Can you discuss the proper use of oxytocin injections during whelping?
It seems that many breeders use oxytocin early on in the whelping process, when they feel it isn’t progressing fast enough. Dr.Hutch: A puppy in the uterus has only two elements maintaining its oxygenation and life, one being the heartrate of the puppy, two being the blood pressure from mom to the uterus. The whole goal in whelping is to maintain vital elements. Oxytocin I use in a very specific manner. If you’ve gone three hours without a puppy, I use one dose of oxytocin. My dose of oxytocin is two units per ten pounds of body weight. Oxytocin is normally 20 units per ml; I never use more than half an ml, no matter how big the bitch is. I give one injection; if nothing happens, I give a second injection 20 minutes later. If nothing happens, I go to a C-section. If you get too much oxytocin at a time, you will cause the puppies not to be expelled from the uterus but shrunk wrapped IN the uterus. The two injections of oxytocin actually increase the blood pressure to uterus which is ben
