Nina Says…
…this eating like a Hobbit thing is pretty good! Breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses…the puppies are really starting to grow, and smaller meals on a more frequent basis seem to be the order of the day now.
She is BIG! She has gained just under a pound since Monday (she was 24 pounds today). While I AM planning to let her get a bit plush while she is still eating well (since she ate almost nothing in the last week and a half last time and was leaner than I was happy with by the time she whelped), I don’t want her to get too fat, or she will have a harder time whelping. So we’ll monitor things. The puppies are just entering the stage where they do most of their growing (the last two weeks), and Nina is still fairly lean, so I think most of that weight is puppy.
It finally cooled off here today, so I walked Nina and Tish to work with me to draw blood for another progesterone test. She was THRILLED to go for a walk (it’s been WAY too hot for more than a quick zip around the small block), although her usual beautiful, floating, effortless gait was actually more of a somewhat ungainly waddle some of the time…Stephanie at work (the head tech who helped with whelping last time, and who volunteered to help again this time, AND who gave up some of her Saturday more than once to come in and draw blood for the nine zillion progesterone tests while we were waiting for ovulation…Stephanie helped so much!)…anyway, Stephanie at work hasn’t seen Nina in a couple of weeks, and she was amazed at how big she is, she says Nina will need to wear a bra soon!
Renee at Dr. Hutchison’s clinic sent me the supplemental progesterone overnight so that we will have it if we need it. I hope the fact that I have it means I won’t need it! We will see what today’s results are. I really do think the nesting is just her being an experienced mother, but given the awful luck some of my fellow breeders have had with tragic losses of litters due to inadequate progesterone…I’d rather be prepared! She isn’t nesting any more than she was, just goes in and putters around in the whelping box and moves the bedding around for a few seconds now and then. I think she’s just making sure things will be ready when she is. Her eating is quite leisurely now, she is still eating very well, but takes her time (she is eating in the puppy room behind the baby gate now, so she has her own dining room and doesn’t feel rushed, the other dogs keep her company and eat on their own side of the gate when it’s their mealtime too, or look at me with big sad SPCA commercial eyes when it’s one of the Nina-only Hobbit mealtimes).
Two weeks from this Saturday is the official whelping date, we’ll see what Nina has to say about that!