A new record for Australia was set on April 23rd, 2020, when a Neapolitan Mastiff named Shadow had a litter of 21 puppies. She almost broke the Guinness Book of World Record that is 24 puppies born by a Neapolitan Mastiff in 2004.
https://www.facebook.com/AnimalEmergencyServiceHQ/videos/2500569936922933/?t=5&v=2500569936922933
Dr. Patrycja Zimmermann, a veterinarian was working at the Animal Emergency Service hospital in Underwood, Queensland when Shadow arrived. She was informed that the Neapolitan Mastiff had already given birth to 3 puppies but for the past four 4 hours wasn’t being very active.
After one of the pups died, her owner brought Shadow to the vet fearing the worst. They quickly ran radiographs on her to see if she had any more puppies inside her belly and noticed there appeared to be more than ten. At that point, a team of vets decided to perform an emergency caesarian on her since she wasn’t trying to push the puppies out herself.
During the procedure, they found a massive amount of blood inside Shadow’s uterus, which appeared to be the reason why she was not being active, so they removed Shadow’s female reproductive organs in order to save her life.
It took ten veterinarians and nurses but eventually they pulled 18 more puppies from the Neapolitan Mastiff’s belly, totaling 21 puppies in all. For the next 24 hours the team took turns rotating the puppies to feed on Shadow as she laid down to rest and recover.
Ultimately, only 18 puppies survived out of the 21 but Shadow is, fortunately, at home with her new babies and on her way to a full recovery. You can watch the interview with Dr. Zimmermann that 7NEWS Brisbane did on her below.