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Thursday, May 27, 2010

How Many Puppies Did You Say??

This past weekend, our May long weekend was HOT and HUMID, setting an all time record yesterday to boot.

However, we 'lost' Sunday with delivering not one but 2 litters of pups! Our 2 litter sisters Bliss and Flirt came into season at the same time and were bred. Their 1st due date wasn't till around the 26th, so their delivery was a bit unexpected.

Flirt started showing signs in the morning with the 1st pup out by 10:30 am. Next was 11 am. I got on the phone and called our good friend Maryl0u as she wanted to see one of our litters born and with working, it made it difficult with all our others time wise. So over she came. We proceeded to deliver a total of EIGHT pups!!! 5 boys, 3 girls. The largest litter we've ever had. This took us to around 6:30pm.
Now it was time for us to eat, feed and send the adults out, deal with our 8 wk old pups and get laundry done. By the time we'd eaten, dogs were back in, it was well after 10pm, Marylou headed home. I settled Flirt in for the night where I could watch her from snoozing on the couch overnite, and figured I'd better send our other pregger girl out one more time ... it's now around 11pm ... I hadn't had time to pay too much attention to her. Well don't I find her in a pool of 'water' in her crate!!! OH LORDY, her water's broke and she's now in labour.


Mike and I bring out another whelping crate to the kitchen, grab the towels we'd just washed, push Flirt & her pups back out of the way and now start working with Bliss. In between pushes I call Marylou ... 'Hey there, want to watch another litter born???' ... say what? Yes, Bliss is now in labour. So she hopped in the car and drove back over. We joked she was now ready for the desert she was too full to have earlier :)


So through the night until the wee hours of the morn, Bliss presented us with 6 puppies, 5 boys, 1 girl. TG Marylou was there to help as Bliss's pups were a little more difficult to whelp. We spent a lot of time on our knees, Marylou holding her and allowing her to lean into her and me, at the 'back end', helping each pup come into the world. We were so sore & stiff, it became a laughing matter .... getting too old to be 'praying' this long!
So these litters were a lot of 1st for us ... 1st litter of EIGHT, 1st time 2 girls delivered the same day, and the 1st time Marylou was around, not for one but for two litters.

Finally, around 5am after more laundry, cleaning up and settling the 2 moms in the kitchen, we took up a spot in the living room and were able to stretch out and have a snooze, while being able to hear if there were any issues. Marylou headed out around 7am.

I spent one more night sleeping on the couch just to make sure the moms were not laying on them and all were getting to the milk bar OK.

Betcha have a question ... YES Flirt has enough nipples for all of them. Everyone is doing just fine, mothers are being very attentive and our lives are pretty easy now for 2-3 wks ... THEN ... the workload of caring for them starts to switch from mom to US.

Thanks Marylou!

5 comments:

Kav May 28, 2010 at 11:36 AM  

Good grief -- that's fourteen puppies in one day???? Plus you have another litter of 8 week olds under foot? I think my puppy envy just went into panic mode!!!

Do you ever have a problem finding homes for that many pups? And do you work with a waiting list? I'm very anxious to increase my 'pack' but I'm not financially there -- still recuperating from the vet bills for my little girl who had lymphoma plus trying to save up for that expensive first year of vetting and schooling before I take the plunge.

Shelamo Shelties May 29, 2010 at 8:06 AM  

The 8wk olds are almost all in their new homes now. So far no problems finding great homes. Yes, we're usually working with a reservation list.

judyf,  June 1, 2010 at 7:44 AM  

Two great looking litters of puppies, Maureen. Hhmm . . . do you think that there might be any show hopefuls in the bunch??

Shelamo Shelties June 1, 2010 at 9:00 AM  

Gosh Judy, I SURE HOPE so! Some nice heads @ 1+wks now, only time will tell. The light sable girl in Flirt's litter I like from the start ... well, she's almost 2x the size of the others right now! ... don't think she'll make it as a keeper ... shelties ...lol

Acadia Shelties July 3, 2010 at 9:33 PM  

WOW!! Lucky You! I would love large litters like that. I had two litters at the same time, but only had a total of 4 puppies. I was bummed! I am sure you will have a more than a few "keepers"


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