DELIVERY DAY!!

9-18-14

Puppies came today!  When I got up and put the dogs out at 6 am, Salty wanted to back to the bedroom...I put her back in the kitchen and she was panting and wrinkled her nose when she refused her favorite snack: pepperoni.  I had a feeling she was already in labor.  I went on the the farm and called my mom a little later, she already planning on  coming down for dinner.  She was only 15 minutes away and would call me when she got to my  house.  At 10 she called and said Salty had already delivered on pup and it was too cold...she went to work on it warming the little life.  I came home to find a proud midwife with 4 puppies!

 The next pup was born not breathing and I quickly went to work on the lifeless tiny baby.

warming up the pup who I just got breathing

 Rubbing and offering canned oxygen made for human runners, he finally started coming around and was taking gasping breaths.  It took several airway swings and more rubbing and he began to pant and the immediate danger was over.  Salty went on to deliver 2 more and then things halted.

At 2:15 I phone my vet and talked to him about the labor and how I could just feel a little foot but she was not progressing.  We decided to give her some more time.  I had given her

Calcium at 12 pm and that should keep her uterus in good shape to push.  The pup was not stuck but just too far back.  She continued to push but not real hard.

4:30.  Another call to Dr. Henry.  He suggested we go ahead and run her in and he would check her.

We got to Clinton by 5:25 and he could not feel a thing.  (I was hoping just the car ride would result in a birth)  We opted for an x-ray and we could just see what looked like 2 pups.  He and I decided not to rush in and do a c-section since she was not frantic and seemed fresh.  2 more injections of Ca and instructions to use Oxytocin in a hour after arriving home.

She still was pushing some at 6:30 when I gave her the shot.  I moved her into the bathroom where she could walk around, dig, and labor more freely than in her kiddy pool in the bedroom with the puppies.  At 8 she finally pushed out the little one.  A brindle stillborn pup- his head turned over his shoulder keeping him trapped for too many hours.  A next puppy followed immediately but this one too was born dead, unable to move past the other blocking puppy.  This sad delivery was overshadowed by a lovely litter of 7 finally happy to nurse their tired mom.  All are well.

The tiny red pup that had been born not breathing now needed more help getting on and nursing.  Right after she was born I gave her a q-tip of Karo syrup on her tongue and she got a bit more interested.  Now it was close to 9 and I wanted to get her on and make SURE I saw her get a belly full of colostrum.  Another touch of Karo and after 10 minutes she got a kick and started to nurse after some help.  Time now to feed the other dogs and take a break!  Pictures in the morning since now it will be a long night of assisted nursing and watches to make sure no one got smashed by an exhausted Salty.