Puppies Are Here

WARNING - This post is graphic so don't read it if you are squeamish! We lost one puppy and it's sad too.

Mandy started refusing food last night and acting listless so I drove her to the emergency vet.

Once we were there, he took her temperature and said she would probably whelp within the next 24 hours. He x-rayed her belly and counted seven puppies. Yowza!

I drove her home. We stopped at Safeway to get a large box for whelping.

When we got home, I let her out to go to the bathroom and set up her whelping box. I got little man down to sleep around ten-thirty. I checked Mandy and she was just laying there.

I fell asleep for an hour and checked her at 11:30. I woke up and checked her again at 12:30. She was still laying there.

I fell asleep again, for too long this time.

Boots came and whined by the bed. I went down the hallway and heard puppy noises. I went in the bathroom and there were already three. One was still stuck in the sack though and not breathing.

I broke it out of the sack. Those sacks are amazingly strong. I could have used a knife but I was hurrying. I rubbed the puppy really hard. I thumped its chest. I did mouth to mouth. I was just too late.

If I had slept on the bathroom floor, that never would have happened. I believe that mistakes are a learning experience, but the fact that a puppy lost its life because I was an idiot, well there are no words for that.

I woke my husband up to help. He gave the puppy mouth to mouth also. Then he started helping me with the fourth one that had arrived.

The rest is kind of a blur. Mandy chewed the cords too short on some of them. They were bleeding and we tied them off with dental floss.

Mandy seemed depressed; who could blame her? When the fifth one came, she wasn't pushing it all the way out. I broke it out of the sack, but it wasn't moving much and it was still tethered inside her by the umbilical cord. I had to put my finger in her vagina and stroke it to help her have contractions. (This is called "feathering.")

After that puppy came out, she started pushing the next one. The amniotic fluid came out. I couldn't see the puppy. She quit pushing again. I did more feathering. She pushed it out farther but it was also tethered and not moving much. I broke the sack and did more feathering, but she wasn't pushing. My husband gently pulled and the cord and placenta came out. Phew.

We had a total of six live puppies. We had to tie another cord that she had gotten overzealous with.

My son woke up. I got him back to sleep and then I changed Mandy's bedding. The puppies seemed cold and I needed a shower. I took it in the bathroom they were in to warm it up.

After I got dressed, I went to check on them. She kept obsessively licking a puppy. I assumed she was chewing off dental floss and tried to discourage her. Then I noticed she was chewing off brand new cord.

She had pushed out an extra puppy that we didn't know was in there. So then there were seven.

During the whole ordeal, Boots paced back and forth like a father outside the delivery room. It was touching. He was the hero of the day for waking me up. If he hadn't, I'm not sure more than three would have lived.

So I am excited and depressed at the same time. I did lots of things I never dreamed I was capable of doing.

I'm a doggie Grandma! We're not out of the woods yet, but with luck, all seven will make it.

I'll continue posting pictures as they grow.