They're here! Rosi's Perfect Double

Just coming out of going 24 hours with no sleep, functioning again now!

Rosi's puppies are here!!! So exciting. Their birth was rather TOO exciting.

I had put her on 24 hour watch from Monday, with the pups being due anywhere between weds-fri nights. I took her temp on Weds night at about 10:30 and was happy it was 36.4 which indicated stage 1 labour but not likely to go into stage 2 that night (the temp has to go upto 37.8 for stage 2 to commence). She was bright and happy thurs morning, but as the day progressed she became increasingly restless. Thurs afternoon she jumped up on the bed and lay down beside me and a few mins later I felt a contraction, fairly rapidly followed by another. The labour process had started! I put her in her whelping box and she had contractions at fairly regular intervals. I became concerned when, 45 mins later, there was still no signs of a pup. I rang my repro vet at Applecross and was told to bring her in. Eventually she was seen at 6:30 and she had her ketone levels tested (none) plus an ultrasound that showed the fetal HRs were still 170 which is normal. I was told to take her home, but to drop off a progesterone level at SJOG hospital on the way back to get them to run it  urgently, as if it was less than 6nmol  the pregnancy was not maintainable. 1 hour later I got the call, prog 2.8nmol. Was told to bring her back in for a probable C-Section. On the freeway driving back into the vets (20mins away in no traffic) she started having contractions! And then proceeded to deliver (sitting up) the 1st puppy. I YELLED at Mike to stop the car and come and grab Rosi, as she was sitting on the puppy and I couldn't get her out! He pulled into the emergency lane and hauled Rosi off the pup. I broke open the placenta and started rubbing her dry (assisted by Rosi who VERY much wanted to eat the placenta!) Her heart was beating but she wasn't breathing very well, just gasping intermittently. I kept working on her and told Mike to get us -fast- to Applecross. Once there she had some assistance from the vet, was put in an oxgygen box and given some dopram sublingually as well as fluids s/c. She picked up well, and we were told to go home as there was no reason she couldn't give birth to the remaining pups.

Rosi was in a big hurry to get out of there, and on the way home (thankfully before we reached the freeway this time) I had to yell 'stop the car!' again as the next pup made his appearance! Thankfully he slithered out with no problems and was looking for a feed straight away. 

Pup no. 3 waited until we got home until he made an appearance and was also very uncomplicated. There was quite a long gap before pup 4 and she came out breech. She was also a bit flat at birth and I had to work on her for awhile. She started nursing eventually though. 

At this stage I was still expecting 6 pups, as diagnosed by ultrasound. It was a long time before the 5th one was delievered, and she really struggled to give birth to him. I encouraged her to go for a brisk trot, and eventually she managed to give birth to him in the garden. I rushed him inside but sadly he was blue, had no breathing or HR and did not make it. He was sadly buried in the garden. He was MUCH bigger than the others, by 50grams. 

So by now it was 4am and I am still waiting for 1 more pup. Rosi seemed quite settled, the 4 pups were nursing well, but she was panting quite a bit. I watched her for another 2 hours and she had absolutely no contractions at all. Decided to take her into work for 7 and xrayed her abdo- nope, no more pups to be seen. Maybe the 6th was reabsorbed.. 

So, let me introduce the most beautiful little babies!

1st born- girl- rough coat black and white. Feisty and sassy! 

2nd born-boy-smooth coat black and white. Determined and focussed

3rd born- boy- tri colour smooth coat. Fast moving, quite the dude.

4th born- girl- black and white smooth coat. Sweet and ditsy!