Aa
concerned foster
I have a very pregnant rescue dog that I am taking care of for a rescue organization. She is a 15-20 lb terrier cross. I've felt the pups moving for the last two weeks and her milk came in a week ago. When do I get concerned that she hasn't had the pups yet? Since I don't know her exact breeding date I don't know when to expect these guys to show their furry faces. I've had experience with a planned pregnancy but not this. Since she's on the smaller side, and we aren't sure what she was bred with they were worried about the size of the pups- but with the holidays and everything I think she got lost in the shuffle. If she were mine I would have taken her in to the vet, but I just don't want to incur unnecessary vet bills on this start up rescue by being a worry wart. So when should I worry? Should I just wait it out? I have been taking her temp daily- it's hovered around 37.7, but she's really starting to hate it and I don't want to stress her out this late in the stage... what do I do???
Usually if your lucky enough to feel movement it occurs about 7-8 weeks and they are really active at 9 weeks. So I would give her another week and a half (gestation is 63 days, but smaller breeds can go a few days longer due to smaller litter and puppy size) as long as she doesn't have any symptoms of distress (other than the onset of labor). If no puppies by then or if the movement stops, then a vet visit is necessary. As much as she may hate it, you should keep watching her temp. A sudden temp drop is a sign of imminent labor.
A possible good thing is is that you CAN feel the puppies. This means they have room to move which is good since we don't know what she was bred with. Having room to move means they aren't real big as often large breed dog you rarely can feel the puppies move simply because the puppies just don't have the room because of their size.
Do you by any chance know how many puppies there are? This is a nice thing to know because it can help you know if during labor if mom is just resting or if there is a problem between puppies (like a retained puppy). A retained puppy can be life threatening to mom and also the puppy if its still alive during the labor.
Good luck and keep an eye out for puppies soon!!!
A possible good thing is is that you CAN feel the puppies. This means they have room to move which is good since we don't know what she was bred with. Having room to move means they aren't real big as often large breed dog you rarely can feel the puppies move simply because the puppies just don't have the room because of their size.
Do you by any chance know how many puppies there are? This is a nice thing to know because it can help you know if during labor if mom is just resting or if there is a problem between puppies (like a retained puppy). A retained puppy can be life threatening to mom and also the puppy if its still alive during the labor.
Good luck and keep an eye out for puppies soon!!!
COMMUNITY LEADER
She may not like it, (what dog does?!) but taking her temperature every day is a sure-fire way of knowing when she is ready to give birth. A sudden drop in temperature usually down to around 99 degrees or so (dogs' "normal" being around 101 degrees) -and you will know the birth is imminent, and will happen within a few hours.
That will give you time to prepare. If for instance you notice her temperature drop in the evening, it will alert you to staying up that night to watch her. (put the coffee on!)
Keep the vet's number and out-of-hours number -if there is one- on speed dial, just in case there is anything unusual.
That will give you time to prepare. If for instance you notice her temperature drop in the evening, it will alert you to staying up that night to watch her. (put the coffee on!)
Keep the vet's number and out-of-hours number -if there is one- on speed dial, just in case there is anything unusual.
Here is a informative post from one of our members (Ghilly).....I've copied it for you......Maybe this will help......Karla
Usually when the temperature drops down below 100 the whelping is within 24 hours, so I would be on the lookout from here on in.
I don't know whether or not you have whelped any other litters, but assuming you haven't here is a list of things you should have at the ready:
LOTS AND LOTS of clean towels
heating pad
heat lamp
hemostats
dull scissors
suction bulb
baby scale with a shoebox affixed to it
lots and lots of newspaper
trash bag
a book or magazines
notebook and pen or pencil
You will see her start to have contractions. These contractions can go on for a few hours before you actually see a puppy born. When the puppy comes out, take him and the placenta. Clamp off the umbilical cord with the hemostats and then cut through it with the dull scissors. You want to be sure to cut BELOW where you clamped it off because otherwise you defeat the purpose for clamping it in the first place, which is to prevent excess bleeding. The scissors being dull will serve to close off the end of the umbilical cord as you cut. Sharp scissors leave too clean of an edge and the cord won't stop bleeding as easily. Dull scissors more or less mimic the action of the mother chewing the cord.
Put the puppy in a clean towel and RUB. RUB RUB RUB! You aren't going to hurt the puppy and after a couple of seconds of rubbing you'll hear the puppy squeal. This is good! You want the puppy to squeal to get lots of air into its lungs. This also helps to close the patent ductus in the heart. The squealing is important. Hold the puppy's side up to your ear and give a listen. If you hear anything gurgling or squishing you may need to swing him to get the liquid out of his lungs. To swing him, grasp him firmly in both hands, stabilizing his head between your thumbs and forefingers so that his head can't move. Hold him, nose out, raise your arms up over your head and swing them down in a wide arc. When you reach the bottom of the arc, stop abruptly. If there is any water in the puppy's lungs you will actually see the little droplets of water fly out of his nose when you stop the swing. You can also Google "swinging a puppy" to see diagrams on how to correctly hold them to do this.
After everything is done, the umbilical cord is cut, the puppy is toweled and any swinging has taken place, put the puppy with his mother so that he can nurse. Nursing not only feeds the puppy the necessary colostrum but also stimulates contractions to help the mother push out the other puppies. There can be anywhere from 10 minutes up to almost an hour in between puppies, so don't panic if another puppy isn't right on the heels of the first one. When the contractions start again, remove the nursing puppies from the mother and put them in a separate box that has a heating pad on the bottom on a low setting. Cover the heating pad with a towel so that the puppies are not directly on the pad. Have part of the bottom of the box without the heating pad so that if it gets too warm for any of the babies they can move away from the heat onto a cooler part of the box.
The dog's uterus is made up of two "horns". Each horn contains puppies. The first part of the whelping empties out the first horn. The mom then rests for a while, sometimes up to about 2 hours, and then the process begins again so that she can empty out the second horn. Make sure that each puppy has a placenta to go with it. Sometimes they come out of the placenta inside the mother, so if you end up with six puppies, make sure you can account for six placentae, otherwise there may be one left inside her. It would be a good idea to take her to the vet within a couple of hours of the final puppy because the vet can give her a shot of oxytocin to bring on some strong contractions to clean out the uterus, especially if there is a retained placenta.
As far as the mom eating the placentae, you can let her eat one just because that's what nature tells them they should do, but in general she'll probably recover more quickly from the whelping if you simply throw them in the trash after you cut them from the puppies. Oftentimes there is such a glut of nutrients in the placentae that, even though it sounds like it would be real good for her to eat them, dietetically it throws them into a tailspin and they may develop diarrhea for a few days, which is really difficult for the pet owners to keep up with since they can't always get them outside quickly enough with the puppies nursing from them.
Weigh each baby and write down the time of birth, what the puppy weighed and whether it was a male or female. As the days go on, you should weigh each puppy twice a day to make sure they are steadily gaining weight. An ounce a day or more is a good gain. If there are any exceptionally tiny puppies you need to ask your vet to show you how to tube feed them to supplement them. It's VERY easy to do and it's much more accurate than bottle feeding them in terms of the puppies getting the extra nutrients they need. When you bottle feed them you depend on their ability to nurse and if they are too weak to nurse adequately on the mother chances are they will be too weak to nurse much better on the bottle. If you tube feed them, you can give each puppy exactly what he needs and he gets ALL of it because you're putting it directly into his stomach.
The book and magazines are to keep you from going crackers as you wait for the puppies! :D PLEASE post pictures after the babies arrive! I would LOVE to see them!
Ghilly
Usually when the temperature drops down below 100 the whelping is within 24 hours, so I would be on the lookout from here on in.
I don't know whether or not you have whelped any other litters, but assuming you haven't here is a list of things you should have at the ready:
LOTS AND LOTS of clean towels
heating pad
heat lamp
hemostats
dull scissors
suction bulb
baby scale with a shoebox affixed to it
lots and lots of newspaper
trash bag
a book or magazines
notebook and pen or pencil
You will see her start to have contractions. These contractions can go on for a few hours before you actually see a puppy born. When the puppy comes out, take him and the placenta. Clamp off the umbilical cord with the hemostats and then cut through it with the dull scissors. You want to be sure to cut BELOW where you clamped it off because otherwise you defeat the purpose for clamping it in the first place, which is to prevent excess bleeding. The scissors being dull will serve to close off the end of the umbilical cord as you cut. Sharp scissors leave too clean of an edge and the cord won't stop bleeding as easily. Dull scissors more or less mimic the action of the mother chewing the cord.
Put the puppy in a clean towel and RUB. RUB RUB RUB! You aren't going to hurt the puppy and after a couple of seconds of rubbing you'll hear the puppy squeal. This is good! You want the puppy to squeal to get lots of air into its lungs. This also helps to close the patent ductus in the heart. The squealing is important. Hold the puppy's side up to your ear and give a listen. If you hear anything gurgling or squishing you may need to swing him to get the liquid out of his lungs. To swing him, grasp him firmly in both hands, stabilizing his head between your thumbs and forefingers so that his head can't move. Hold him, nose out, raise your arms up over your head and swing them down in a wide arc. When you reach the bottom of the arc, stop abruptly. If there is any water in the puppy's lungs you will actually see the little droplets of water fly out of his nose when you stop the swing. You can also Google "swinging a puppy" to see diagrams on how to correctly hold them to do this.
After everything is done, the umbilical cord is cut, the puppy is toweled and any swinging has taken place, put the puppy with his mother so that he can nurse. Nursing not only feeds the puppy the necessary colostrum but also stimulates contractions to help the mother push out the other puppies. There can be anywhere from 10 minutes up to almost an hour in between puppies, so don't panic if another puppy isn't right on the heels of the first one. When the contractions start again, remove the nursing puppies from the mother and put them in a separate box that has a heating pad on the bottom on a low setting. Cover the heating pad with a towel so that the puppies are not directly on the pad. Have part of the bottom of the box without the heating pad so that if it gets too warm for any of the babies they can move away from the heat onto a cooler part of the box.
The dog's uterus is made up of two "horns". Each horn contains puppies. The first part of the whelping empties out the first horn. The mom then rests for a while, sometimes up to about 2 hours, and then the process begins again so that she can empty out the second horn. Make sure that each puppy has a placenta to go with it. Sometimes they come out of the placenta inside the mother, so if you end up with six puppies, make sure you can account for six placentae, otherwise there may be one left inside her. It would be a good idea to take her to the vet within a couple of hours of the final puppy because the vet can give her a shot of oxytocin to bring on some strong contractions to clean out the uterus, especially if there is a retained placenta.
As far as the mom eating the placentae, you can let her eat one just because that's what nature tells them they should do, but in general she'll probably recover more quickly from the whelping if you simply throw them in the trash after you cut them from the puppies. Oftentimes there is such a glut of nutrients in the placentae that, even though it sounds like it would be real good for her to eat them, dietetically it throws them into a tailspin and they may develop diarrhea for a few days, which is really difficult for the pet owners to keep up with since they can't always get them outside quickly enough with the puppies nursing from them.
Weigh each baby and write down the time of birth, what the puppy weighed and whether it was a male or female. As the days go on, you should weigh each puppy twice a day to make sure they are steadily gaining weight. An ounce a day or more is a good gain. If there are any exceptionally tiny puppies you need to ask your vet to show you how to tube feed them to supplement them. It's VERY easy to do and it's much more accurate than bottle feeding them in terms of the puppies getting the extra nutrients they need. When you bottle feed them you depend on their ability to nurse and if they are too weak to nurse adequately on the mother chances are they will be too weak to nurse much better on the bottle. If you tube feed them, you can give each puppy exactly what he needs and he gets ALL of it because you're putting it directly into his stomach.
The book and magazines are to keep you from going crackers as you wait for the puppies! :D PLEASE post pictures after the babies arrive! I would LOVE to see them!
Ghilly
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