The Puppy Diary
Our first litter
Please note
I have no veterinary or medical training and this diary is purely my own personal experience and ideas. If in doubt please seek advice from your own vet.
25th December, 2007
Lily came into season much to our suprise today. We were expecting her third season to be in February and had planned for her to mate with Zak then. Oh well never mind the world works in mysterious ways, we will let nature take its course. What will be will be!! As the saying goes. Meanwhile being an inexperienced breeder, I purchased several books on breeding dogs and also researched as much information as I could on the internet.
3rd January, 2008
Lily's 10th day into her season, a routine visit to our local vets for some much needed advice and a general check up. All okay. Vet said we should be in for a very interesting weekend as Lily was now approaching her most fertile time between 11th and 13th day. In my niavety I came away from the vets a little bemused after all matings quite natural I thought. Just let them do what comes naturally. What on earth can he mean.
4th, 5th and 6th January, 2008
We soon found out exactly what the vet meant by an interesting weekend. Lily must have reached her fertile time and Zak was like a lovesick teenager, he wouldn't let her out of his sight. He kept looking at her longingly and crying. "It must be love", we said. The lst mating took place today 4th January. Lily was not too impressed but everything went okay. Being inexperienced in the art of breeding, we stupidly thought that was the end of it but Oh No!! Zak had other ideas. He continued the crying which now turned to howling. He had us up at the crack of dawn on both the 5th and 6th January, there was no cooling his ardour. We were totally unprepared for this personality change. He was like a male possessed.
Over the next two days the behaviour continued and they managed a further three matings with 10 minutes tie each time. By the end of Sunday 6th January after a VERY INTERESTING WEEKEND everything was near enough back to normal. We at last had our Zak back to his old self. And Lily deserved a well earned rest.
20th January, 2008
The next couple of weeks passed quite uneventful. We are not sure if Lily is pregnant yet, she has not really shown any visible signs except that she is eating much more than normal and her appetite has definitely increased to the point that she has started scrounging which is very alien to her. She has even been hoovering around the kitchen floor eating any crumbs or bits of food she can find. I have continued reading and researching so that I can help and not hinder her. I have made some small changes to her diet nothing too drastic but just introduced a very tiny amount of dairy and cereal. I have done this purely to introduce her to the new foods very gradually so as not to cause her any digestion problems if she is pregnant.
3rd February, 2008
Almost certain that the mating was successful, Lily has been sick a few times over the last couple of weeks and steadily her weight has increased. She has continued to eat well and stay healthy. We still go out for our walk and exercise. Visible signs are good and we have a vets appointment for a check up and hopefully confirmation of her pregnancy on 7th February, 2008.
7th February, 2008
Visit to the vets today, confirmed that Lily is definitely pregnant. No idea how many as 5 - 6 weeks is not a good time to tell. The best time for a vet to give you some idea of how many puppies is at 21 - 28 days. Wish they had told me this before. Asked about worming her and Zak as this is now due and Panacur 10% is the best for the 'Mum To Be' as this will not harm the puppies. Beware of other wormers.
I can start the panacur at 40 days pregnant and give the dosage recommended on the information leaflet for pregnant bitches every day until two days past whelping. This should help the puppies too.
21st February, 2008
Lily has spread out considerably over the last two weeks, her waistline has become considerably plump. She has had days where her appetite has been good and days where she has not wanted to eat much. She now has three meals a day and I include a well known good brand of dry puppy food within these meals plus a teaspoon of olive oil. I have introduced one raspberry leaf tablet each day to her diet as this is supposed to help her with her milk production and the whelping which is now only two weeks away. She also has scrambled egg every other day.
She has slowed down considerably this week and lazes around most of the time but still enjoys going out in the garden and her daily walk with Zak. I have not been walking her quite so far now.
I have began to prepare her whelping box which is about 1 metre x 2 metres and has a small shelf across one end. We have lined the bottom with lino tiles and carpeted the shelfed end. I have bought two fleece vet beds so that I have one in use and one in the wash. Also a heat pad with a fleece cover. I have also purchased some Puppy formula milk and animal feed system kits in case she needs help feeding the puppies.
I intend to line the whelping box with disposable puppy pads but have also started to save all my old newspapers as I am sure these will come in very handy. I have also bought a bottle of antiseptic disinfectant.
22nd February, 2008
We could feel the puppies moving today. We also managed to hear a heartbeat with a stethoscope. We are all wondering how many are in there.
29th February, 2008
Lily has grown considerably large this week. Her appetite is still faddy, some days she seems to eat loads and some days she picks at small amounts. The puppies are moving about and we can see and feel the movements quite strongly now. Lily is still enjoying going out and about although we tend not to go for very long walks now. She went to the groomers this week and had her bath and hair cut. The fur on her tummy has been tidied up and clipped so that the puppies can feed a little more easier. She looks gorgeous but like a little dumpling.
1st March, 2008
Lily has been really bright and well for the last couple of days. Her appetite is really good. She has been eating little and often almost all day long. She looks even bigger today. The puppies are really moving around now and you can feel them quite strongly if you place your hands on her tummy. She has been a little bit territorial today with Zak and told him off, grumbling at him when he went to eat some biscuits out of her bowl. Lily and Zaks groomer offered me some advice when they went to have their haircuts last Tuesday and so I have started taking Lil's temperature regularly from this morning as she could have the pups any time from day 57 which is today. If her temperature begins to drop this is a good indicator that she is getting ready to whelp. I have never taken an animals temperature before, they say you learn a new thing every day.
What a big tummy!!
Lily on lst March relaxing and showing her tummy off to everyone.
3rd March, 2008
Lily has had a good day today. Eating well and we went out for a short walk this afternoon. We all went to bed fairly early and it was a good job we did. Lily and Zaki were sleeping in their beds downstairs but we left the door open just in case Lily needed to find us. Her welping box was upstairs in the spare room but we had moved this downstairs today as she was not showing any interest in it whilst it was in the spare room. We positioned the box down in the kitchen next to a radiator, away from draughts and with a plug close by so that we could plug in the heat pad which I had bought and the heat lamp which has been kindly loaned to me. At first when we put Lily's bed into the box she got in and had a look round. After a short time she must have felt comfortable because there was no moving her from the box. She really made herself comfy and curled up in her bed. This is where she was when we went to bed. I also placed some strips of newspaper in one end of the box so that she could nest with these when the time came.
4th March, 2008
Zaki came upstairs about 2.00am crying and I sleepily went downstairs to make sure everything was ok. Lily had been digging in her bed and her cushion had been pushed out and her blanket was all ruffled up. I checked her and went back to bed as she seemed ok. I couldnt sleep and in the end went and sat downstairs with both the dogs. Lily wasn't too bad but Zak was really unsettled all night. As the morning approached Lily had been licking herself and she refused her breakfast. I checked her temperature and it had dropped by about half a degree. My instincts told me to have the day off work to be with her just incase.
She continued with her behaviour all morning and just seemed a little bit odd but not distressed or too concerned. She was happy in her welping box relaxing and sleeping and occasionally havinga a wander around the garden. I pottered about and checked on her quite regularly taking her temperature once more and it had dropped a little bit more. At 12.00 midday when I next checked her I noticed that she was straining a little bit so I stayed and reassured her stroking and talking to her in case she was frightened. Whilst I sat with her and watched the straining became more regular at 12.50 she had her first puppy, a little boy. Forty minutes later came number 2, another little boy. An hour went by and she had a little girl, then another little girl and the last puppy came at 3.10pm, another little boy. She knew exactly what to do and I just helped her by breaking the sac so that some of the puppies could breathe. She cleaned them all and she ate four of the placentas. One of the placentas did not appear as puppy number five came out so quickly the placenta of puppy four got left behind. This worried me, so I rang the vet but they reassured me that it would probably be passed out over the next couple of days.
Puppy No. 1
Puppy number one a little boy,Lily looking after him and cleaning him up
Puppy No. 2
First little boy all cleaned up and 40 minutes later a little brother has arrived.
Very quickly, puppy no. 3 and 4 arrive
Lily now has two little girls
What a clever girl
Lily was such a good mum and knew exactly what she needed to do. I cant believe they're here. Little miracles of life.
All safe and sound
All five are there somewhere. Looks like ones hiding and getting into mischief already bet thats a little boy!! Just like his Dad!!. Lily and her babies all clean, bed changed and relaxing under the red heat lamp. Lily is looking every bit the proud Mum. and so she should be.
Updated 8th March, 2008
Well the last few days have passed in a bit of a whirl with our house just a little bit upside down and disorganised, we are all trying to get used to having the puppies around and making sure LIly is comfortable and well fed and watered.
Wednesday, 5th March. I slept with Lily on a campbed in the kitchen and I was definitely on a high. I hadn't got much sleep but our night was pretty uneventful, a few squeaks and Lily was panting on and off but the puppies had arrived and were all safe and sound and thriving, LIly was feeding well and I had to encourage her to leave the welping box to go outside for a wee. She was a little off her food but I tempted her little and often and she accepted this no problem. Some of the puppies have their dark pigment on their noses and pads coming through already. One was born with black nose and pads. So we did Know which one that was for a while and we also had one chubby one, so we knew that one too. Today I rang the vets and made an appointment to take them and Lily down for a check-up tomorrow morning.
Thursday 6th March. Bundled the puppies and Lily in a large box with her blanket and hot water bottle for our visit to the vets. This turned out harder than expected as Lily didn't want to stay in the box but cried to get back in with her pups once she was out. Eventually with her in the box and puppies settled and warm. Drove the 10 minutes to see the vet. I told the receptionist we had arrived and we waited outside in the car so as not to stress Lily out too much until the surgery was empty. She has developed a very high pitched bark everytime she hears or sees another dog and goes just a little bit frantic. "These are mine", I think she is saying. Vet checked Lily first and she was absolutely fine, everything as it should be. Her comment which I thought was great was "She has a nice little milk bar down there". She checked each puppy in turn and was very pleased with them all telling me they were all a very good size. So I came out feeling very proud of my girl.
Friday 7th March. The puppies I am sure have grown into their skins. They look bigger already. Most of them have now got their dark paws some are still changing colour around their noses. Lily is eating much better and has gained her appetite although she is taking advantage a bit and picks and chooses her favourite things. She wil lick the bowl clean if I give her cereals and mil and if I put a mixture of some chicken, rice, biscuit and cottage cheese she will pick out all the chicken bits. Little monkey!!. She is feeding little and often and also has some puppy milk as a supplement. Today she didn't need so much encouragement to go outside to do her business and will leave them for short times to come and find one of us indoors, checking on them and racing back if she hears a whimper.
Up til now she hasn't let Zak near them, telling him off if he so much as puts his head near the welping box. He was quite curious and nosy to start with and would cry everytime he heard them whimper even with Lily in there with them. I think he was wondering why Lily didnt want to know him as they always do everything together. We have been trying really hard to make lots of fuss of him too so that he doesnt feel left out. He has been allowed to come and go within the room as he wishes with us only intervening if he pushes his luck and tries to get too near with Lily objecting. Today though she seems to have relaxed with him a bit and a couple of times we caught him in the box having a look and Lily didn't object. She has been eating in her box and we actually caught him in there nicking her lunch after she had finished with it. This is normal behaviour for them he always polishes of her meals and she allowed him to do this today. Lily seems to have got a spurt of energy from somewhere, they have been out in the garden running around together a couple of times today which was lovely to see. At least we know that she is feeling ok in herself and it is good for her to be getting some limited exercise at the moment.
8th March, 2008
Does 'Five little sausages' spring to mind.
To be continued in Puppy Diary - Page 2
