Not that today’s storms are out of the norm for this summer’s weather patterns but it was basically dark and dreary all day with thunder boomers and close striking lightening all afternoon. I don’t know if that is exactly what jump-started the labor but I can tell you that Treasure along with all of the dogs in our house were a bit tense for hours. I brought our soon to be first time mommy up in the whelping room this evening around 5 pm and by 11 pm we were all done! An eventful but easy delivery resulting with two boys – One that didn’t make it!
It all started around 5:30 pm with the first signs of pushing (preceded by panting, pacing, licking and contractions.) I heard what sounded like the first water sack being broken within minutes and assumed we would see a puppy sack soon. The room was fairly dark so I was going mostly by sound so when I heard a second gush of water, at 6 pm, I was a bit bewildered. I reached down and didn’t feel anything in the birth canal so back to waiting I went as the hard pushing started. 52 minutes later, she pushed out her first puppy, breech presentation (not that uncommon in dogs) but he had no sack. I quickly picked him up and noticed that he was not breathing and very cold to the touch. After working on him for close to 40 minutes, there was no bringing him back – A beautiful chocolate sabled boy that weighed in at 4.75 ounces. I was bewildered enough to turn on the light and watch Treasure’s every move as she proceed to push out her second puppy.
In a mere 30 minutes from start to finish, her second boy arrived and with his birth, I got to note all that most likely happened with the first puppy. While the puppy was while in the birth canal, she chewed open the sack. This pup had a normal presentation, with the head first, and again was born with the sack completely off. She chewed the sack off completely and pulled the puppy out by the placenta. I have to attribute it all to inexperienced mommy because as soon as he was out, cleaned off and nursing, her instincts kicked into gear perfectly.
Her chocolate wonder weighed in at 4 1/8 ozs but with the amount of attention his mommy is giving him, I see a porker in our future! And I also see that is with be a chocolate and cream, with just a smudge of white on his chest. I cant wait to see how this little boy matures.