One breeder got the shock of his life when his French Bulldog gave birth to a green dog.
Alabama business owner Mark Ruffin was surprised when his French Bulldog, Helena, gave birth to two dogs at home despite a Caesarean section being planned – sadly, another puppy was also born but it died shortly after birth.
He took Helena to the vet where she welcomed the rest of her litter, for eight puppies in total. Ruffin assumed the green puppy would turn a more conventional color after cleaning her. However, she hasn’t yet.
Feeling Green
“When I first saw the dog I thought it was dirty because that’s what the doctor said. She didn’t even know what it was,” he explained. “I got home and cleaned it about four times that night and I let the mother clean it and it never went away.”
It’s not the first time a green dog has made headlines, either. Valley Bulldog Freya gave birth to a green puppy in Nova Scotia in February, and dog parents Trevor Mosher and Audra Rhys named the pup Fiona after the ogre in “Shrek”.
However, the color wasn’t to last. Rhys told PEOPLE at the time that the pup was beginning to lose her coloring, becoming more of a light lime green.
An Unusual Pigment
The reason for these dogs’ unusual coloring might be that they came into contact with biliverdin, a green pigment found in bile. It’s the pigment that causes the green color sometimes seen in bruises. It’s sometimes present in bird egg shells too.
It mixes with the amniotic fluid in the mother dog’s placenta, sometimes dyeing the puppy’s fur in the womb. However, it’s something that should fade. And in the meantime, it makes for a real surprise for the dog parents and an interesting news story.
