Doodle Doings

Double Doodle (North American Retriever) puppies at Westwood

Some days it seems like 24 is not nearly enough, and then some days seem like they go on forever. And if you don’t sleep, sometimes they all run together and it really doesn’t matter! This past week was like that.

Reese’s due date was March 7, but as I do with all my expecting moms, I had been taking her temperature 3 times a day for a week before that. This was her first pregnancy, and I really didn’t know if she would follow the common pattern of having a drop in her body temperature 12-24 hours before her labor begins, but I could always hope! About a week before her due date I also started having her spend time in the whelping (birthing) area, so she would be comfortable there when the time came for her to give birth. Reese is very attached to me, spending most of her time laying on my feet when I am not moving, and sometimes even when I am! This meant I needed to spend time out in the whelping area with her. So for the last few days I had been spending any computer time at the laptop out in ‘Puppyland’.

My intuition was that Reese was going to deliver early. Although she was settling in OK in Puppyland for short periods, I decided that she really needed to become comfortable spending the night out there too. So on Tuesday night I said goodnight to my family and headed to Puppyland with Reese to spend the night out there.

A couple years ago I built a loft bed up over the whelping pen so I am able to catch a few winks when a mom is in labor or there are new puppies. Reese did not like having me up over head! She would pace, pace, pace as soon as I got into the bed. I was hopeful that if I just gave her some time she would settle in, but my hopes were seriously misplaced. She was panting and pacing as though she was in labor! I checked her temperature, and it was normal, but she did not stop pacing even if I got out of bed and sat with her. Not all dogs have a temperature drop, or sometimes it is so brief that I can miss it. I began to think that maybe she really was in labor. So Tuesday night passed alternating between sitting up with Reese, and trying to rest in the bed with Reese pacing and panting.

Wednesday came and went, getting Shane to school, doing schoolwork with Gus, seeing clients, doing laundry, just a usual day except for the fact that the only sleep I had in 24 hours was the one hour nap I took at lunchtime on Wednesday. Reese, however, napped very well during the day and seemed none the worse for wear.

Wednesday night I took Reese out to the whelping area and again I climbed into the loft. And again Reese started pacing. I took her temperature and it was 98.5! 99 is the magic number; when it drops below that is when I know almost for certain that pups are on the way! More pacing, more panting. A very long night I spent sitting with Reese and playing Scrabble online, although by 3AM there is not even anyone to play Scrabble with! I wondered where all the Australian Scrabble players were….it’s daytime in OZ when it’s 3AM EST, right?

I got Shane off to school and got Gus started on his school work, but was too tired, distracted and anxious to really be effective at much of anything. I puttered, updating the website, organizing things out in Puppyland. I managed to make and have dinner with my family, got the kids to bed, and headed out to Puppyland to make coffee. Again, the only sleep I had that day was the one hour nap I took at lunch!

Reese started pushing at about 9:15 PM. She was clearly miserable, not really knowing what was going on! I sat in the whelping pen with her entire upper body in my lap, the side of her face pressed into my hands, both of us with eyes mostly closed. At first the contractions were mild, but by about 10 PM they were rippling strongly from her chest to her tail. I was starting to get concerned that she was not making progress, and inserted a finger into her vagina to see if I could feel a pup. Nothing.

At about 10:15 I saw a few drops of very dark blood, and my heart went first to my mouth, and then hit rock bottom. This was a very bad sign. It almost always means a placenta has separated from the wall of the uterus, leaving the puppy supplied by that placenta without any oxygen supply from mom. Reese was pushing hard, and I again inserted a finger. I could feel a pup! It was about an inch from making its appearance in the outside world. But it wasn’t getting any closer. I checked again; I could feel the head but there was nothing to grab on to in order to pull it out, and it was wedged too tight to push it back in to try to shift it to a better angle for delivery. Minutes passed, with Reese pushing and me trying to get my finger in around the pup to stretch the tissues enough to allow the pup to progress further. I was sure the puppy was dead, my concern at this point was Reese, and the other pups trapped inside. Millimeter by millimeter with each contraction the pup was moving towards me. At the height of one contraction I actually saw a tiny tongue, smaller than my smallest fingernail, and heard the smallest of gasps. Then the contraction ended and and the pup’s nose disappeared back inside. The puppy was alive. Oh my God the puppy was alive. Reese was getting tired, and her contractions were weakening just when we needed them to be getting stronger. I popped a Tums in her mouth, hoping that the calcium would increase the strength of the contractions. I was talking in a low, continuous stream, trying to calm both Reese and myself, saying anything that came into my mind. “Come on Reese, you can do it. This puppy wants to live, please push. Hang in there….please push, this puppy wants to live!” With each contraction the puppy’s nose would appear and I would hear another tiny gasp, only to see the puppy’s air cut off when the contraction ended and the pup would be sucked back inside. One strong contraction revealed delicate toenails, and I realized why the puppy was stuck. It had started its descent into the birth canal with one front leg laying up along side its head, which hugely increased the diameter of its should girdle. But that paw was just what I needed. At the next contraction I grasped the paw and tried to extract the puppy, but it was too slippery, and again the puppy was again sucked back inside. Another contraction, another attempt to pull it out, another failure. The third time I pinched that little paw as hard as I could, knowing that I could break the puppy’s leg or dislocate its shoulder. I didn’t have a choice, I had to get the puppy out. At the end of that contraction I did manage to hang on to the paw, and with the next contraction I applied a steady traction and the puppy popped out. It had been an hour since I saw those first drops of dark blood.

I cut the cord and rubbed the puppy, a beautiful apricot-colored little girl who was so exhausted she was barely moving. But with some help she did manage to latch on and within a few minutes of getting a little nourishment she was nursing vigorously. I, on the other hand, was shaking so badly I couldn’t stand, and was laying in the whelping box. Reese and I were both panting, and covered in blood and meconium.

Over the next few hours Reese easily delivered another girl and two boys, all apricot and caramel colored. I was very surprised at this, as Reese is a chocolate, as is Scooter, the daddy, and statistically I was expecting 50% of the pups to be chocolate! So much for statistics. At 4AM, out popped a white puppy with chocolate markings, looking like a tiny holstein. I could not have been more surprised, except that 15 seconds later, before I could even cut the cord on the one pup, out popped another one with the same markings. Two partis! Parti coloration, meaning predominantly white with dark markings, is recessive. This means both parents must carry the gene, and while I knew Scooter carried it, I had no idea Reese did! Whoo hoo PARTI TIME!

As is typical with breeding, nothing matches the highs except the lows. I few minutes after those two healthy, beautiful parti girls were born, the last pup, a lovely, fleece-coated boy was still born. I performed chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth for a long time, but could not revive him. His placenta had likely been the one that separated and resulted in the dark blood I had seen hours before, and he never really had a chance.

So the final count was 6 live puppies, 4 girls and 2 boys. I got Reese settled in with her breakfast and some water, showered, and slept from 5:30 AM to 6:30 AM, and then started another day with my family by getting the kids out of bed. Friday was my third day in a row with one hour of sleep in a 24 hour period. I think my kids are getting used to me stumbling around like a zombie!