Mina
Canine Pet of the Month - April 2024
Mina is a 2-year-old Estrela Mountain Dog who came to the Animal Hospital of Statesville for our pre-breeding health screening, and reproductive and neonatal services. Mina is a big deal because this was one of the first gray Estrela Mountain Dog litters in the United States!
Estrela Mountain Dogs are a very rare breed of livestock guardian dogs originating from Portugal and are thought to be the oldest breed from that region. They are also known for their love of children and families. Mina and her brother, Oak, come to their visits complete with business cards, helping to educate about their breed, as well as an Instagram and TikTok (@minaandoaktheemds).
Mina’s family are preservation breeders or breeders who work to prevent a rare breed from extinction. Before breeding Mina, her family came to AHS to complete the recommended health testing for Estrelas, including hip and elbow X-rays. Mina’s PennHIP conformation results came back as one of the best in the breed, which gave her family lots of flexibility in finding a stud to pair with Mina.
Mina was bred via transcervical insemination (TCI). This is a minimally invasive, relatively quick outpatient procedure that does not require sedation. While the girl stands, we pass an endoscope through the vagina to visualize the cervix. Using the camera to guide us, we place a catheter through a small hole in the cervix directly into the uterus. Then, we deposit the semen. This gets the sample closer to the eggs and allows more sperm cells to get where they need to go without having to “swim” as long of a way. With progesterone timing (hormonal blood testing) done at AHS, we were able to pinpoint the best days to breed Mina to ensure the highest chance of getting pregnant. This was especially important since the stud was not local – as you can imagine with a rare breed! The student’s veterinarian collected and shipped a chilled semen sample, which we processed and used for the transcervical insemination the next day.
A month later, we confirmed she was pregnant via an abdominal ultrasound (just like for human mamas!). Throughout her pregnancy and leading up to her due date, we were involved in prenatal care and helping her family learn “what to expect when you’re expecting.” A week before her due date, we took a puppy count X-ray to know how many puppies to expect during whelping (labor). Can you find all four?
Mina was a great mom and had 3 healthy puppies. We enjoyed watching these adorable puppies grow over their first 8 weeks of life and appreciated mom sending photos and TikToks of their shenanigans!
The Animal Hospital of Statesville is proud to support and assist responsible breeders like Mina’s family. We understand the stressors and logistics of navigating preservation breeding and are honored to work together to ensure the health and well-being of mom, dad, and puppies. Plus, we got to snuggle these cute fluff-balls of puppies!
Spazzy
Feline Pet of the Month - April 2024
Spazzy is a sweet, 1-year-old kitty. He belongs to one of our veterinary team members. He enjoys living both the indoor and outdoor life as an active kitty! A couple of weeks ago, he did not come home in the evening like usual. His owner was very concerned and continued to search for him. He was found the next day in the neighborhood. He was very lethargic and did not want to eat or drink. Upon exam, we discovered that his kidney values were very elevated, and he was extremely dehydrated. Unfortunately, Spazzy could not tell us what was wrong with him, nor what happened during the time he was missing. We were suspicious he had gotten into something toxic or had possibly had trauma that caused him to be so lethargic. He was hospitalized and given IV fluids and medications to control his nausea. Spazzy responded very well to the treatment and extra TLC he received while here. His kidney values were rechecked in hopes that we would see some improvement. Much to our surprise, his values were completely normal after treatment! Spazzy’s appetite returned, and he is home now and back to being a playful kitty! We were all excited that he has made a full recovery, and named him, AHS’s feline Pet of the Month!