10th hour, 11th pup
After sitting by Siege's side for what seemed like days, Siege finally put her first pup on the ground at 6:55 PM (Apr 3). This is her first litter, so it naturally spooked her quite a bit. She jumped up and spun in circles. At one point, I even had to keep her from jumping out of her whelping box. Once that pup was on the ground, it was smooth sailing. Her natural instincts kicked in, and she required no help for the next 3 puppies. Those 3 puppies came by about 8:20 PM, in the order of male, female, male.
At that point, she spent the next hour or so tending to those pups. We got them their colostrum (first milk) and everything was going smoothly. Pup number 5 didn't show up until about 9:40 PM with numbers 6 and 7 following shortly behind it. She dropped number 8 around midnight, and I knew from the x-ray that we had at least 10. I waited cautiously for the next couple of hours. She began nursing and cleaning the other pups as if she was finished. I knew this couldn't be right and started to worry a bit. She had her pups settled and she was resting when I decided to take her outside to do her business. She squatted as if she was going to go #2, but instead out popped puppy #9 in the grass. I scooped it up and we ran back in the house and tended to it. He is going to be the runt of this litter, but he is doing very well today.
I was hesitant to call it quits after the 2 hr delay between pups 8 and 9, so I sat with her a bit longer. She was showing signs of contractions. I felt like more pups were moving into the birth canal. She also was vigorously licking herself. I again began to worry that maybe she had was developing complications due to fatigue (we were at hour 9 by this point). I 'feathered' her (put a finger in her vulva) and thought maybe I could feel a head in the birth canal. I decided to take her outside and walk her around for a bit to maybe help the process along. I then planned on putting the puppies back on her to nurse (sometimes this helps with contractions), and if she didn't produce a pup was going to head the AU Vet Clinic. I got the pups back on to nurse, and not long after Siege popped up and pushed out puppy #10 around 3:50 AM. She was pretty tired at this point, so this was the first pup that I had to help her stimulate. Not even 4 minutes later, puppy #11 joined us. I helped clean this one as well and watched over her until about 7AM before taking her to walk around outside.
Siege and pups are doing well today. I just brought Siege in from a walk around the horse pasture and even tossed her a couple of short fun bumpers --- she loved it. We will be heading to the vet, most likely tomorrow, to have dewclaws removed and an initial examination by the vet.
The first four pups getting their colostrum
Siege taking a nap while pups nurse
Siege snacked a little this morning
I have set up a UStream Channel and will broadcast the pups periodically for feeding sessions and such. You can access that here: http://ustre.am/bZE5
7 males
4 females
(i will have individual pictures up soon)
I am accepting $200.00 deposits on this litter. The deposit will reserve your pick and picks disseminated in the order deposits are received. Please contact me at wareagle044@gmail.com for more information or to place a deposit.
**Also remember to read the old blog posts for more information, videos, and pictures and continue to follow for more of the same.
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