Two litters, two different experiences…
Wow, what a couple of weeks it has been! We have experienced when a birth gets difficult on both ends of the spectrum.
Firstly as you will already know the difficult birth with Darcy, a small litter of 4 pups who had grown so well, one in particular got stuck solid and unfortunately meant Darcy required an emergency C-section to removed stuck pup and save Darcy and her remaining 3 pups.
And secondly Rita, the complete opposite, packed full of pups, so much so she came into very early labour which lasted over 24 hours and she delivered naturally 11 pups..... Yes 11 pup !!! This is the reason she came early, the pups were obviously smaller with there being so many and because they were also that little bit early we quicky lost two pups. With the remaining 9 pups ( 5 boys and 4 girls ) we had a challenge to get them feeding quickly and evenly to give them the best chance. We knew if we could get them to their due date in two days time they would be fine.
We are professional and have an incubation whelping system so we could control the oxygen levels in the pen. Rita was doing a great job producing plenty of milk all we had to do was make sure especially the smallest few of the 9 were getting as much milk as the rest by alternating pups feeding at any one time. The great thing is if the pups are feeding they rapidly respond and with the incubator the fact they were small by the time they get to their due date they would probably a few grams better off.
Well the good news is we reached the due date on Tuesday with all 9 pups still here, feeding well and actually thriving !!! Because we concentrated on alternating the pups feeding paying special attention to the smallest they are more evenly sized and probably a better weight than if everything had of gone to plan !!!! Without the professional whelping set up, incubation system I think the outcome would have been very different and not many if any of the pups would have survived. Instead they are thriving !!!
So two difficult litters from two different ends of the spectrum but still with two happy endings. I've said this before prepare for the worst and hope for the best then if the brown stuff hits the fan mother and pups have the best possible chance.
