We bred Emma to the gorgeous Jag, Ch. Randolph’s Beau Jangles — whom I always call “Clifford” in my head, because he’s a big, red dog. 😉 We’ve known Jag since he was whelped, and believe he has a lot to offer Emma. We’re sure to get some gorgeous pigment in these puppies, as an added bonus!
Emma had seven puppies; unfortunately the last two were stillborn. We think it’s due to her prolonged labor — 14 hours from start to finish this time. Even though many bitches take long breaks between puppies and have no issues, that doesn’t seem to be the case for Emma. We suspect the puppies detached early on in the labor process, so weren’t getting blood and oxygen for several hours. They had no color when they were born, and no heartbeats. We tried resuscitation, of course, but couldn’t get them going. (The last two puppies in her previous litter had the same issues — the fifth was born without a heartbeat and we couldn’t get him going; the sixth had a very faint heartbeat and we worked on her for 45 minutes before she really got going. That was Gloria, who at 3 years old is as healthy and vital as you could want!)
To add to our sadness, the littlest puppy boy was not interested in nursing. We were bottle feeding him, and he wasn’t even particularly interested in that, although once we were able to get the bottle in his mouth he would nurse from it, sometimes with vigor but usually lackadaisically. At 2 days old he started fading, that evening he started gasping for air, and shortly after arriving at the emergency vet he went into cardiac arrest. They could not bring him back, and upon intubation milk came pouring out of his lungs. We suspect some kind of developmental problem, due to his lack of interest in nursing from the start, and based on how relaxed Emma became after he was gone. It is as if she knew something was wrong with him, which of course is entirely possible.
Conventional wisdom says that 30% of puppies will die at birth or in the litter. It’s hard to accept, in this day and age, that this statistic applies to home-whelped, purpose-bred litters (as opposed to puppies whelped in the wild, where neonatal loss seems more inevitable). We should be grateful, I suppose, that our overall record in limited breeding is far lower, but this one litter has been full of losses. I have hesitated even to post information about the puppies, because I am so worried and superstitious now; however they were all checked by the vet yesterday when their tails and dewclaws were done, and given the “A-OK”, as was Emma. I’ll still worry, of course, for several more weeks — but logically they’re all eating well, moving around, and are warm, pink, and twitchy, all signs of happy, healthy puppies. (Knock wood, of course!)
At 5 days old, there’s not much else to report. We started Early Neurological Stimulation exercises yesterday (a day late, actually, but the pups have been handled multiple times per day every days so I think we’ll be OK); those continue through 16 days old. We’ll start adding different textures and scents to the whelping box over the next couple of weeks; eyes and ears don’t open until about 10-14 days, and those senses aren’t well-developed for another week or two, but the senses of touch and smell are highly functioning from birth. Small stresses help build strong immune systems, increase cardiac performance, and contribute to stable temperaments (but you don’t want to over-do it, either!). New photos will be posted to the litter pages weekly, and I will try to keep this blog updated (if for no other reason than to have it to look over with the next litter!).
