Over the last couple of days we have welcomed to the Ribblebrook family a gorgeous litter of ESS puppies from our long-awaited Midge (FTW/OFTAW Syncerus Shanti of Ribblebrook) x Will (FTW/OFTAW Willowsaul Wiley) pairing. We will be keeping a couple back from this litter to bring on which you will hopefully see in the circuit over the next few years!
Midges Whelping Journey...
In the early hours of Monday 1st April, Midge woke us up with some howling and digging up her bed (nesting), she has never made a peep before so it was clear she was in some discomfort and getting ready for her puppies to make their arrival. Fast-forward a good few hours after a day of restless-ness and Midge's water plug finally popped at around 11pm, so we took her out of her whelping pen for a short walk around to get things moving just before 12pm. Some 10 minutes after moving to get things going the first puppy arrived, a lovely bitch weighing 342g just after midnight! Once the first was out, we expected everything to run smoothly from here...however Midge had other ideas! After the first, she was extremely tired after having been so restless all day. At 2am we got her up again to try to get things moving again as there was no signs of contractions or pushing and we couldn't feel any puppies in the birth canal. We left her a little longer and still no signs at 4am, 4 hours between puppies being delivered is a long time and we couldn't risk any longer, so a call to the emergency vets who had quoted us £300 for a consultation and £3000 for a C-Section if needed. We loaded the car up with Midge, whelping supplies and the single puppy and headed to VetsNow in Preston.
Once we arrived the vets were very friendly and helpful, they created Midge a nesting area for her to settle and gave her a quick scan - this was to check the puppies heartbeats, if they were declining (under 180) they would have had to perform a section. Luckily all the puppies bar one (160 - this wasn't enough to warrant for a section) had normal heartbeats .They then took a blood test from her to test her Calcium levels - if these were low it would have also resulted in a section as she needs calcium to push with her contractions - the results came back fine!
Happy with her results, the vet administered a shot of Oxytocin (this helps bitches in labour to contract harder), we waited 30 mins and had no results from the first dose, so a second jab was needed. Around 5 mins later we had a healthy dog pup born weighing 348g at around 5:40am. Followed by another bitch puppy at 6:15am weighing 360g then a dog puppy at 6:40am weighing 395g. Then at 7:20 a good sized, pup was born which unfortunately had died during birth simply due to being stuck in there for too long. The vet was happy for us to go home at this point, and gave us the bill, which was shockingly only around £400! Which i think is relatively cheap for the care/services/products they provided for an emergency vets.
Once we got home, Midge and her 4 pups curled under the heat lamp in their whelping box and settled feeding them when at around 1pm another unfortunately dead puppy was born, again due to being stuck in their for too long as its sac had burst inside.
The moral of this story is that as soon as you think there may be any problem with your bitch in labour, or even just your dog - you should always call the vet. They can advise you over the phone if its is nothing too serious or will ask you to come in to get professional help. Your bitches health is paramount to anything else and should always be put first! We are very lucky to have 4 puppies safely here and are indeed lucky to have Midge as if we would have just left it, this could have been a very different story.
Midge and her pups are now currently settled and feeding very well, gaining nice amounts of weight and looking healthy. We can't wait to see what the future holds for these little ones and share with you their journey!
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