B Litter Progress

After what seemed like forever to me, and I’m sure even longer to Lilly, pups started arriving at 2:15 this afternoon. It was a miserable morning for her, panting, in and out to potty, more panting, just plain miserable looking. The first pup was a great big male, real dark and she had a tough time with the delivery and still seemed to be very stressed.  

Pup #2 was a nicely marked female, good sized but nothing like the bruiser that popped out first, but Lilly still seemed real stressed. 

 Pup #3 was another male with very similar markings to #2, I have not looked real close yet but I don’t think there are any roans yet.  

Pup #4 was another female, I’ll take a back and forth for the whole litter if it works that way, so now we are at 2 each, and she was also real dark like #1, I guess Lilly isn’t playing favorites!  

Watching her now I think maybe #5 is about to make an appearance. I will be back with more updates later.

9:15 PM and we are at 4 males and 4 females. I'm going to give her a little down time then get her up and feel for more. If she seems to be done I'll rinse her off, load everybody up and head home!

4/20 AM and all 8 are strong and healthy with full belly’s. I went to bed about 11:00, checked her about 3:00 and all 8 were lined up feeding, and she was still licking them. This morning, same thing, I swear she’s going to lick the hair right off of them! It’s amazing how when they come out they seem pretty much lifeless, then mothers tongue does her thing and licks the life right into them, a few minutes later they are motoring around latching on to a faucet. I literally had to pull her off of them this AM to go out to go to the bathroom.

4/22 Pictures taken at 3 days old are posted. I don't think any will be true roans, but several will be heavily ticked. Females #1 & 4 will be heavily ticked leaning toward roan. Male #2 will be heaviest marked male followed by #1. It will be interesting to watch the colors come out more over the next few weeks.

4/24 Albert got his first introduction to the pups tonight, should have had the video camera! A lot of sniffing and confused looks and a little bit of BACK OFF from Lilly, now it goes from sitting and watching to laying beside them, I think we are good to go now!

4/27 Really bad day today. And maybe a hard lesson learned.

The last few days went so well, today we were both gone all day and again it was a miserable 43 degree rainy afternoon. When I got home I found one of the male pups out dead in the rain, no idea how or why. When I went to bring everybody in for the night another male cried terribly when touched, he was real bloated. I tried a warm wet cloth to get him to evacuate and nothing happened, tried massage then burping, all of a sudden he was getting air under his skin.

A trip to an ER vet and x-rays showed where teeth had punctured both sides, including the diaphragm on one. There didn’t appear to be any internal bleeding, but a trip to a specialist and surgery in at least two places would have been needed, that’s just too much for an 8 day old pup, even though he’d only been with us a week it was tough to let him go.

I can’t say for sure, but the best guess is Albert tried to pick the pup up and just put too much pressure on. I have no doubt that he did not intend to hurt a pup, It won’t be easy or fun, but we’ll need to keep them separate from here on out.

4/28/19 I looked at the pups to make sure which ones we lost, and it was #2 and #4, so the original #3 is now #2, wish I could turn back the clock.

4/30/19 Pups are still growing like a weed, the corners of the eyes on one were just starting to open a little this morning, all should be real soon, not seeing the ears opening yet.

Its fun watching them develop, they do not need Lilly there constantly anymore and at times you see one sleeping in the typical Munster pose, i.e. on their back with legs in the air! When you gather them up to take out the little growls and barks are starting too and also starting to raise up on their legs just a tiny bit instead of paddling.

5/1/19 Three are eyes wide open now, the other three are just starting to crack in the corners, holding them on their backs and giving belly rubs gets you stretches and yawns!

5/3/2019

Pups are 2 weeks old, eyes are open, ears are starting and they are starting to rise up and almost walk. The dog bed just doesn’t seem to keep them corralled anymore so a new collapsible box is in the plans for today!

5/5/2019

It looks like today may be the first one in almost two weeks that is rain free and sunny! Heavy fog this A M but the sun is finally starting to break through! Late Friday I put together a two piece folding nest box with some left over plywood and 2x2’s. 36” x 28” with 12” high sides on three of them, split one long side at 6” to add the other piece when needed. The man that runs the neighboring business walked in and said, how long will the short side last, a day? I confidently replied about a week, I put the 6” addition on this morning; one of the pups had both front legs over the edge while I was playing with them.

Although still wobbly they are all up on their legs and interacting now, more barking and growling, even a little chewing on each other. The big dark male is taking after his older brother Albert, as soon as you pick him up his little tongue comes out and he starts giving you a bath. Things will happen real fast now, if we do finally get some decent weather we will be getting a lot of “yard time” soon.

5/10/2019   

The little boogers are starting to get feisty and their teeth are starting to break through. If we can get some decent weather we’ll start getting them out to start exploring and gain more confidence. Lilly is still doing real good with them; she needs to spend less and less time with them now.

5/23/2019

The puppies have reached the rapid growth and development stage. In the past few days the independence is really coming through, wandering off and exploring alone, not needing mom in sight constantly, playing and wrestling, picking sticks and other odds and ends up in the yard and carrying them into their box and even splitting up and sleeping in different boxes.

I took Albert out this AM, hooked his lead on a corner post and went in to close the pups in and get them all in one run, didn’t work out too well. A couple were out playing in the yard, a few in the big run and one in the small run. Before I could even get to the gate on the run I had 5 pups zipping around between my legs, then the sky opened up!

I got Lilly in the run by luring with a biscuit and the 5 followed. Now its thunder and lightning as well as the downpour, I’m soaked, Albert’s still tied to the corner post and the puppy in the small run is crying while trying to get through the chain link. Close the gate to keep Lilly and the 5 in, around the corner, grab 6, back around the corner, open the gate and sneak her in, back to the yard gate, get Albert in the yard and make a dash for the house. Didn’t matter, I was already soaked anyway…………

The good news? None of the pups even paid a bit of attention to the thunder and lighting!