Foetal puppy heart rates as a guide to when to caesarean
A video clip from a whelping bitch whom we saw this week. At this point she had been in second stage labour for about an hour with unproductive straining and a log-jam of big puppies not entering the pelvis.
[wpvideo mBxxEw3j]
I count that at a heart rate of about 120/minute (it’s a 7 second clip). There is some evidence that foetal heart rates below 170-180 are indicative of ‘severe distress’. I guess that’s a bit subjective as to exactly what ‘severe distress means’ but, after seeing that, we weren’t inclined to hang around and we went straight in to get them out. All survived 🙂
