A story of Love and Loss and Love again

by Pat
(Pueblo, CO, US)

Our 4.5 year old female Rottie died from a blood clot in her brain only 2 hours after giving birth to 10 of the most beautiful puppies you have ever seen.

The loss we felt was indescribable. Although we had many dogs in our lives, Echo was our first Rottie. Only those who have had a Rottie can possibly understand.

The responsibility we had to the puppies quickly took over the grief we felt. We took them all to the vet, but due to the lack of mama’s milk, 3 of the puppies passed away in the next 2 days. One of the remaining puppies was weak and had to be force fed. We named her Runt and kept her in a separated homemade “incubator”.

The others ate their formula and we continued to bottle feed. Our lives were consumed by feeding and cleaning up these 7 puppies. We had Runt to the vet almost every week for one problem or another. The others went for vet visits about every other week. Every person at the vets office stopped what they were doing to see the puppies. The people there were amazed that any of them survived, much less doing so well. The loss of Echo and her 3 puppies caused so much pain, but the joy the remaining 7 puppies gave us kept us hopeful.

We kept all 7 puppies until they were 8 weeks old. Saying good-bye to any of these puppies was also very sad, but we did our research and personally knew all the new families. Everyone that knew Echo wanted one of her puppies, but not everyone could qualify under our strict rules. (Including our own son)

We have 80 acres of land and felt comfortable keeping 3 of the puppies. We now have our little female Runt (of course) and Blue (male) and Kate (female) added to our family. They are now 4.5 months old, and at the 50 lb. mark. It is outrageous the amount of love we feel for these puppies.

Despite all of our precautions before breeding Echo, Kate has recently been diagnosed (x-ray) with hip dysplasia in both hips. The cost of surgery is outrageous and the window of opportunity for this type of surgery on a puppy is very limited. Although we don’t know how we are going to help her right now, we have faith that all will work out. We will always be thankful that these wonderful creatures came into our lives.

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About The Rotty lover 2159 Articles
My name is Dr. Winnie. I earned a Bachelor of Science in Psychology from Duke University, a Masters of Science in Biology from St Georges University, and graduated from the University of Pretoria Veterinary School in South Africa. I have been an animal lover and owners all my life having owned a Rottweiler named Duke, a Pekingese named Athena and now a Bull Mastiff named George, also known as big G! I'm also an amateur equestrian and love working with horses. I'm a full-time Veterinarian in South Africa specializing in internal medicine for large breed dogs. I enjoy spending time with my husband, 2 kids and Big G in my free time. Author and Contribturor at SeniorTailWaggers, A Love of Rottweilers, DogsCatsPets and TheDogsBone