles of 1,000 tabs for 17.00. We ran out of the pills (the vet did) and could not get them thru any pharmacy...anywhere. They are not prescription at KV, and I had them shipped over nite. Ever since that time, I keep them on hand. Other kinds of calcium simply do not work. I also give it to my girls (under vet supervision) when they begin hard labor. I know Mike Gensburger has done that for years. It was in an article he wrote quite awhile back. I do not EVER give them extra calcium during pregnancy. I despise ever using oxytocin, but in an emergency, if their calcium level is low, oxytocin will not work.

She was so sick that they called Va. Tech to make sure they were using the right protocol. Dr. Purswel (head of theriogenolgy there) asked if I had had her on puppy food thru her whole pregnancy. I had. I was told never to introduce puppy food until the last week of gestation, and I haven't.) I know many breeders put the girls on puppy food immediately, with no adverse symptoms, but that little bout was so traumatic that I use her protocol, always. Puppy food is probably just fine....unless the bitch may have a predisposition to eclampsia. Ours obviously did. Interesting, though. Even ON puppy food for the entire pregnancy, her puppies were still just average size.

Sorry to go on so long, but if it can help somebody, I wanted to share. susie

Home