It is with great sadness that we announce the loss of Nicker's litter. What should have been and always has been a joyous occasion for us all, turned out to be a tragedy of monumental proportions.

Nickers whelped her first 3 puppies early but with ease, then came the long wait during Saturday. At 2.00 pm I decided we had to make the call, we had to use a referral vet, one we had never used before, but in these times, options are limited. She went off happy, and healthy for her cesarian; she was not in stress or discomfort, the decision to take her had been made to prevent it from becoming an emergency.

We meanwhile waited at home, feeding the three happy, healthy pups, who were extremely vigorous. We waited for the call, and when it came, we were told that one pup, the smallest one had blocked the birth canal. At this stage, it confirmed we had made the right decision.

We just had to wait now for her to be discharged. We waited and waited, and eventually, the call came, and Helen and Hugh went off to collect her some 6 hours after taking her. They waited and waited outside in the vet's car park - 45 mins went by, and they had heard nothing, their calls not answered, the door even went unanswered. Hugh accosted a member of staff coming into work, and after what seemed an eternity, a very flustered member of staff came out to inform them that Nickers now had an unknown mass in her abdomen, she had collapsed and was bleeding out. She went back into surgery, but after a shift changed the vet on nights could not perform this operation, they had to call in the head vet. He managed to save her, and we received a call to say that she was now stable and the operation had gone well, and it was now a waiting game.

Hugh and Helen had bought home the other three pups, we had six in total, all a very good weight, feeding lively and very healthy. Nickers had to stay in all day Sunday to ensure she was alright, she wasn't eating, so Lisa took her special food in, and on Monday morning we had a call to collect her, we were also told she had diarrhoea!

Again Hugh and Helen rushed in to collect her, looking forward to bringing her home and uniting her with her lovely pups. Well, what can I say, she arrived home in the most horrendous appalling state ever. I could see Helen and Hugh were distraught, from the kitchen window as they pulled on to the drive and rightly so. Poor Nickers was covered in dried urine and faeces. Her backbone was highly visible, and she was so miserable. The smell was so awful that they had driven home with a window open.

In addition to this and smelling appalling, she couldn't walk. Her hind leg was sticking out at such an angle it looked as I can only describe not dissimilar to an ice hockey stick, both her hind paws were drenched in blood and still bleeding. We all had to muster the bravest of faces.

Linda jumped into action and walked her around to try and gain some circulation into her hind leg and hip and then started to wash her down, being mindful of her wound. It took ages to get the caked mess off her, bucket after bucket of warm water and hibi and still the vile mess stuck to her and stank. We had to resort to tea tree wipes, and then damp wash her again and again. Her hind paws were badly grazed and scuffed, as though she had been dragged along a hard surface and this had caused them to become very sore and bleed. It was an absolute travesty that a dog had been discharged from a veterinary practice in such an appalling and disgusting state. It was, in fact, animal abuse.

Anyway, she was home now and clean, and had 6 lovely puppies, she took to them well, despite not having much milk to feed them, she cleaned and loved them with care and the eyes of an adoring wolfhound mum. We had to continue to help feed, and she cleaned, we were resigned that we may have to do this now if she couldn't produce her own milk.

Meanwhile, I had a call from the vets to say don't give her some of the medication we have sent her home with as this may affect the puppies liver, and when I asked for a vet to call me with an explanation so I could make an informed decision, not just a panic call from an unknown, I waited four and half hours for her to call me. This, on its own is enough to bring the words incompetent to mind.

The same day, Mum's poo had meanwhile worsened and became foul-smelling, we were assured her antibiotics would be dealing with this, and it was just a post-op thing. I was not so sure. Then the first puppy presented with signs of distress, and from that moment on, it was a slippery slope of the demise of the entire litter.

We called out our usual vet, who thought that we were looking at infection, passed from mum. We had lost one pup so far, and hopefully, now we had caught the infection. Mum and pups were given a new range of antibiotics, and we were all hoping we had caught the infection, or whatever it was Nickers had picked up at the vets. Sadly this was not to be and, over the next three days, the pups died one by one.

We have all been to emotional hell and back, the entire team, Hugh, Helen, Linda, Lisa, Cate, Ali and Sue. Puppies died in our arms and died knowing that they have been loved and cared for to the best of our ability, we fought for every single one of them. We have supported and comforted each other and of course, Nickers.

I would like to thank you all for your kindness and condolences, at the moment I feel unable to respond individually, as we all cope in different ways. Speaking for myself, I am processing and decompressing. My main concern is now that we can bring Nickers through this extremely shocking, and traumatic time in her life and back to full health.