Miaiden Bitch

[deeksofdoom]

Came home from work yesterday and my springer spaniel bitch was looking a bit forlorn and down in the dumps. She was in pup and her due date was this week. I brought her into the whelping box and left her there. She wasn't as on edge as I had expected and was just thrown there, she did get up and scratch a bit and was breathing heavily, rang a few friends who all said, that it sounded like she was going to go into pup that night.

I checked her at twelve and went to bed everything was fine. Got up this morning went out the back and could hear squealing from the shed. At that stage there were four pups born, 1 was dead, 2 were suckling and a fourth was what appeared to be on its way out/stuck, the bitch didn't seem to be in any distress, she barked and growled at me, but let me nearer to her. However all was not right with the fourth pup as it looked as if it was caught up on the umbilical cord, on closer inspection I was horrified to see that it wasn't caught on the cord the bitch had chewed through her vulva and the pup was strangled on the mouth of her vulva, so that was two dead.

Called the vet to come ASAP, in the mean time she had another pup, the vet arrived and got the dead pup out. She then gave the bitch an injection to bring on the rest of the births and in twenty minutes there were 2 more pups born.

I now had six live pups 3 girl and 3 boys, the vet left and said to come over to the surgery to have the bitch stitched, my friend who owned the pups father arrived afterwards, we brought the whole lot to the vet so that the bitch could get stitched up. We were admiring the pups in the vets 3 girls and 3 boys, one of the girls had a solid liver head just like her mother, I was thinking to myself that that's the bitch I'll keep for myself. I called back to the vets after lunch, unfortunately she had more bad news, the mother had accidentally crushed the little pup with the solid liver head.

 

Anyway I have 3 boys and 2 girls left they are doing fine and the mother is fine. Its her first litter, a maiden bitch as they say, it hasn't gone to plan but hopefully that's the worst of it over now.

 

[al4x]

Bad luck, my mum has a border terrier and her first litter was a nightmare, she managed while cleaning one pup to eat its leg its nature and pretty harsh,

 

Some people put a barrier round the whelping box a short way off the ground so a pup can get under it but the mum can't squash them against the side which may be worth thinking about.

[deeksofdoom]

Bad luck, my mum has a border terrier and her first litter was a nightmare, she managed while cleaning one pup to eat its leg its nature and pretty harsh,

 

Some people put a barrier round the whelping box a short way off the ground so a pup can get under it but the mum can't squash them against the side which may be worth thinking about.

 

Thanks al4x I have a barrier it was in the vets it happened, I think it got squashed, but who knows it might have been natural causes, I was gutted but on the positive side 5 pups will be easier to handle than 8.