Pups 6/3/09

These are the pics taken last week ... I promise to update this weekend with others. These were taken on Wed/Thursday afternoon this week -- June 3-4. The pups are 2 weeks old in these shots. Eyes are open, ears are open and they are amazingly fast.

To the left -- James after changin bedding. The pups are in love with their people. They snuggle and nuzzle and love on us. When they are running loose while their bedding is changed they are known to waddle over and start sucking on my toes ... weird feeling!

To the right -- Joy snuggled up with a puppy and fell asleep one afternoon this week. This is purple boy and Joy snoozing.

Left -- Orange boy taking a nap on James' arm. Jacob and I usually feed the puppies while James and Joy wash them down, change bedding and hand us puppies -- oh and play with them! Ever single puppy gets loves every time they are fed. Watch out -- if you are getting a puppy be prepared for a baby who is certain that people should pay attention to it!

To the right -- everyone is fed, fat and sassy. The weather was warm this week and the pups are getting older and better able to regulate their temps so they are relaxed and practicing their best on their back skills.

To the left -- burgandy girl snoozing. We have assigned a ribbon color to everyone. Their next size puppy collars may or may not match all their ribbon colors -- but they will retain their original names just to keep track of who we like. This girl's face reminds me of her mother. We are going to attempt to get the photos off the dead computer this weekend and I will post a couple of shots of Essie as a baby for people to enjoy.

Pups 5/31/09 12

Green Boy practices Yoga!

Chilaxin!

Can you find 12?

Pups 5/29/09

Purple

)

Gold (right)

White (Right)

Pink (Far Right) Orange (below)

Blue (right)
Baby ?? (Below)

Green (right)

Puppy nannies in training. Joy and Julia loving on the babies day 3

Essie with babies ... day 3

Two weeks!

It is hard to believe the pups are two weeks old already. At birth they weighed between 13 ounces (pink girl) and 1 lb 8 oz (green boy). As of yesterday they weighed between 2lb 3 oz and 3lb 3oz. Their eyes are all open. They are trying to walk, have little barky sounds, and are always in search of food!

Essie is doing well. I need to post a pic of her as she is SO thin after those babies it is hard to believe she was that large.

The basic descriptions of the pups at this time are:

Green Boy: Biggest puppy, very bully face. I am in love with him and wonder what he will move like when he gets going

Blue Boy: Also a bigger pup with a similar headpiece.

Orange & Red boys: Very similar to Green and blue, but perhaps just a touch more moderate in their bone/size. Both nice heads, Red may have a few less wrinkles on his muzzle but still strong head expression

Purple boy: Smallest pup right now but that does not mean much. He has a very cute mug. I got a couple of nice shots of him that will be up soon.

Black Boy: This puppy looks like his dad with a bit more headpiece. I can hardly wait to see if he is a Decker clone at 5-6 weeks of age. Very athletic boy.

Tan Boy: This boy is a big boy, very muscular even as a wee puppy. His body reminds me of his Great-Grampa Noble -- which makes sense based on the fact that the breeding was heavily line bred on the two dogs who produced Noble.

White Girl : She was the first born and came out screaming as we ripped of the sac. She is a substantial girl and looks like she will have a very pretty head.

Burgandy girl: She looks like an Essie clone in the face. She is also a bigger pup -- burgandy, white and pink are not delicate or refined in any way! Again, dying to see her walk.

Pink Girl : Again, three beautiful heads in a row and I am dying to see these girls in a few weeks. Substantial, beefy girls.

Gold Girl: Very dark pigment and the cutest little face. At birth she had a muzzle as wide as her head and short. She may not have a ton of wrinkle -- cant tell but she is a compact, hard bodied solid girl. She reminds me of her dad.

Hot Pink Girl: She is the tiny girl and she is a pistol! She is athletic and very fast! She looks more like her dad than mom in body but looks like she will have a darling little mug face.

Pics forthcoming ... but those are what I know for now!

Puppies! May 18, 2009 - June 1, 2009

I am starting this blog while in the middle of raising 12 lovely puppies born May 18. Ideally, I would like to be able to have families and those interested follow along through the process of raising a litter. Many people think breeding is a piece of cake -- not so much!

Before the pups were born I spend 3 days with a mother that was really struggling. Her ultrasound showed 7 pups without seeing in the rib cage area. She was truly huge as you can see. The weather was hot and she was so full of babies she was unable to really breath and spent the weekend panting and sitting up trying to get those babies out of her lung area. The pups were due on Tuesday May 19th but it was clear we were not going to make it that far. I wanted to make it until at least Sunday and Monday was preferred. When Monday morning arrived and the pups were still safe inside mama, we headed out to the vet early for a c-section. With Essie's size it was doubtful her uterous would even contract and I have heard too many horror stories of letting a bitch attempt labor and mean while losing puppies. I would rather do surgery and leave with healthy living babies.

Monday May 18, 2009

I only have like 5 seconds cause ... well...

12 pups vis c-section early this morning. Mama is doing well but is not sure why I want her to lay there and let the creatures climb on her. Pups are thriving. 5 girls, 7 boys -- several with very dark overlay and masking.

Will get pics and such later -- just trying to get everyone settled and warm for now.

Joy, my Mom and Sandi W. were gracious enough to help us. The vet was really amazing -- fast, effective and careful. The pups came around easily and the first girl born was screaming before we even got the sack off. Here is one picture I managed to take.

Tuesday - Thursday May 19-21

Pups either stayed home to nurse on Essie with Mom puppy nannying or came to work with me in a home made incubator basket. Thursday afternoon I took one pup in to the vet for a umbilical issue and also got a couple of shots for Essie to try to bring in her milk which was non-existent.

E-mail from 5/21/09

Good Morning!

This is just a note to bring you up to speed on puppy news. So far all pups are doing well. I will not count my chickens quite yet -- it is not uncommon to lose a puppy in the first few weeks. However, at this time the whole crew appears to be eating well and thriving. I can only hope that remains true.

Mama is doing well. She is allowing the pups to nurse but really does not have a clue what her role is supposed to be. I am still hopeful she will come around and "mother" them but at this point she seems to think they are cute but "whatever". :) It is hard on moms to go to sleep and wake up to 12 alien squeaking things.

We are developing a system for feeding and care for this large group. They are arranged in 3 baskets. We use a laundry basket with a specially designed heating pad and then covered as an incubator. Pups can not regulate their temps for the first few weeks so have to keep their surroundings at 94 degrees. We are placing pups on mom 2 out of 3 feedings and then topping them off with goats milk formula the rest of the time. It takes about an hour to feed them and they eat ever 2-3 hours so by the time we finish with a feeding there is enough time to put in a load of puppy laundry, make some more formula, drink a soda and then start again.

I stayed home Mon/Tues. The rest of this week I am feeding before I leave. Two groups are staying home and my mom is serving as nanny during the day -- getting them nursed and topped off with the bottle, etc. One group will go with me to work each day and be hand fed.

Right now Essie is still trying to figure out nursing and such. She is just not sure about it!

Friday May 22

Pups stayed home with the nanny. Essie appears to have some milk and also huge amounts of nasty discharge.

Tuesday 5/26/09

We are still hanging in there but it has been a trying weekend. As of Thursday Essie still had no milk -- only colostrum. I gave her a couple of shots to help bring in the milk and by Friday it looked like we had success. However, even though we were nursing the pups on her every 2-3 hours round the clock she did not have an abundance of milk. I was completely prepared to supplement -- I have always done that so we just keep letting the pups nurse and then topped them off.

Sunday, however, I realized she had a green discharge mixed in her milk. You dont have to be a rocket scientist to know that you should not feed puppies green milk -- so ... lots of phone calls and consultations later we pulled the puppies off her and fed them by had 100%. Essie was not feeling well -- weak and tremorey so we also added one more antibiotic and increased the dose on the second one.

Monday -- Essie was feeling better -- still virtually no milk and still the discharge so -- no nursing for her. She, however, finally realized these were her babies so we spent the weekend sitting in the whelping box with her feeding babies while she nuzzled and loved on them.

The puppies though, we discovered that the pups who had been doing the best and were most vigorous nursed the most and thus had been exposed to the bacteria in her milk. A few of the pups were less vigorous and one pup, of course the biggest most beautiful male was very weak and I feared I would lose him. I called the vet tech who works for my vet and has one of my dogs and we met at the office -- where my vet was popping in to do some paperwork -- and we gave the pup fluids, an antibiotic, and another shot to stimulate appetite.

We nursed the puppies in smaller doses to prevent over feeding and aspiration for the rest of the night -- all 12 pups every 2 hours. Today I have half the pups here at work and my mom is nannying the other half at my brothers office where she works. Most are doing well but there are still about 4 that I am waiting to see normal stools and vigorous eating.

Essie is doing reasonably well but the poor girl has hormones that have got to feel awful. She is feeling well enough to jump out of the whelping box and try to climb into the puppy basket -- stepping on puppies all the way! Silly girl ... she means well but I am reminded of why we dont leave pigs or bullmastiffs alone with their babies!

I am holding my breath and praying that I can pull the pups through. It is not unexpected to lose a pup on a large litter but the pups that are not thriving right now are NOT the pups who should have been at risk. Their health caused them to nurse the most and thus get the most negative impact from her infection. FRUSTRATING.

Say a prayer that we get through the next week. I have taken about 4 pics and will try to get them uploaded but right now my highest priority is simply making sure these babies and their mama are well.

Hopefully more news later this week.

Friday 5/29

The first glimpses of eyes!

Monday 6/1

We made it thus far. The last 2 weeks are a blur. Today the pups weighed right around double their birthweights. They are vigorous and seem to be thriving. I changed formulas and have had some weird stools so I am hoping to see that iron out soon. I will get pictures added to this tonight ... I promise.