The truth about Daisy's Delivery

Monday, January 08, 2007

The truth about Daisy's delivery
Category: Pets and Animals


You know, in reviewing the earlier post, saying that she had lovely puppies does nothing to paint a true picture of that day. So here's how it really went.

To work in the morning with the dog in tow, spent significant time unloading the car. Dad, who works in the same office, wanted to be sure that we had adequate facilities, so he hunted down a really big box and cut it down to size. After going from the office and moving the whole entourage to the kitchen, without getting any work at all done, it was close enough to lunchtime that it was best to just move her home to her whelping pen.

On the way home, she moved around in circles, pawed at the blanket under her and stood and groaned a few times. Me, with one hand on her, one on the steering wheel, and a heavy foot on the accelerator, seriously considered calling in a police escort.

At the home base, she pawed at the mats in the whelping pen, moaned a bit, and her water sac emerged. It hung there FOREVER. You really can't do much to help a water sac. And the homeopathic remedies that help ease delivery weren't with me because they had been on loan to another person and we kept missing each other trying to get them back. We worked and worked at getting that sac out. Finally it busted and another sac emerged. Where is the puppy? Why was there only about an inch of sac coming out and I couldn't see a puppy? She stayed like that for too long for comfort, again, making lots of noises and starting to really scare me. She looked miserable in her crate, so I thought maybe if she were beside me in bed, she'd do better. So I laid out blankets and let her out with me there. The little snot immediately jumped off the bed onto the floor and hunched like she was going to defacate. I grabbed a blanket and stuck it under her just in time to catch the first puppy. Then the little stinker RAN UNDER THE BED. Yeh, the queen sized bed in a twin-sized room with no space for me to maneuver it to get her out.

So she's under the bed grunting, I'm trying to get the first puppy to breathe. I get it breathing but it won't wail. Figuring that if it were to wail, she would come running, I kept stimulating it and holding it at the edge of the bed, but she wasn't taking the bait. Hearing some commotion under the bed, I put the puppy in the whelping pen and grabbed a flashlight. She had #2 under the bed and appeared to be somewhat stuck. Putting my back into it, I managed to move the bed 6 inches or so away from the wall and reached down behind to grab the puppy.

All this time, I've been calling her, bribing her, and even threatening her, but she won't come out from her sanctuary under the bed. I get puppy #2 breathing. Scared to death I wouldn't be able to reach puppy #3 under the bed, my adrenaline really kicked in and I hoisted the mattress off the bed and into the hall. Yeh, I know you're supposed to keep a level head and a calm attitude, but I have to admit some curses slid her way in those moments.

Of course, once I tilted the box springs up and she knew she didn't have a choice, she sauntered out as easy as you please like "what's all the excitement??" Once she got back into the whelping pen and started cleaning her babies, the rest of the delivery went just fine.

After all the puppies were safe and nursing, we both took a nap. After we woke, it was toward supper time. She had been shaking during delivery, but that was nothing new for her. However, after waking up from the nap, whenever she would stand up or walk, she would start shivering again.

A call to the on-call emergency vet was placed and he said it shouldn't be calcium - it was too early for that. But then again, he didn't know without examining her. I'm sure he thought I was being overly concerned, but he met me at his office around 7:30 pm that evening. I'm soooo thankful for his time and his expertise. He gave her the calcium shot at my request and also a few other shots and after that her shaking ceased and didn't come back - it was a calcium issue after all!

Now that she's back in good shape, I need either an alignment or a massage. Or maybe I'll treat myself to both ;) So why did it take me a week to write the real story? Finally am getting enough sleep at night to be able to write whole sentences ;)

On an interesting note, while doing tonight's puppy development exercises, one of the puppies has just opened its eyes! That's very early! They are happy, healthy and plump little cuties.