The 2012 whelping

This brings us to our current litter in 2012. If you are looking for pictures, and information on puppies available from this litter follow this link to our available puppies page. If you have read my previous posts you know that our 2011 litter had some complications. I asked our vets in 2011 if having a C-Section would cause any problems with her welping, they said that they really couldn't say for certain as each case is different. I decided that I would breed her again, and would try to get an xray before the pups were to arrive and see if we could get a head count this time so I would know how many to expect, and see if we could determine if we were going to have troubles getting going again this time. Unfortunately when it came time to xray her the vet was having trouble with their developing chemicals and couldn't get a clear enough image due to her girth and the old chemicals that their supplier was supposed to replace earlier that week but hadn't yet. So we were still in the dark on the number of pups this time, but I was certain just from the shear size of her that we had a bigger litter in there this time than the previous one. As it came into the week she was due I planned on putting her up in her pen for close observation, and so if she started having them she wouldn't have an opportunity to spread them out across the yard.

 Sunday morning arrived and I hadn't put her up because she was not due until Wednesday, it was our wedding anniversary and Misty decided to give us an anniversary present. My wife left for work at 5:30 and there was nothing out of the ordinary occurring, but when I took our 3 month old beagle pup, Bailey, out at 6:30 I heard what sounded like 2 cats calling inside our front yard. I immediately thought it was strange that Mr.T was doing absolutely nothing about it. I brought Bailey back in the house and went out the front door to investigate, I found the source of the calling to be 2 pups under the tree in our front yard and one laying next to Misty next to our yard gate. I quickly grabbed up the two and brought them into the laundry room, which has doubled as our whelping room in the past, I got some old towels and tossed them down on the floor. I went back out and picked up the pup that was with Misty and brought it in with the others, when I did so Misty came with. At first she was not content with the whelping room so I had to work on calming her down a bit. I had my daughter, who was awoke by all the commotion, sit with her while I went out into the yard to search the yard thoroughly. After a half hour or so of sitting with her she was content to have the rest of her litter here in the house, and pushed out a very small still born black pup. I cleaned up and started making breakfast while keeping an eye on her, about an hour later she pushed out a live blue pup and cleaned it up well, she was having no trouble at all with this whelping. The vet wanted me to let them know when she started having them, but since she wasn't having problems I figured I would be nice and wait until a decent hour to call them, I left a message since it was Sunday and let them know she was doing fine and there were no problems to speak of. They called back about 15 minutes later and let me know that if she started having any problems to let them know, they are a really great vets and having that kind of support as a breeder is great peace of mind. After another hour she birthed another still born pup, this time it was a full sized blue pup, I was kind of surprised she had two still born pups, but these things aren't uncommon. I kept an eye on her all morning, and labor seemed to have stopped, and after 5 more hours and no puppies she was showing no signs of distress so I was certain she had them all out.

She was caring well for the pups now, refusing to leave them to go outside for a bathroom break. I put some food and water down for her and she still wouldn't budge from them, finally at 6 that night I dragged her out the door and stood out there with her until she did her business. After a day of not eating much and drinking very little I began to have some concern for her, but she was steadily increasing how much she was eating and drinking so I just kept trying to push the food and water. After 3 days she was back to drinking and eating like normal, and finally willingly going outside to take bathroom breaks. Thankfully this litter came with no complications.

Below is a slideshow for this litter, if you are unable to see it you may browse the album here.