we have puppies

Yesterday was a tough day.  The book says that "the most skilled part of whelping is deciding how long it is safe ... before asking veterinary assistance and assessing whether the bitch is in trouble or if she is just having a rest."  Well, the sum total of my experience of whelping puppies was gleaned during 2 litters of puppies prior to this one.  Kittens don't count.  So my experience was severely restricted to what I've read, what other, more experienced people have told me, and what I have witnessed with Neka.  Cue much wondering, weighing up alternatives, phoning for backup verbal support, etc.

Taika & I had 2 sleepness nights together on Fri & Sat, and all day Saturday I was completely convinced she would have her puppies that night.  She kept moving in and out of Stage 1.  By 'Stage 1' I mean heavy panting, restlessness, digging and shredding paper.  This is the stage during which the puppies are getting ready for action.  When the bitch is lying on her side, you can even see the puppies moving.  So there was plenty of all this starting Friday night and continuing through Saturday and then Saturday night.  Here she is happy as a clam in her box doing her digging and panting.

I wasn't too worried at this point, because this stage can come and go for a few days, really.  And then at about 4 am on Sunday, Taika stopped panting and settled down.  I braced myself for the contractions to begin signalling the beginning of labour & arrival of the first puppy.  Instead, Taika went to sleep.  Huh.  So I did too.

Sunday morning she was acting as if she had no intentions of giving birth for another week or so.  She had her breakfast then asked to go out so we had a little stroll down the park.  She did all her business, including 2 unusually large poos then dragged me back into the house and straight upstairs.  Within an hour the first tentative contractions started.

At noon, following a few strong contractions, her 'waters broke' (for want of a better term) and she threw up her breakfast.  5 minutes after that there was another rush of fluid and the strong contractions continued regularly.  Based on my experience with Neka, and what the books say, I was expecting a puppy before 1pm.  Nothing.  Then I was expecting the first puppy by 2 pm.  At 1:30 Taika threw up again.  I got my surgical gloves and Vaseline out and had a little root around but couldn't feel anything.  And, frankly, I was nervous of sticking my fingers too far inside since I didn't really know what I was doing!  The thing is, if you can gently grasp a puppy and very slightly shift its position during a contraction, that might be all that is required to get things moving.  But I couldn't feel anything.  I called Toni who has a wealth of experience and has always been on hand with great advice during each of my whelping experiences.

At 1:50 I called the vet and while waiting for him to return my call, what appeared to be a puppy head presented itself at Taika' vulva.  Spoke to the vet, we agreed if the head was there everything would probably go normally from now on.  When there was still no progress after a couple more contractions, I got busy with my Vaseline again but there was actually no puppy in reach - just the bag, unbroken and sticking out like a balloon.  At 2:45, almost 3 hours after the start of labour, I called the vet and told him we were on our way in.  We arrived there at 3:10 pm with Taika no further along and with our hot water bottle box to collect born puppies.

I won't even go into the stress of getting Taika out of the box, down the stairs, into and out of the car.  She's heavy.

After an hour of observation, the vet decided the puppy wasn't moving further down the birth canal in spite of Taika's strong contractions and the fact that it didn't feel like a particularly big puppy, so at 4pm Taika went off for a Caesarian section.  Jay & I stood by in the recovery room and resusitated the puppies as the nurse passed them through.

So, we made it.  Taika & puppies were back home by 6 pm and while the babies settled down for a feed, Taika caught up on some much-needed sleep.















C-section births are notorious because the bitch can reject her puppies, since she has no idea where on earth they came from and does not have the experience of ripping the sacs, stimulating them to breathe & cry, etc.  So, while Taika is not exactly being the absolute best mum ever just yet, she's doing a great job.  At first she did glare at the puppies as if to say "What the %&£!  Last thing I remember I was trying to have a big old poo, the next thing I know my box is full of these strange wiggling, squeaking things that smell funny."  I still can't quite convince her she has to clean them and to lick them to stimulate expulsion of waste, but all in all it's going well.  She's happy to let them nurse, she rushes back to them when she's been out for a wee, and she hasn't tried to kill them - well, not on purpose anyway.  Phew!

And even Neka, amazingly good mum that she turned out to be, chucked her first 2 puppies out of the box when they were born, one of which was Taika herself.

Here is Taika today, much brighter, with the babies gathered around.


















Tomorrow individual pics, birth weights and stuff.  Oh, and how Neka came to the rescue when Taika lay on the puppies and squished them.