A dog in labor arrived at an emergency clinic in Cobb County, Georgia, and the staff counted more puppies than they could safely handle on their own. Fifteen of them, close to three times an average litter. So they called the fire department, as FOX 5 Atlanta reported.
Firefighters from Station 21 drove over to VEG ER for Pets and pitched in on the emergency C-section, clearing airways and handling newborns as they arrived. The timing was lucky in the way that only matters in an emergency: the crew had finished animal CPR training one shift earlier, and that is the skill they used on puppies who needed help breathing in their first minutes of life.
The clinic got the extra hands it needed, the mother got through surgery, and the puppies got their first check-over from people who knew what they were doing.
What this means for your dog: if you are expecting a litter, know the numbers before the due date. A litter this size means a real chance of a C-section, a bigger bill and a slower recovery for the mother. Ask your vet what the after-hours plan is, and save the emergency clinic’s number somewhere you can find it at 2 a.m. Learn the signs that labor has stalled, because minutes matter when a puppy is stuck in the canal.
If you want to be the useful person when something goes wrong, animal CPR is worth an afternoon and many fire departments and Red Cross chapters run courses. Anyone planning a litter should also read why so many families find raising a puppy harder than they expected, and our guide to pyometra in dogs covers the other emergency that sends owners to the vet at midnight.