A dog from Australia is recovering after giving birth to the largest litter. Shadow, a Neapolitan Mastiff, gave birth to a whopping 21 puppies on April 20. This won her the Australian record for the biggest litter.
Shadow gave birth to 3 puppies at home. But, her owner brought her to the emergency room after four hours of no activity and a puppy that didn’t make it.
The staff at the Animal Emergency Service in Underwood took radiographs to check if she has more puppies inside. The vet Patrycja Zimmermann said they checked the fetal heartbeats, and hoped for the best outcome.
Once they learned she has more than 10 puppies inside, they immediately started an emergency caesarian.
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Unfortunately, vets had to remove Shadow’s reproductive organs because she had a lot of blood inside and her blood pressure was dropping. Although it sounds a little bit drastic, it saved her life and the life of the puppies.
The ovariohysterectomy isn’t a one-person surgery. A team of ten vets and nurses joined their forces together and removed 18 puppies from the dog. Eighteen puppies survived, but 3 of them didn’t make it.
While Shadow was recovering from her surgery, nurses were taking care of the puppies. They rotated the puppies to take turns feeding on their mom. The dog is doing well and is currently resting at home with her puppies.
Shadow broke the record for largest litter, but just in Australia. She beat Melody the Dalmatian and Minnie the American bulldog, who both held the Australian record for the biggest litter with 19 dogs.
However, Shadow needed 4 puppies more to beat the world record, which is held by a dog who gave birth 24 puppies.
The Dalmatian also received publicity when it happened in 2019. Melissa O’Brien, Melody’s owner, said that her dog gained more than 30 pounds during her pregnancy. Although she knew that it would be a big litter, she didn’t realize how big it would be.
