It may not be 101 Dalmatians, but these 16 adorable newborn puppies are still just as cute as their movie counterparts.
A Dalmatian nearly broke a world record for puppies delivered at once, birthing 16 little ones last week.
Brittni Turner, a veterinarian at the Fredericksburg Veterinary Center in Texas who helped deliver the puppies, told Newsweek that as Luna the Dalmatian's final trimester came to an end, there was no clear indication as to how many puppies she was carrying.
"When Luna was in her last week of pregnancy, we took a radiograph at the clinic, which is pretty standard when dogs are pregnant to know if you can count how many [pups] are in there," Turner explained. "It gives you an idea of what to expect for the delivery. When we took her X-ray, we said, 'I don't know, that looks like a lot of puppies!' We couldn't count them, there were too many ... We just knew that there was going to be a good amount [of puppies delivered]."
Turner told Newsweek that Luna then went into labor on Thursday around midnight. At the time, Luna was delivering her puppies naturally at home.
"She delivered five puppies on her own, and then her labor stopped around 6:30 or 7 a.m.," Turner said. "[Luna's owner] texted me on my work phone and I told her to go ahead and come in, just because it was not the normal situation for a large breed dog. They normally don't have a lot of complications [in labor]."
Once Turner and her staff began examining Luna, they found the sixth puppy improperly positioned for a natural birth.
"I was able to feel a leg in the birth canal, but just the leg," Turner shared with Newsweek. "We took an X-ray and saw that the puppy that was supposed to be coming in the birth canal was breeched with its head turned to the side."
Thirty minutes later, Turner and her staff began removing puppies via caesarian section.
"When we got into surgery, I was just pulling out puppy after puppy and we ended up needing to call in all of our receptionists and staff for an all hands on deck to help clean and revive puppies," Turner told KSAT-TV. According to the outlet, reviving a puppy during birth is when either the mother or medical professional cleans the newborn's airway so they can breathe independently.
"I kept saying to the owner, 'There surely can't be anymore!' And they kept saying, 'There surely can't be anymore!'" Turner told Newsweek. "I then said, 'I know there's at least two more.' Then I would say, 'Oh, there's definitely one more. No, there's two more.'"
In the end, 11 more puppies were born via caesarian section. "We kept miscounting the puppies!" Turner told Newsweek. "The owner was back there helping, our receptionist, our technicians. We pretty much had everyone back there helping. Finally, we counted that there were 16 puppies, and five of those were born naturally, which left 11 that we delivered by C-section."
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The Fredericksburg Veterinary Center also shared the incredible birth story with their Facebook followers.
"Dr. Turner and our wonderful team of technicians jumped into action and successfully delivered 11 more puppies by emergency [caesarian] section," the clinic posted. "There were puppies everywhere!!"
The Fredericksburg Veterinary Center also posted adorable photos of the newborns along with a final puppy count. Many took to the comments to praise the work of the veterinary clinic and the mom of 16.
"Poor mom, so glad that yall were able to step in and save them all! Lordy, that's a lot of puppies!" one shared. "Absolutely amazing..that is what you call teamwork," another added.
According to a report from Breeding Business, the average size of a Dalmatian litter is seven puppies. Luna comes just a few pups shy of matching the world record for largest Dalmatian litter, which was claimed by Melody and her 19 puppies born in Australia in 2019, as reported by the BBC.
One person on Facebook did joke that, while Luna may not have broken the world record for Dalmatians born at once, she did best the dogs in 101 Dalmatians. "Actually Pongo and Purdy had 15 puppies. So this momma beat the movie! Wow, amazing. So sweet," she shared, noting the rest of the litter was adopted in the film franchise.
Turner also confirmed with Newsweek that the mom and her babies are all doing well today. "They [all] went home that day," she said. "Luna was being a really attentive mother already, wanting to be with the puppies. She's doing really well, and the puppies are doing great ... It was a blip of chaos but it was good in the end."
Luna is not the only special dog getting attention online. Adorable footage of a group of Dachshunds cooling off at a pool party has charmed viewers online. Another brave dog managed to overcome her "irrational fear" of grates in a heartwarming viral video.
