Little Outlaw is here and with all the drama a girl can stand, I assure you.
Pepper's Outlaw State Of Mind
Lacey started showing me signs first thing Sunday morning that her time was coming. She was starting to nest quite aggressively. She was literally trying to dig in my tile floor, and hide under my nightstand... however the poor dear isn't exactly a 5 pound pooch so she could only fit her head under it. Truly dogs are the best for the joy they bring us. Anyways...
By Sunday night she was definitely in labor.. the panting and the digging in her actual bed had started and of course there were the vocal cues. Lacey isn't known for being reserved or quiet. She was literally barking at her contractions. Which is endearing... except at 4am when you're just trying to get 30 minutes shut eye before checking again.
We went all night like this and still no puppies, and really no progression. Lacey was still doing well. She wasn't showing any signs of distress, she was doing all the usual things dogs do (if you've had children you check off your normal list of bodily functions, its the same with dogs). She was alert and her eyes were bright so I wasn't worried yet but I was watching her closely. I've had long labors before. Pepper in fact went all night like this once, and as I was about to load her into the carrier to go to the vet, she crowned the first puppy. It was 8am, and boom... 6 puppies in 4 hours after that. However, for Lacey, that wasn't meant to be.
2pm came around and I was starting to get the feeling that something wasn't right, so I reached out to my mentor, (Shoutout to Maria Allen of Mariska's Pomeranians). We both decided to wait a bit longer, however, it was definitely worth being concerned about. My gut was telling me something wasn't right so at around 5 I loaded her up and off to the vet we went.
At this point, there really isn't anything a vet can do other than to operate. There's no magic medicine or procedure to be performed, no matter how much we as breeders wish there was. I do everything I can to avoid a c-section, but sometimes there's no choice and I'm so grateful to the vets who work with breeders to support what we do.
Once we got to the vet, things happened very quickly. He did a fast assessment, and we decided to move forward with a c-section. Being after hours, I was brought back and assisted with the puppy once it was delivered. What an experience! I'm always so worried about the Momma's during a surgery. Routine or not, things can go wrong.. and clearly something wasn't right with labor. But to be in the room while it all happened. I can't really explain the feeling of stress combined with relief at knowing she was ok all at once.
Turns out there was NO POSSIBLE way she could have delivered him on her own. He had somehow got himself wedged up in both uterine horns, and the vet had to spend a hot minute trying to disentangle the little guy. Had we not taken Lacey for a C-Section, he would have died eventually. That could have very easily led to infection for her and of course that is fatal if left too long. So, I am very grateful I listened to my gut.
Plus, we were working on the baby to get him to breathe because when he came out, were just weren't sure HE was alright. Maria worked her magic though and I learned something new. I so often do working with her. The vet called out:
"Is his heart beating?" and Maria didn't have a stethoscope so without a pause she takes the messy little beauty and holds him up to his ear and listens. We're all quiet..
"YEP!" she says and goes to work even harder to really make him mad. Now, it may seem mean but in order to really wake him up after also feeling the effects of the gas his momma is under, she had to pinch him a fair amount and pat him pretty hard - but its better than NOT breathing. We saw a gasp, so WE all gasped and start cheering this tiny little soul on!
"You can do it little guy!" and "Come on breathe, get mad!" and "Cry!"
He took our advice and once she really got him going, I took over. He definitely had a decent amount of fluid to cough up but I kept him crying till he sounded clear. Once he was clear he decided he was hungry and was trying to nurse from my fingers. Super strong little guy... unfortunately Momma wasn't awake yet so he needed to be a patient a bit longer. All that abuse and he couldn't eat yet? I'm quite sure he thought that was some serious BS.
However, seeing as though he's a singleton, he doesn't have any competition and almost every time I look over he's nursing so I think he's making up for it.
Momma was really groggy last night, but today she's doing much better. Her eyes are brighter
as the day goes on and she's taking good care of him. She finally eat sometime during the night and is drinking water. She has pain medication AND antibiotics just in case and I'm keeping a good eye on that incision. I can't tell you how grateful I am that she and her baby are ok.
Now, can you guess what I learned from that experience? I had NO IDEA you could hear a puppy heartbeat that way. From now on, I have another tool to help me when delivering tiny babies. What people so often don't realize (and why would they) is that breeders go into this job mostly blind. There's no college course. There's no trade school. There's passed on knowledge and learn by trial and error most of the time unless you're lucky enough to have a mentor who lives very close to you. The information you get online or from your vet is subjective. I say it so often but you're dealing in lives, and there's no checklist or set of rules to go by. Everything is different, every time.
Also, I love baby puppy butts with their little tiny feet in the air. He's nursing if you're wondering why he looks like that. No, she's not sitting on him or crushing him. She just has a ton of fur. Of course, being super groggy last night I was really worried that might happen plus she wasn't moving very well. People often panic when they see puppies under their mommas but Mom's know where their babies are. We don't give animals enough credit a lot of the time.
So, one more litter to go... Penny is Due July 5th. I checked her today and she feels bigger. This year has been really pretty crazy as far as predicting puppies AND pregnancies so far so I'm NOT saying she's pregnant yet. I'm hopeful though... I'm expecting my CKC ladies to go into heat next month.. they both like to tease the boys with a false heat first then the real thing several weeks later so I will keep you posted there. I know a few of you are excited about those litters.
Tell me.. do you like reading their birth story? Let me know, drop me a heart or a question/comment!
~K
Comments