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Dogs + Reproductive Care

  • Canine herpes virus (CHV-1) is a common infection in dogs but its important role in neonatal mortality has only recently been recognised.

  • Castration should be considered if you are keeping a male dog as a pet. It has many advantages and few disadvantages.

  • This describes a condition in which puppies are apparently normal at birth but fail to grow and die up to fourteen days later.

  • One of the disadvantages of owning a pet bitch is that she comes into oestrus or heat (season) every 4-14 months depending on the breed.

  • Hip dysplasia is a deformity of the hip which occurs during the growing period.

  • Neutering removes the sexual urge from both dogs and bitches. It can be carried out surgically when it is irreversible.

  • Most male animals (stallions, bulls, boars, rams and tom cats) that are kept for companionship, work, or food production are neutered (castrated) unless they are intended to be used as breeding stock.

  • Raising an orphaned litter is a time consuming although rewarding experience. Neonates are very fragile and despite all the care and attention, losses can be inevitable.

  • False pregnancy, phantom pregnancy, pseudo-pregnancy or pseudocyesis can be defined as a display of maternal behaviour together with the physical signs of pregnancy following oestrus (heat) in a non-pregnant bitch.

  • Until recently pregnancy diagnosis in the dog depended on abdominal palpation (i.e. feeling for foetuses through the abdominal wall), radiography (x-ray) or an ultrasound scan. However, it is now possible to accurately detect pregnancy in the dog with a simple blood test.