Lessons Learned - Summit Akitas

Anticipating our top quality Multi Best of Breed winning boy's departure to an Overseas home, an exclusive breeding of Bulls Eye - to a maiden - 3 yr. old Multi Best of Breed winning adorable girl (Risque) had come true. This extremely sweet and stable temperament girl was leased to us out right, from one of the most well respected, caring and reputable known breeders. 8 puppies were born from this exclusive and wonderful breeding, which combined some of the best temperaments, soundness and substance from an ancestry of well respected, proven and known Akitas of all times. All 8 pups were born via c-section, due to Mom's unexpected labor complications as she was unable to deliver pups 2 hours after contractions had began. Mom was rushed to the Emergency Room (ER). After oxitocyn was given - 15 minutes later I asked the ER Vet to do a c-section. ER Vet informed me that it was not necessary at this time since she did not want to induce unnecessary stress on Mom and that the oxitocyn should do. After a couple of hours went by, X-Rays taken and no pups were born, ER Vet decided to initiate c-section. During the c-section 8 beautiful and chunky puppies came into this word. However, during the c-section, Mom suffered internal bleeding the ER Vet was unable to find the bleeder vein to stop such bleeding. To make matters worse, ER Vet said that unless Mom was immediately spayed - this bleeding could killed her. I immediately got on the phone trying to get a hold of Mom's primary co-breeder/owner. Unable to reach her after several attempts, I contacted Mom's d 2d co-breeder/owner. After talking to Mom's 2d co-breeder/owner and explained the urgency of the situation, she agreed to have whatever was needed to save Mom's life. I went ahead and had the ER Vet do the spay. During the spaying Mom suffered a cardiac arrest, to which the ER Vet was able to stimulate and get Mom back to an 80% heart beat rate. Shortly after the spaying was completed the ER Vet came running out of the ER room to tell me that Mom had, once again - suffered another cardiac arrest! At this time I felt the whole world caved in, as I could not bear in my heart to see this wonderful and sweet loving girl die. I told the ER Vet do what ever you have to, to save her. It took 2 hours and 11 minutes before the ER Vet came back out to tell me that miraculously Mom's heart beat responded to the 2d CPR and her heart beat was now at 51%. A t this point I got down on my knees and prayed to God for a miracle. While Mom was kept in the intensive care unit, I went ahead and began to love up on and bottle feed these beautiful and chunky 8 puppies God had blessed us with. An hour later, I brought all puppies home with me. While at home, this beautiful litter was split into two groups of 4, which made it easy for me to handle them and keep warm on 2 separate heating pads. Both groups were named; Alpha and Bravo Company. Ever since we got home, I continued to bottle feed them every 2 1/2 to 3 hours around the clock, for almost a week ( 6 days and 21 hours since the day they were born), before I handed off 7 of my babies to an out of State surrogate bitch owner who offered to take them. At this point there were 7 babies remaining because the runt (his name was Double or Nothing from Bravo Company) was the weakest pup who had died 2 days after birth. To our relief, our remaining 7 babies were checked by our Vet and released with a clean bill of health. Even when a clean bill of health was given, I put the remaining 7 babies on mild antibiotic, just to be safe. The remaining particular 3 pups that were assigned to Bravo Company, same ones who were around Double or Nothing - were marked with a string around their neck, as an indication to the surrogate mom's owner to keep a closer eye on them. It turned out that these 3 pups were the only ones who survived - Pyramid, Solid and Irish boy , who we will always thank the Lord and the surrogate mom for! God only knows where I gained the strength to keep these 7 lovely babies alive - around the clock for 1 week . But after following several breeders' advises of how beneficial it would be for these pups to be with a surrogate Mom, and after a couple of breeders recommended spun serum be administered to provide antibodies to these pups - I felt it was selfish of me not to allow my babies this opportunity. That's when I decided to have a caring VET in Atlanta spun the precious serum for the pups - which came from one of our dogs (a distant relative to the pups), then a few days later, drive the distance to meet with the wonderful and compassionate surrogate bitch's owner to hand off our lovely babies to. Only the Lord knows this was one of the hardest things I ever had to do in my life, since I have already bonded with all of these babies..... knowing each individual puppy sound they made every time I cuddled with them......how they all gathered and swarmed around me each and every time I came in the room to bottle fed them, to burp them and to love up on them. Can you imagine that feeling??? Once our remaining 7 babies arrived to meet their surrogate Mom, I was told that she immediately accepted them and I was so relieved to hear the great news I busted into tears!! I advised surrogate Mom's owner to make sure they were surrogated at different intervals away from the surrogate Mom's singleton pup she already had, to make sure everyone had a chance to the milk bar and that no one was left behind. 4 days after our 7 babies pups have been with surrogate Mom, I've got a call from the surrogate Mom's owner, telling me 1 of the pups (her name was Eclypse) had died due to her colon stretching out of her rectum. I was saddened by the news, but tried to remain calm and realistic - since I understood how hard and stressful it could be for new born pups of such young age to be moved around from one stable home to a different home. I told her to get a necropsy done on this pup right away, just to be safe. In the meantime, the surrogate Mom's owner immediately removed the remaining 6 babies from the surrogate Mom and began to bottle feed them formula. Necropsy results on Eclypse that was given to us over the phone by the VET revealed botulism (which was explained to us to be the isolated colon problem). Come to find out just recently (19 JUN 08), it was Entiritis C that caused this lovely baby girl to die, due to her colon stretching out of her rectum, and not the botulism we were previously told was the cause. Sadly, no matter what the cause of our baby Eclipse's death was, she's gone and will always be remember for her sweet humming and burping sounds she used to make as she cuddled around my neck after each feeding. To make matters worse, a couple of days after Eclypse's death, I received emails that 3 more of our remaining 6 babies had died! At this point I was so devastated and confused to hear such bad news - I told surrogate Mom's owner to have necropsy done on all 3 of them at my own expense. Necropsy results revealed Salmonella as the cause of death on 3 babies. After obtaining both (ours and surrogate Mom's) Vets interpretation of the necropsy results given to us over the phone, they both revealed Salmonella have been the cause of death, acquired from digestion, which could have been cultivated within a few days from digesting a bad batch of formula/milk. Sadly, shortly after all of this happened, we learned that the surrogate Mom's singleton pup had also died. My husband and I went ahead and paid for a necropsy to be done on this singleton puppy, which results were released to us recently. At this point, I immediately arranged to have our remaining 3 babies brought home. After a very long (28 hour) round trip journey to OK, our babies were finally home. Needless to say, we are extremely grateful to the surrogate Mom's owner for offering their bitch as an opportunity for our babies to learn what a loving canine Mom experience can be like. Even thought we could never bring back the singleton pup the surrogate Mom owner lost, the least we could do was to cover the necropsy testing; compensate them $1,100.00 for their loss, which eventually helped off set their cost to a repeat breeding, which now produced 3 beautiful puppies for them this year - to which we're so happy for them!! After spending over $13,017.00 by keeping Mom alive, paying off her leasing fee of $1,500.00, necropsy expenses on 4 pups and compensation expenses - We are happy to announce that our babies Biological Mom had fully recovered from almost death - and is now one gorgeous and happy 90lbs 3 yr. old people and children friendly loving girl, bless her heart! We will always be grateful to the surrogate Mom's owner for allowing our orphaned babies the brief opportunity to be with a sweet loving canine Mom. My husband and I thank the Lord each and every day to have found such special, caring and loving Akita breeders who open up their hearts in times of need, no matter the cost. God bless you all!! Note: Above and below information has been updated based on recent information and clarification just made available to us on 19 JUN 08. All previous medical results were disclosed to us telephonically, by the VETs - 7 1/2 months ago. Based on recent information just shared with us on 19 JUN 08, such indicates that the "final" necropsy results showed Clostridium bacteria (believed to be acquired through digestion) as being the cause of what took the lives of our 4 babies and the singleton, instead of the Salmonella bacteria both VETs initially and repeatedly told us over the phone, thought was the cause of death. God only knows what a heart breaking and painful memory this recent info has brought back into our hearts. I still wish I had the power to bring back these God sent little ones! But one thing we have learned from this experience is that no matter how much we adore and protect this lovely breed, something's are just not meant to be, and sadly - it is what it is. There is no one to blame for this. On the contrary, in our hearts we feel what this experience has done to us is to further respect, admire and be thankful to the beautiful and caring Akita breeders out there who really made a difference in our lives during such a painful hard times - by unconditionally sharing their caring and noble hearts to always help, no matter the cost. May God bless all of you!! God bless you all!! Cecilia and James Carmean