On Whelping Watch...

This is the least fun time... waiting, up and down all night, little sleep and hoping all proceeds into the safe delivery of the puppies. I had a very busy weekend so will recap the progress now. I believe I caught the temperature drop on Saturday. It dropped to 98.1. In my experience this can also indicate a lost puppy if it is too early. Normally whelping will begin 24 hours after the temperature drop, so I am getting a bit concerned. I expected them to come last night.

I have felt puppies moving around in there. Last night very active. Some say the pups become still before whelping, but I do not find that to be the case most times. I have seen contractions here and there, but no major pushing or continuous contractions. She is wanting to just stay in her whelping box, only going out to potty when I ask her to. She has left a few wet spots on the blanket, but no water bag yet. I think she was just leaking a bit of urine. I have not seen the mucous plug yet. When they go out to potty, after urinating a snot-like stringer will be hanging from the vulva. She is serious, but will still wag her tail and lay on her side and paw the air for me to pet her. She is cleaning her teats, and only occasionally licking her vulva. She has milk in all her teats. About a week before delivery they may start to get a tiny bit of milk in the very back teats. As the days get closer to whelping day, the milk will start to move into the forward teats progressively. And by whelping time there is milk the in the very small front teats. At least this is normal for my girls.

I have the electric heater setup in my bedroom and it is nice and toasty. It is critical that you keep the whelping box around 80 degrees in the "cool" side and  warmer around mother or under the light or heating pad of course. Newborn puppies are unable to maintain  their own body heat. If they get too far away from a heat source and get chilled they can die quickly. You never want to warm up a chilled puppy too quickly. Their digestive tract can shut down so you do not want them to nurse until they are warmed back up. A good way to warm up a slightly chilled pup is to put them under your shirt so your body heat will warm them up. I have my laundry basket with a heating pad in the bottom and towels on top, to keep pups warm during the whelping process.

Sometimes it is only the look in their eye that tells you something is not quite right, so a breeder needs to be in-tune to their girl and use their gut instinct at times. I am a bit concerned. She is not straining or uncomfortable, and her estimated due date is not until tomorrow, however, at times I see that look in her eyes. I hope it is just contractions that I can't see. Still waiting...

And waiting... and you do not want to get nervous and anxious... it will make your girl upset.

I have a bunch of blankets and old comforters laundered and ready to trade out during the whelping process. Some bitches have a lot of fluid and some don't seem to have as much. Not sure if some are just faster lickers than others or what. I have small towels ready to rub pups down, blunt-end scissors to cut umblical cords, if mamma does not chew it off all the way. It is best to let momma dog sever the cord, they do not bleed as much as a clean cut.

Puppies c'mon out now, please... It is really the puppies that trigger whelping, the hormones that the puppies produce to start the whelping process. So I bet Figgy and I are both thinking... let's get this show on the road... :)