Lapis final litter (and why)

Lapis’s labor began normally and there weren’t any major red flags but things slowed down and we weren’t making the progress I wanted to see. I tried all of my usual methods to help things along and assure everyone was okay, which they were, but it was going on too long for my liking. I checked the puppies regularly with my fetal doppler and they were never in distress, nor was Lapis panicking. She would push for a period of time and then rest for even longer, and while this can be considered normal, I was feeling unsure.

I brought Lapis to the vet (a different one than my usual, because they were closed) over an hour away and she was relaxed in the floorboard the whole time. They checked us in and did a progesterone test to make sure the pups were far enough along to be born - something I already was certain of, but they wanted to check anyway. Then did an x ray to count, showing just two puppies. Ultrasound confirmed they still weren’t in distress, just like I had confirmed several times at home. It was still stressing me out that Lapis wasn’t making progress and it was getting later, she was getting tired. So we opted to do a cesarean.

It’s a good thing we did because once inside, the vet found a lot of scar tissue from her previous c section. I asked about this and they said it can be common for deep chested breeds to heal that way after a cesarean, and it wasn’t any fault of the previous vet or anything that could have been predicted or prevented. They agreed with me that this was the likely cause of there being only two pups and was why she wasn’t laboring like normal. Due to the scarring, the vet had to make a different incision, which is going to lead to even more scarring in the uterus later, so I decided right away that Lapis will be officially retired from breeding. I was already planning on retiring her after seeing such a drastically smaller litter, because to me that’s her way of telling me she’s done having pups! I want to see nice easy whelps and good litter sizes; this is part of how I judge a dog is a good candidate for breeding.

Unfortunately, despite the fact that I usually like to keep my dogs intact even after retirement, with all of the scar tissue in her uterus, Lapis is at a heightened risk for pyometra so she will be spayed before her next heat cycle.
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I’m blessed and thankful to have so many lovely offspring from her to continue her line in the future. It's bittersweet to be raising her last litter but I'm sure the pups will make us proud.