My daughter has bred a litter of 13 Dalmatian puppies. They have all checked out as healthy with the vet. Yesterday at 4 1/2 weeks, we suddenly lost 2 of them. They had just fed and were resting in their pen. The mother was not in with them (so no crushing occured) about ten minutes after they were placed in the pen one of them issued a loud cry. My daughter went to investigate and found one of the strongest female puppies lying dead with a bloody froth around the mouth. She the checked all of the puppies and found the strongest male was having difficulty breathing and was "swallowing air" and bloating the stomach. All of the puppies were taken to the emergency vetinary surgery in Frankston. My daughter had the breeder of the mother on the phone who instructed her to ask the vet to deflate the abdomen and drain the lungs. The vet gave the puppy oxygen, which helped and advised that there was fluid in the lungs. My daughter repeated the breeeder's request to the vetenerary surgeon, who basically said that he was not prepared to do anything (except euthanaise the puppy for $60) unless she first had the lungs x-rayed for $600. As this was beyond her budget and 10 x the price of x-rays at our regular vet - she asked him to please just treat the symptoms, which he declined to do unless she first paid for x-rays. I arrived at the clinic and we took the pupppies home. The puppy's breathing was very laboured and short interspersed with occasional short sharp cries and he seemed to have spasms in his somach. His temperature seemed to be falling. I kept him warm and massaged his chest and tapped it to try to free up congestion, but he did not cough up any fluids. He seemed to improve and rally a few times even tried walking around a couple of times, but after about five hours - breathing became suddenly more laboured and noisier. Finally he seemd to be trying to bark and coughed up blood tinged fluid, He then stopped breathing, but then revived 6 or 7 times and still coughed up the bloody fluid. Finally he just could not fight any more and succumbed. We had investigated all possibilities - phoning vets overseas and the poisons lines to check that they could not have been accidentally exposed to poisonous plants and so forth. We were trying to keep him alive until our vet opened, but it was just an hour or so too long for him.
Our vet sasy they have never seen or heard of such symptoms and rapid decline and we have ordered a fulll autopsy. We are worried that any of the other puppies may suffer the same fate, and would apreciate any advice or assistance in the meanwhile. Has anyone else suffered such an occurrence? What was the cause? How to we prevent the others from suffering in the same way? Any advice will be appreciated.

Sounds like a respitory infection, but this id justa guess on my part. So sorry for the loss

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your daughters pups...

Do you not have any other vets in your area?

Has she taken the rest of the puppies in to be examined (by another vet) to determine if they have any signs of this illness.

There is a condition called fading puppy syndrome.. the pups usually just lose all energy and die... I have not heard of them retaining fluid on the lungs but it is possible.
Infections are the possibility, as are viruses and even some worms can cause these symptoms.

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your daughters pups...

Do you not have any other vets in your area?

Has she taken the rest of the puppies in to be examined (by another vet) to determine if they have any signs of this illness.

There is a condition called fading puppy syndrome.. the pups usually just lose all energy and die... I have not heard of them retaining fluid on the lungs but it is possible.
Infections are the possibility, as are viruses and even some worms can cause these symptoms.

Thank you and;

Yes they have been to another vet - first thing this morning - none seemed to have any symptoms (but then remember that the onset was fairly instant in the case of the two that died - one died within ten minutes of being perfectly happy and healthy and the other was hving sever breathing problems within the same ten minutes but was nursed for about 5 hours before he succumbed.) The vet has given them all a prophylactic antibiotic and ordered a full autopsy on the male that died, but is concerned as he is not aware of such rapid onset symptoms and consequences. Autopsy results won't be back for at least another 24 hrs. They have always been exceptionally well cared for, but are now under 24 hr watch - which takes it's own toll.

sounds like a respitory infection, but this id justa guess on my part. so sorry for the loss

Thank you for your condolences. It does seem to be some form of respiratory infection, but with an extremely rapid course.

Indeed, very fast acting...
I have never seen anything acting this fast before apart from severe allergies or spider/snake bites.

As horrible as it sounds it will be interesting to see what the autopsy results are.

Sounds like some sort of respiratory infection. Will be interesting to hear the necropsy results.

Sounds like some sort of respiratory infection. Will be interesting to hear the necropsy results.

Preliminary necropsy results found no defect or damage to the heart (other than some signs of pressure from abdominal bloating just prior to death). Stomach bloating was due to blood - ostensibly from the lungs.

Cause of death is at this stage given as lung haemorrhage and lung collapse with severe lung tissue disintegration/destruction. The heart was perfect other than some signs of pressureas detailed above.

They are now proceeding with a full lung tissue biopsy and culture.

The path labs find the results thus far to be extremely unusual. Cardio vascular failure has basically been eliminated due to there having been two simultaneous cases.

Thank you for the update emberz.

Were the puppies born on the due date or were they premature?

And a question that may sound odd, was the mother fed chicken when she was pregnant?

Thankyou for the update emberz.

Were the puppies born on the due date or were they premature?

And a question that may sound odd, was the mother fed chicken when she was pregnant?

THe puppies were born 1 day after the predicted due date.

The mother was not fed chicken, except, perhaps, as part of a dry dogfood mix, and possibly occasional table scraps. Why is this?

Just a thought that went through my mind... a good friend of mine had 2 litters born within a few weeks of each other and she fed the mother chicken... (mince for every meal, not just table scraps)
She did not realise the chicken she was feeding had been given growth hormones, this caused defects in the pups.. one litter was born with half the pups with legs that looked like flippers, the other litter looked normal but some had internal problems.

As I said just a random thought, it's not very common but it's always good to explore all oprions ;)

Final full necropsy results are in.
Cause of Death is respiratory failure, with lung tissue failure and destruction.
Cause of respiratoryfailure unable to be determined; No sign of any Viral, Baterial, Fungal or Cheimcal pathogens detected ( even after 72 hour full battery of culture devepoment) No developmental problems, no organ failure or damage, no known pathogens of any nature detected.

Very strange...

I am still leaning towards fading puppy syndrome
Fading Puppy Syndrome (http://www.wolfweb.com.au/acd/fadingpupsyn.html)
But it's just going to be one of those situations where you will never know for sure... it was a large litter and that may have played part.

Thank you for coming back to update us, very much appreciated.

Final full necropsy results are in.
Cause of Death is respiratory failure, with lung tissue failure and destruction.
Cause of respiratoryfailure unable to be determined; No sign of any Viral, Baterial, Fungal or Cheimcal pathogens detected ( even after 72 hour full battery of culture devepoment) No developmental problems, no organ failure or damage, no known pathogens of any nature detected.

I am having a similar problem I have already lost two puppies and now a third one is having breathing difficulties. Is there anything that could have been done I haven't found anyone that knows what to do. Was the ones that you lost born last? My three are the last three born and I am wandering if that is related to the problem. Please help if you can I am losing all my males they were born last.