Oh Yeah, You Blend

Everyone did well overnight, Nina stayed in with them the whole night (her choice, she can jump in and out as she likes), I got up to offer her water and food a few times. I think she likes this whelping box (thanks Kate!) better, it gives her much more room. The babies are in a bumper crate pad inside the box, so they all stay in one spot and Nina can be comfy.

Aniston the troublemaker maintained his birth weight (they commonly lose weight the first 24 hours, then gain).

Everyone else lost a bit, the stub tailed girl lost the most, I will make sure she gets some uninterrupted feeding time today.

I do keep in mind that the birth weights are not necessarily all that accurate, since Jim weighs them at a convenient time for Nina (like when she is delivering another puppy). I always try to get them nursing a bit immediately after being born, so some puppies have eaten more than others when they get around to being weighed, plus some are still wet, others are completely dry, etc. It’s more a guideline and the overall pattern is more important. I will weigh everyone again tonight (I try to weigh twice a day for the first week).

Nina played fetch outside today! It is lovely and cool and I am sure it feels great to be able to run again! Once I dragged her away from the puppies so she could relieve herself outside, she suddenly remembered that she can RUN!

She is eating well, drinking a lot (she needs to drink as much as possible, since she is lactating), and enjoying her extras like mother’s pudding (vanilla pudding made with goats milk and eggs), yoghurt, ice cream and puppy milk replacer (she loves it and it’s very easy on the stomach). She has the usual post-whelping diarrhea but seems to be feeling pretty good.

I cannot express how grateful I am that Stephanie was here with me yesterday to help. It would have been much harder and so much more frightening without her. Having an experienced tech here to help assess how we thought Nina was doing, and help me decide when to intervene, who doesn’t panic…that made all the difference. Thank you Stephanie! And thank you to Alex, who set up the OR at work for a c-section just in case, and thereby helped to ward off the gremlins! And to Dr. Stein, who was ready to jump in and help if Nina needed him. And to Renee and Caroline, for all their support. I am very lucky to work with such a great bunch of skilled professionals and all-around awesome people! Also Jim, of course, the official record keeper, puppy weigher, iced tea bringer, and awesome husband. Here ends my Oscar acceptance speech.

This entry was posted on Monday, August 6th, 2012 at 12:30 PM and is filed under 2012 litter, breeding, dogs, Nina, puppies, vallhunds. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.