WHELPING OF PUPPIES— 6 



where the vagina joins the womib 

 opening. 



Causes of Whelping Trouble 



Uterine inertia, the cause of dy- 

 stocia, is associated with several fac- 

 tors, among them fatness and laziness 

 of the bitch, abnormal size of puppies 

 —they may be a'bnormal for the bitch 

 but not abnormal for the breed, lack 

 of the stamina and endurance which 

 come naturally to the dog in the wilds 

 but which may be lost easily in the 

 conditions of modern living, and its 

 resulting endocrine deficiencies. 



The last mentioned occurs more 

 frequently among the radical depar- 

 tures from the natural size or type 

 of a breed; in other words, the glands 

 influencing birth labor secrete less 

 hormone in dogs of unnatural 

 structure. 



Other factors also make difficult 

 whelping. Fatness of the bitch is 



likely to occur in the family pet, the 

 lazy dog, the proven matron slowing 

 up with age, and the bitch bred for 

 the first time after she is three or four 

 years old. Thin bitches, of course, 

 lack stamina too. 



Nervous females give up easily as 

 also do fat bitches. They have not 

 the determination to carry on at 

 whelping time. Mind must aid body 

 even in the animal kingdom. 



Physiological conditions may cause 

 trouble in whelping, such as growth 

 of soft tissues in the genital passage, 

 persistent hymen, deformity of fiie 

 pelvis due perhaps toinjury or prolapse 

 of vagina. 



Where dogs of different breeds 

 mate, one of a large and the other of 

 a small breed, the dam of the smaller 

 breed, the puppies may be too large 

 for the mother's ability to deliver. 

 Dogs of greatly differing size may 

 mate; we recall an instance of an 



