My dogs first contracted this problem after I sent a couple of my girls out to be bred to an outside dog.
One of my girls got pregnant but aborted what I can only describe as “black goo” at about 5 or 6 weeks along in the pregnancy.
I have her daughter, and that one also had a black goo incident at about 6 weeks along. I remember the odor of this one as being very unpleasant. I got her spayed as I realized that I wouldn’t get more puppies from her. She was 6 years old when that happened. The interesting thing with this bitch is that I have to be careful what I feed her, and during a blitzkreig of ragweed last year, she needed a “super shot” for her allergies.
Another one of my dogs only had 2 puppies born. She had previously had more puppies born, usually 4 puppies per litter. The following year she only had 1 puppy, at age 6, and I retired her.
One of my girls had a litter and couldn’t nurse them past 3 weeks of age. I had to bring a sick dog to the vets during this time, and I can only think that dog brought home Parvo and that entire litter contracted the Parvo, along with a small puppy from another litter. Five of them died from the parvo. I have reason to believe that if Mycoplasma is present, it weakens the immune system enough that even tho all the pups had their first vaccines, the weak immune system can’t keep parvo at bay.
I had another litter where 5 out of 6 puppies died shortly after birth, with one remaining. I vaccinated that puppy with 2 shots after which she also contracted parvo and died at the vets.
My male dog Rex started shooting blanks just after reaching the age of 5. Another male dog I have also started shooting blanks at about 6 years old.
I contacted several vets over the years, and not one of them had any idea what I was talking about. One vet did a few cultures, but nothing showed up on any of them.
I’ve had symptoms of this over the period of approximately 6 years.
I reached out on the internet a few years back, and was told of like symptoms that the people involved called Mycoplasma, and that it could be prevented from killing puppies by administering 50mgs of Doxycycline to the bitch during pregnancy. I followed this advice for a few years. It didn’t always work, as I’ve learned since from Erins video she sent that it is extremely contagious and all the dogs need to be treated at the same time. That was the missing piece of information I hadn’t realized needed to be done.
Erin Schwartzkopf was refered to me as the “go to” person who looks into various sorts of issues in the Jack Russell breed. She is in contact with other people across the internet of dog breeders, and found a lady with a different breed who had experienced issues like I’ve described above in her dog. Apparently this lady also works in a dog kennel where the issue was a huge problem in their area.
Erin sent me a video of this woman who described her problems with Micoplasma, the fact that they had a test in their state and identified the problem as Mycoplasma, and the way to handle it.
I immediatly purchased enough Doxycycline for the entire batch of dogs here, and gave it to them for 30 days each, at the same time. Even the spayed dog. The lady on the video emphasized how terribly contagious this Mycoplasma is and that ALL dogs in the vicinity have to be treated as it can be passed from dog to dog via urine, breeding, or any other liquid from one dog to any other dog.
My dogs began coming into heat just about a week after finishing the treatment. The older girls that had had litters a couple years earlier but had been dormant for that in between time, didn’t have normal heats, but rather seemed like they were coming in heat, but never quite got there over the course of about 3 weeks or so. Seeing this, I can only conclude that having Mycoplasma in their bodies for a couple of years without being treated during pregnancy caused the Mycoplasma to destroy the ability of their reproductive organs to be able to create and support a pregnancy to birth.
One younger girl has now had a pregnancy to term with 4 healthy babies. Another one is at the 6 week mark during her pregnancy, and as a test I have rebred the female who aborted just a few days prior to her birthdate. This gal also was tested for Mycoplasma by one of my vets, and it came back negative. The test was a urine culture. I haven’t learned which kind of test was done by the lady at the kennel where this was such a problem.
The lady in the videos dog had 1 puppy at term after all the dogs in the kennel were treated with the Doxycycline at the same time. Her dog was a breed that typically produces 8 or more pups per litter. She did mention that her dog was tested and positive for Mycoplasma, whereas my vet sent a sample to the lab for testing for it and it was negative for some reason. The only thing I can think of in that case was that I had treated that bitch for just over 2 weeks with Doxy during her pregnancy on the advice of one of my vets, but this was the bitch that aborted at almost 8 weeks along.
I’m now watching and waiting for the next litter coming along, to see what we get. This one is one of my favorite girls and I’m looking forward to seeing what she has. She is progressing with her litter as she is getting bigger as she goes. We are now in the Doxycycline free zone. The first litter was very scary for me. I wasn’t sure what would happen but am feeling much more confident that now we will have a positive ending.