Continuing with the story of Jackson (the 3 legged pup) I’m happy to report a significant improvement! Julie has persisted with the exercises of his left front leg and even made a splint to assist him to weight bear! The improvement was immediate with Jackson using it straight away!

Several days later Julie removed the splint and Jackson continued to walk on that leg! It is noticeably shorter though, and he is dragging the foot somewhat – and this is wearing down his nails in an unusual manner. Nevertheless, we now have a dog with 4 legs instead of 3 so to say we are pleased would be an understatement!

Being responsible breeders, we realise that we cannot sell him, because though he is better he will NEVER be 100% fit. And being dog-lovers too, we are not the types to have him put down, merely because he has a defect (many breeders do), – so have decided to keep him and use him as our stud male and family pet!

Steve

Well I’d love to tell you that the pup has made a full recovery – but the fact is though the “physio” COULD be making a difference, progress is VERY SLOW. The pup still does not want to use the injured leg much and would appear to want to just fold it back and drag it around – rather than weight bear.

Julie is persisting with the exercises and we are hopeful – but the more that time passes – the less likely the chance that the leg will recover from the damage that mum inflicted!

Steve

[tag-tec]Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy[/tag-tec] – attack by Jaws the damage continues!

Hi again!

My wife noticed that the pup that was bitten by her Mum, seemed to not be using one of his front legs! Add to that – the fact that it looked a bit smaller than the other leg – and you’ve got a reason to visit the Vet yet again! It turns out that there was another tooth wound in the pups upper shoulder that we have missed!

To make matters worse, we’re told by the Vet that the tooth may have injured a nerve that travels down the front leg and that now this once perfect little pedigreed son of a [tag-tec]Champion Staffordshire Bull Terrier[/tag-tec] pup runs the risk of having a front leg so damaged that it may never grow properly and could potentially be unusable!!

We are so cross with our bitch now – she may now have caused this innocent little pup to end up being a 3 legged dog – and potentially ruined for life! As far as the well-being of the pup is concerned – we are not the sort of people to have a dog put down for such a thing (many do) – we are committed to finding him a good home – should the worst happen and the leg not recover!

Meanwhile, Julie is doing regular “phsyio” on the pup to try and stimulate nerve growth – but we are uncertain as to the effectiveness of this – only time will tell?

Steve

Hello again!

I mentioned our breeding bitch had 2 puppies – well get this! She’s a maiden and so is inexperienced in the art of mothering, so she wanders off and leaves the pups alone and while this is happening one of our other bitches went into the room and picked up one of the pups. In doing this she stuck one of her teeth right into the 2 day old pups chest!

My wife was so shocked that she woke me at 2 am (not a pretty sight) to show me the results!

I took one look at the wound which resembled a .22 calibre bullet wound and the gasping puppy and figured the tooth had punctured the rib cage and was probably going to collapse the lung! After a 2 am (and $200) dash to the vet we found that quite fortunately I was wrong and the tooth had only penetrated the top layer of flesh – but the poor pooch then had to endure being sutured without anaesthetic, because they were worried about the small size of the puppy!

2 days and a few hiccups later the pup is OK – but don’t ever let anyone try to tell you that dog breeding is a $$$ making business – coz there ALWAYS seems to be something that goes wrong! We’ve had bitches that have tried to eat the umbilical cord – all the way past the puppy – and bitches that have sat on and killed a total of three pups; something that is so heartbreaking to see, when a perfectly normal pup dies for no good reason!

Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppy with tooth wounds to chest

Our breeding female has just given birth to 2 pups – by C-section! She was a maiden bitch and the mating had not gone particularly well – with a failure to get a good “tie”. All attempts at mating had resulted only in “slips” – so we were not certain for some time if she would be pregnant. Confirmation came in her 6th week when X-rays showed the 2 pups.

Unfortunately when you have such a small litter the pups can be quite large – as was the case here; meaning a natural birth is far less likely! When her labour – seemed not to be progressing, my wife had her taken to the Vet in the wee small hours of the morning and the 2 pups were delivered!

The pups are in good health and of course of good size – one is white with black patches over each eye – the other is a red; a colour that is quite popular in Australia at present. The mother Bria is also a red.

White and red Staffordshire Bull Terrier puppies at birth