Oh Yeah, You Blend

Nina’s temperature is down to 98.5. Assuming she’s read the books, labor should start within 24 hours.

It was watching the water polo that did it.

…temp is still normal this morning BUT, she slept suspiciously well last night (many breeders say that their girls sleep very soundly the night before they whelp), she refused her breakfast (ate three Zuke’s, and spat out the last one), and has been digging more than usual in the whelping box.

That’s no moon….

…that’s a space station!

Nina and Rakki, August 4, 2012

Further bulletins as events warrant!

…consisted of scrambled egg, a handful of Zuke’s Mini Bakes (she is REALLY craving those just now), and a few tablespoons of hand-fed canned food. Not exactly a balanced diet, but she needs the calories, the puppies have grown noticeably in the last few days.

Temperatures are still normal, but we are getting very close now!

There is one puppy on Nina’s left side who is already something of a firecracker. Nina was lying on the couch beside me tonight watching the Olympics (she is cheering for team Great Britain just now, since Tempest the babydaddy is English), and I was stroking her tummy (hard to pat any other part of her just now, since she is 96% tum), one puppy in there was very energetically poking different parts out under my hand, and almost seemed like it was trying to get a good scratch all over! This stage is pretty cool, since you actually feel like you can pat them, and they are SO active poor Nina’s sides get pointy now and then. I don’t think Nina likes the left-side spitfire puppy just now, since he or she is jabbing her in the side all the time, but I already love him or her! Any day now!

Puppies are moving! They were visibly moving around in there this morning, and it looks like they are starting to move down and back toward the exit!

Nina has officially reached Ninapotamus level of huge.

Pictures courtesy of Jim.

So I had a few minutes of mild panic this morning, thinking Nina’s temperature had dropped (they usually have a significant drop in body temperature within 24 hours of labor)…but as it turned out, I was taking poop temperature instead of Nina temperature, since I assumed she’d pooped, and in fact she hadn’t!

There is one towel in the whelping box which is apparently sub par. Right now the whelping box is full of towels for her to nest and dig around in. But there is one towel which is exiled from the box every morning. The first couple of times I assumed she’d just been enthusiastic with her digging, but no….the other morning this towel was dragged all the way into the bathroom, it is a bad and evil towel. They were all laundered together, and it is exactly the same make as most of the others, but…what do I know?

She is surprisingly still eating quite well, we need to doctor it up with canned food or scrambled eggs or baby food, but she is still eating. She is large, and the puppies are moving around, this morning you could SEE them moving, like little chestbursters…just a few days to go now!

Well, 63 days plus or minus a day means a week or less to go!

Nina’s eating slowed down today, she finished her breakfast but picked at her lunch.

Nina, July 29, 2012, looking lumpy!

Nina, July 29, 2012

Nina wasn’t overly enthusiastic about food today, for the first time (she has been eating well, if slowly). She did eat her breakfast and two small lunches. She wasn’t too excited about dinner, until she got some chicken in with it…then she ate the chicken, but left the rest. And then an hour or so later, she demanded more food, I just fed her a scrambled egg in with the rest of her dinner, and she cleaned her bowl. Much smaller meals now, she has no room, she is big! And the puppies are really kicking now, you can even see them sometimes, a bit will be poking out her side, and then move, definitely xenomorphs. She is checking her whelping box fairly regularly now, checking that it’s there and everything is in order. She was definitely waddling on her walk yesterday, she is normally such a beautiful mover, but the GIANT TUM gets in the way now. She also can officially no longer reach her ears to scratch as of last night (since she carries her puppies way out to the sides, like saddle bags), fortunately she has dedicated servants like Jim to help keep her ears well-scratched. She is mostly still quite content to be the queen, but she is getting a bit uncomfortable when the puppies are running around doing agility in there! I remind myself that dogs survive all the time in quite horrible conditions, and manage to have reasonably healthy litters…who scratches their ears for them? Who makes them scrambled eggs? Nina prefers to sleep on the floor now, I think it is easier for her to get comfortable on the carpet or tile than on a cushy surface.

Myra Savant Harris‘s new book, “Advanced Canine Reproduction and Puppy Care” arrived Wednesday, and I read it in one sitting. I love her books, they make me feel like I am prepared. She talks a lot about c-sections in this new one, about how so many breeders (and vets) rush to section dogs when they may well not need it. Her rule is that if the bitch isn’t distressed, we shouldn’t be either, and that there is such a thing as “the whelping pause”, which happens with a great many bitches, where they may take a break, sometimes a looooong break, between puppies. This is normal, she is recuperating, and if she isn’t distressed, we shouldn’t worry! There is no need for her to have a puppy every hour, they will come when they come. A c-section should be a last resort in most cases (certainly some dogs do need them!), but since the maternal death rate from c-sections in dogs is around 1%, that is frankly terrifying (although it does seem likely that some percentage of that 1% are dogs who are poor surgical candidates, dogs with pre-existing issues, etc.).  She also says to leave them well enough alone, to resist the temptation to help with every little thing. I will hold the cord when she is biting it, since that can prevent injury to the puppies, but I will try very hard to sit on my hands and just let Nina do her mother dog work, I felt like I needed to open the sacs and everything last time, but she was such a good mother, I will try to just be there if needed this time.

Just over a week to go! My last batch of supplies arrived, I have my DeLee suction catheters now. This weekend we will buy beef liver (to make liver water for any puppies slow to get going), vanilla ice cream (for Nina), and make sure we are well stocked with coffee!

Nina – July 23, 2012

She is officially Queen Enormula now (the last stage before Ninappotamus, the Ninappotamus pic was taken the morning before the puppies were born last time). The puppies are KICKING now, poor Nina will look around at her sides sometimes like “seriously…quit it!”, you can feel them quite easily. Nina is still eating well, four times a day now, since she has less and less room. She is still very demanding about food, which is good. She eats slowly but steadily, in the puppy room behind the baby gate so she can take her time. She is eating Fromm Four Star, since it’s lower in calcium but still very high quality food, she gets the Surf and Turf, Salmon a la Veg and Beef Frittata. Plus, they all share a sweet potato every day (they LOVE it, except for having to wait for it to cool down enough to eat), for the extra fiber and vitamins. She still seems quite comfortable. I placed the order for the last stuff on my list yesterday. This weekend I will make sure I have enough coffee for me and some all-natural vanilla ice cream for Nina (they need calcium once they start whelping, and a spoonful of ice cream between each puppy, plus some Oral Cal Plus, seems to do the trick…a nice cooling treat plus some sugar and calcium), and then we will hopefully be ready.

We’ll draw blood again this week for one more quick progesterone check, and then we wait…

…progesterone, I mean. No worries on that front, she was 11 ng/mL yesterday, which is more than high enough. Dr. Hutchison emailed and said to do a spot check middle of next week, but at this point it looks like I am just a nervous Nellie!

Tomorrow Nina will get some delicious Pyrantel dewormer (it’s sweet, they usually love it)…because her official due date is just TWO WEEKS from tomorrow! It’s a good idea to deworm a preggo two weeks out to minimize any parasite load on the puppies – worms have ways to hide from dewormers (called “encysting”…gross), and even moms who have proper heartworm prevention year-round (most heartworm preventatives also kill at least some intestinal parasites), like Nina, can still sometimes pass those nasty Ninja-like worms along to their puppies.

The pet pads from ODC are in the wash (they are recycled and sanitized human hospital incontinence pads, plus the company that sells them employs adults with disabilities, so good for the environment, and more generally good) to freshen them up. Jim has cut the wood for the Kate Original whelping box (we needed a replacement for the slide-out panel), and it can be two different heights now, lower for when the puppies are small (and Nina has a lot of undercarriage), higher for when the puppies are bigger. It just needs sanding and treating with butcher block finish (food safe). This weekend I am cramming in one day of AKC agility at Double Q with Tish tomorrow, and Sunday in Toronto to see my mum and sister, because I don’t want to go too far away after this weekend…getting too close to deliverin’ time!

They all shared a giant sweet potato mixed into their dinners today. They LOVED it. Nina will get some extras like scrambled eggs, too. She is very happy and very large.