A Golden Retriever received life-saving surgery after becoming unwell following the birth of her puppies.
Three-year-old Nina gave birth to eight puppies but fell seriously ill just three weeks after welcoming her litter.
Vets found Nina was suffering from mastitis, inflammation of the mammary glands. She was given antibiotics, and it was advised for the puppies to be weaned from her milk while she recovered.
But Nina’s condition continued to deteriorate after an abscess in the mammary gland burst, and she was rushed to the intensive care unit at DWR Veterinary Specialists in Cambridgeshire.
Specialist in soft tissue surgery, Hannah Reeves, carried out blood tests and scans which revealed that Nina had mastitis in all her mammary glands and abscesses on one, along with a thickening of the uterus lining.
Nina’s owner Alison Fenner, from Harwich, said: “Nina’s condition deteriorated in such a short space of time and her breathing had become laboured. It was a two-hour drive to DWR and when we arrived they took her straight to intensive care.
“They suspected a uterine infection and that the wound was worse than initially thought, with deep cysts behind the gland that couldn’t be healed. They had no option but to operate.”
Nina went in for surgery the same day and Hannah operated to remove one of her mammary glands.
Just hours later, Nina was already feeling better and raring to go home.
Alison said: “Nina’s recovery was fantastic – she came home less than 24 hours after surgery and bounced back.
“We had to keep her away from the puppies to give her a chance to recover, but they absolutely thrived.
“We have another Golden Retriever who became like a foster mum, playing with the pups and teaching them puppy manners until Nina was healthy enough to be reunited with them.”
Six months on from her ordeal, Nina is doing well. She was spayed six weeks after her life-saving surgery on veterinary advice.
One of Nina’s puppies sadly died at three-days-old, but the other seven have all moved on to forever homes with their new families, and Alison said she had been supported by the puppies’ new owners throughout.
She said: “We have regular meets with the majority of the new owners, they all followed Nina’s story via our Whatsapp group, they were all so supportive and behind Nina all the way, messaging me day and night.
“I have made lifelong friends through the whole experience.”
DWR Veterinary Specialists offers specialist-led care in anaesthesia and analgesia, dentistry, cardiology, dermatology, diagnostic imaging, diagnostic pathology, emergency and critical care, internal medicine, interventional radiology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, ophthalmology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthopaedics, physiotherapy and soft tissue surgery.