Well, it's been a pretty hard night as well as through the day yesterday. Shadow started labour before 3am on Tuesday 6 April and finished at 4.25am on Wednesday 7 April. However, yesterday was a nightmare of waiting. Plenty of panting and puffing but no pushing. It was 8pm when she started to push one out and 10pm before it actually came. It hasn't been an easy whelping because the first two pups were back feet first and upside down - very hard to get out. It was with much relief and gratitude that my friend Sandy was here and she was the one to get those two out. Then, after the second one I took Shadow outside where she promptly dropped the next puppy almost before I could get to her. I couldn't believe it. I didn't have anything to wipe it down with and could hardly see. Remember this was at midnight. We were too far away from the house (right down the end of the garden) for me to get any help, so it was lucky it did come out easily. I had to dash back to the house and bang on the door to be let in. Then we had 3 more puppies by which time it was 2am. The next one born was only half an hour later but was dead at birth and although we tried for about 20 minutes, we could not revive her. Finally the last one arrived at 4.25am but again this one looked dead. Sandy worked on her for a few minutes but then handed her to me because she thought she was a gonner. I rubbed and rubbed and swung her about a bit and suddenly after about 5 or so minutes there was a little vibration and noise in my hands. She was alive. It took quite a bit to get her through as she was pretty flat for a while but she has survived and is the final of Shadow's litter. So there are 7 puppies - 4 males and 3 females. Shadow was absolutely stressed when the first three puppies were born. The first one was born in the lounge and we made a mess of the carpet and bedding getting her back to the room she was supposed to be in. The second one was born out of the whelping box and in absolute chaos and bedlam because she didn't seem to want to be near the pup that she had already whelped. The third one was born outside in a mad rush. But after that she began to calm down and laid still for a while. However, she is stressed when they squeak and almost seems to want to run away from them when they make a noise. Hopefully she'll get used to that noise. I'm going to bed now!     |
News >