I understand not wanting to spay/abort the bitch, but when you make a mistake, you take responsibility for it. Better for the collie world to lose a great brood bitch than for a litter of blind, deaf puppies to be brought into this world only to suffer. I mean were not talking about a litter of mutts here, which could be found good homes and live long, happy lives. Were taking about pups with serious, life-ruining disabilities.
First off, I despise the idea of intentionally breeding double merle litters. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
My main point:
Unless both parents are double merle (
shudder) breeding merle to merle only gives each individual puppy a 1 in 4 chance of being double merle. Of those unfortunate animals, they aren't
guaranteed to be malformed. Plenty of double Ms are born with fine sight and hearing, or only slight impairments (like deaf in one ear). Plenty aren't, but just because there's a 1/4 chance a puppy
might be born with a bad gene combo that then
might render them disabled to some degree doesn't, IMO justify risking a bitch's life through abortive procedures.
One of the common side affects of the mismate shot is that it causes their body to reject their own bone marrow. Most vets refuse to administer it for more than one accidental mating in the dog's lifetime because the risk to the bitch is so high. Also, doing a spay abort is substantially more risky than a normal spay. The repro vet my dog's breeder uses had to do a C-section on one of her bitches because her uterine horn ruptured and went septic. Even that vet said that if it had been a normal C-section and there was no rupture or infection she would have preferred to let the dog heal up and recover from the pregnancy with all her parts intact before doing a spay.
And it's not a question of what's best for "the collie world". It's a question of the people who love their dog, and are trying to make the best decision for their dog's health and safety. I sure as heck would not feel comfortable giving that shot to my dog. And I wouldn't want to risk a spay abort unless the risks of carrying to term outweighed the procedure, such as if I had a chihuahua impregnated by a lab.
Personally, I think that in a case of accidental M/M breeding it's a lot safer for the bitch to carry the litter to term, and assess the puppies when they are born. Merle/merle puppies aren't suffering horribly when they're born. Not any more than any other puppy, when you consider ALL dogs are blind and deaf at birth.
If a puppy turns out to have a major impairment and you're not equipped to care for them, then you need to do the right thing and let them go in a humane manner.
And glad to know you think blindness and deafness are serious, life ruining disabilities.
Dogs don't rely on vision as heavily as humans do, and PLENTY of human go on to live happy fulfilling lives devoid of sight or sound. I know of one double merle dog that has no eyes and he is extremely happy, loving, and stable. He actually works as a therapy dog in a hospital for children with "serious, life ruining disabilities", showing them that it's possible to have a full and happy life even if your body doesn't fully function.