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| Holly with pups on her return from the clinic |
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| Groggy but determined to be a mother again |
20th Nov 11
They arrived 18th. There were 11. Three girls and 8 boys. Two brown, both boys. What
an epic birth. It was a C Section birth. It was necessary to keep her in the surgery for 24 hours to recover.
So what
about the Puppies? We had to bring them home without their source of nourishment. So supported extensively by Lindsay, I have
been up all night, feeding, cleaning, washing and preparing on a 3 hourly cycle. I might say that I am shattered.
Rosie went to get Holly from the vets on Saturday morning. C section birth introduces problems
of bonding. I didn't need to worry though. She was very groggy from the operation. She lost an immense
amount of blood. This was because the blood vessels around the womb had enlarged to take blood to provide
the nourishment for the growing embryos. She lost a lot of blood when the hysterectomy was performed.
So while Holly was in the clinic for the 24 hours, I had to individually feed the puppies every three hours and this
has been tortuous. But they are all fantastic and are now accepting the bottle with little hesitation. So I was up all
night again. Nobody ever said that breeding puppies was easy.
Holly came home from the vets late on Saturday
morning. She was still very affected by the anaesthetic but she knew where she was. She looked at her puppies
and at first was reluctant to get among them. We were all envisaging having to hand feed them for the first two and
half weeks until they ween. But Holly didn't growl at them and eventually, she began to sniff them and after
30 minutes she was licking them and then began to feed them. Relief all round as she took ownership of them.
After a couple of hours, although still week and disorientated she was being a great mother again. She
was not allowing them to leave her and if they get lost from her she would hook them back to her with her forepaws.
| 18 hours after returning home |
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| 30 hours from birth |
| Puppies left by Holly for the first time |
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| The line up like this to keep warm |
26 Nov 11
Holly
has been fantastic at looking after her puppies. I have weighed them 4 times now in the first week of their little lives
and they are putting on weight. The three girls are the lowest weight but they are putting it on at about the same rate
as the others. Lindsay has been giving them priority by taking away the big boys and letting the girls suckle without
having to push the others out of the way. I have been supplementing their feed by giving them bottles. Given the
weight that the girls are putting on now I think that this supplementing feeding will cease soon.
What we
have to do now is to maintain their weight gain. We also have to keep an eye on them to ensure that they remain healthy
and that they don't bloat and become infected with the miriade of infections that they could pick up. We achieve
this infection prevention by enusreing that we keep a clean environment and any handling of the puppies is by clean hands
and using anti-septic gel.
3 Dec 11
15 days old and they are starting
to open their eyes. This is where their individual little characters begin to show. The smallest bitch is charging
around the welping box shouting and squawking clambering over all of the others. The big boys are snuggling in sleeping alot.
There though a marked decrease in sleeping pattern and they are all to some degree or other moving much more.
24 Dec 11
These boys and girls are growing
quickly now. They are fully weened though Holly does occasionally give them a treat of milk. All of them are growing
and filling out. I have removed the whelping box and they are happy with a thick quilt. It is now that Holly is
not clearing up after them. We are going through loads of newspapers to soak up all their pee and keeping them clean.
Four people have chosen their puppies. One person is coming on the 27th. We have someone booked for
the 28th but we will have to re-arrange that date as we will all be at work. Some people have pulled out so if anyone
wants to a PWD, get in touch as we have a couple of puppies spare.
I have put a video of the puppies that was taken on
the 1st of Jan. It has to be short so that I can upload and for you to down load over
a slow web link.
See Video of Puppies in Pen
Last Updated
Robenger Kennels - Email robengerpwd@aol.com - call 01780 783775
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