A mastiff called Myla may have broken the Irish dog records by giving birth to 17 pups.
Owner John Kerwick — from Co Westmeath — reckons the huge litter beats the previous record of 16 and ranks among the largest number of puppies ever born to her breed.
Family dog Myla is a three-year old Cane Corso, also known as an Italian mastiff. John said the number of pups came as a huge surprise to him and to Myla’s vet.
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“We were told by the vet that it was only going to be between six and eight pups when she was scanned four weeks ago.
“Then we brought her to the vet a week before she gave birth because we were concerned about her.
“She was actually the size of a sheep,” John said.
On Wednesday morning, Myla started to give birth.
“She had the first four pups in the morning. Then we thought, hold on a minute, she isn’t getting any smaller.
“We took her to the vet at about 5 o’clock. The vet called me at 8 o’clock that evening to say, ‘John, I’ve got some great news for you. There are another 13 pups here’.” Unfortunately, five of the pups were still-born.
Celebrity vet Dr Pete Wedderburn, described the event as “incredible”.
“There is a general rule that bigger dogs have more puppies. But 17 is absolutely exceptional,” he said.
Myla’s litter beats the previous Irish record of 16 puppies, which were produced by an Irish-setter/English-springer spaniel and a labrador/border collie in Co Limerick in 2020.
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