Melton Mowbray A dalmatian has had 18 puppies, just over a year after producing a litter of 16.

Adam and Nicola Morley and their oldest son, Michael, 17, are working on a 24-hour rota helping the exhausted mother, Button, to feed and tend them.

The puppies were delivered by Caesarean section on December 23, at Chine House Veterinary Hospital in Sileby, Leicestershire. The litter is said to be the biggest to be delivered there. Con Hassett, the veterinary surgeon who delivered them, said: “I delivered all 18 puppies in about 9 to 12 minutes. The surgery itself is reasonably straightforward, but it’s the aftercare that’s harder. We had to have five or six nurses there to revive and tend to the puppies.”

Mrs Morley said: “It was a big shock. They are all doing well but we’re only going to keep one.” Three-year-old Button, daughter of a dog in the Disney film 102 Dalmatians, will not have any more puppies, she added.

Pat Wilson, chairman of the British Dalmatian Club, said a litter of 18 was very rare: “Our secretary remembers one dalmatian years ago who gave birth to 19, but the average litter is about eight or nine.”