Greyhound Gap

Greyhound Gap rescue cares for its dogs at its centre near Stoke and has fosterers spread across a wider area. It prioritises greyhounds and lurchers in UK pounds. In May, they received a £20,000 grant to help with the vet bills of dogs like Dot.

Dot is a young lurcher girl who the charity highly suspected was a false stray. She was found by a member of the public who the charity was sure was her owner.

Dot was in a seriously emaciated condition with a very low body score at the time of landing in their care. More alarmingly, it was realised that she was heavily pregnant.

Dot was immediately taken to the vet, where she was scanned. It was quickly ascertained she was carrying a large litter of quite sizeable pups. The race against time commenced attempting to get Dot into a good enough bodily condition to manage what her body was about to endure. The staff team spent many hours settling Dot into her new surroundings and ensuring she built a bond with those caring for her. With a good feeding regime of high-quality puppy food, her mental and physical condition thankfully began to make rapid changes.

On Friday 6th May the charity was due to be visited by a film crew. Greyhound Gap was lucky enough to be a finalist in the Petplan Animal Charity Team of the Year awards. At noon as the crew turned up, Dot shivered once, was sick and immediately produced a puppy with no previous signs of imminent whelping. A tense number of hours followed for both the kennels and veterinary hospital team to ensure Dot’s safety. Unfortunately, Dot required a caesarian as three large puppies had passed inside her, but Mum and the surviving eight puppies were to our relief well.

As a team, they aimed to support Dot with subsidised feeding at times conscientious that she still was not in full health but not being a maiden mother, Dot was having non of it. She worked hard with us to continue eating and building strength and proved what a good mum she was managing, caring for and feeding the pups herself, with the team watching over her and her brood.

The puppies are now three weeks old, and Dot has not only managed to maintain strong and happy puppies, but she has also gained 3kg whilst feeding. She and the pups now look like a picture of health. 

Had Dot not had good quality care throughout the last two weeks of her pregnancy and birthing troubles, neither the puppies nor her would have made it through alive.

“Without the ongoing help of others, stories like Dots could end so differently, and we are grateful to the Pets Foundation for their support.” – Greyhound Gap