Whelping of Bulldogs is a tedious and nerve wracking experience, the same is true for either

French OR English Bulldogs. These breeds do not whelp their own babies, a c-section is

almost always required. I do occasionally hear of some Bullies that free whelp but this is not

the norm. Most (not all) Bullies that free whelp are of European bloodlines and tend to have

longer, taller bodies than our American bred dogs.

The whelping of the puppies never actually occurs here as we do not allow our dogs to attempt

a free whelp, there are many reasons for this. 1) Females that attempt to free whelp will stress

out and their puppies will stress while trying to be free whelped, this high stress situation

causes more puppy fatalities than if you just opened up the female and took the puppies,

usually even if the female is able to get the first one or two babies pushed out she will more

than likely not be able to get them all out and in that case a c-section is needed anyway. 2)

Free whelping stresses the uterus more which causes stretching and weakness, a weakened

uterus is less likely to return to normal right away and can cause more problems in the future.

A stretched uterus has more lesions and thin areas that can actually tear open with the

pressure of a large litter, a torn uterus is a scary thing and can cause death of the female very

quickly! We do everything we can to eliminate this scenario. 3) We KNOW all the puppies are

out! There is no wondering if there is one more puppy in there, I often hear the stories of "we

thought she was done" and then 2 days later.......the female passes a dead puppy and/or

develops a very volatile infection. This infection can be deadly to the female, it can also cause

so much damage that the female may need to have her uterus completely removed due to the

infection, this is a good way to shorten the career of an excellent female. It is not worth the

risk!

Since we do progesterone testing we know when our females ovulate, we breed according to

ovulation and when the eggs are ready to be fertilized. This practice tells us when our females

will whelp, usually in a 3 day time frame. Our experience has been that EBD's will go into

labor from day 59-61 post first breeding, the FBD's tend to start labor 60-62 days post first

breeding. The onset of labor is usually noticed by a drop in rectal temperature. Starting on day

57 we regularly take the females temperature several times a day anticipating the familiar

drop, the drop in temperature is not always present but we find that it is a very reliable

indicator of imminent labor. Her temperature will start at anywhere over 100-101 and will

suddenly start to drop, we take our girls in for their c-section when they hit the 98 degree

mark, by this time they are usually digging in their bed, looking forlorn, not eating and

possibly laying up on their bellies. If you know your dog you will notice the "signs".

Our c-sections are done by our favorite vet who also happens to be our nephew! Yeah, we got

it good! Anyway, our vet does a tremendous job for us and he is very aware of keeping the

incidence of scar tissue to a minimum. He takes great care to make small incisions in the

appropriate places, he generally only makes one incision and tries to manipulate everything

through that one hole, remember, scar tissue is the enemy of the uterine horns. He also

incorporates a certain stitch for closing the uterus so as to alleviate any excessive scarring.

Some vets feel that filling the body cavity with a sodium solution before closing helps to

reduce adhesions, my vet does this as well, whatever my vet does works well for us as our girls

have excellent uterine integrity and the uterus is inspected during each c-section, if the uterus

does not look in excellent condition we will NOT breed her anymore.

About the most you can hope for from a Bully female is 4 litters, some only give 2-3 and once

in a great while a female can produce 5, this has only occurred once for us, we just don't ask

our dogs for anymore than they are able to give in a healthy manner. If a female produces a

litter with a birth defect we will breed her to a different male on the next breeding, if she still

produces the same defect she is spayed and placed in an adoptive forever home.