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JAVA - Whelped March 1995 – Cleaning the placenta memebrane off Sire: Boulder Brook's Blazing Lee out of Dixie Blair and Sassie Sadie. |
Thank Goodness, that is over!! Dam: Bent Tree's Brandywine off I'm Randy's Forehand and Goose Creek Samantha |
WHELPING
Having used the handy chart or adding about 60 days to the breeding date, you have a good idea of when the whelping will occur - give or take a day or two. You should have made a whelping box for the puppies to be born in. This is a box with side rails to keep the puppies from getting crushed by mom when she lays down. Set the rail high and wide enough so young puppies can get under it during the first week. After the first week the pups are getting big enough so that crushing should not be a big danger.
Fo a whelping box, I use a large dog wire crate with a plastic ( not metal) bottom. A Metal bottom is cold and sucks the heat out of a puppy. But the plastic is slippery for a small pup and needs a non slip texture added after the first couple of days so the puppy will develop good strong leg muscles. I hang a heat lamp with a protector cover from the top of the cage. I prefer a red 250W lamp. There is a wall rheostat wired into the electric line to control the light brightness and heat level. Use a thermostat or your hand to test the floor is not getting too hot or too cold. Pups scattered around the floor randomly means they are comfortable and warm. If the area is drafty put cardboard, plyboard, or towels around the sides. But watch out for fire hazards from the heat lamp, we want warm pups, not roasted or charcoaled pups!!
When you get into the last day or two, the bitch will start doing some unusual thing. Put paper in the whelping box. The bitch will start tearing this up a few hours before birth to make a nest. This is a good leading indicator that it won't be long.
If your dog will tolerate it, you can take rectal temperatures and get a very good indicator of the whelping time. The normal temperature is about 101 degrees. When the temperature drops 5 degrees or so, whelping will occur in 12 hours. Take the temp every night and see if you will get a good night's sleep. It has been my experience that this is not cast in stone, and my bitches often did not read this part of the manual.
When the first pup arrives, watch to see that mom does everything right. The odds are good she will. It always amazes me what is programmed into the genes. The pup will arrive in a membrane which mom should break by licking. Mom should be licking vigorously to get the pup breathing. The pup may start crying. This is good since it is breathing. The pup will still have an umbilical cord attached to the placenta. The placenta should exit a few minutes after the pup. Mom should eat the placenta and the cord almost up to the pup. It is important that the placenta come out and not remain in mom to cause problems.
If mom doesn't break the membrane, get to work and help out. If the pup is not moving much, she may ignore it and not clean it properly to get it breathing. Use a small towel and massage it vigorously around the chest. Make sure its mouth is open and clear. Hold it head down while massaging it. Be vigorous, otherwise the pup will not breathe and die. If you have a small rubber bulb or syringe, you might try to force air into the lungs. I recently used this technique and saved a puppy that appeared stillborn. After 2 to three minutes of massaging and rubber bulbing, it gasped, and started crying. I then gave it back to mom to finish the clean up.
In the Boykins, my experience has been one pup arrives every 30-45 minutes headfirst. If backwards, the mom has to work harder, and it takes about an hour (60 minutes) after the previous pup. The bitch may appreciate a short walk or a cup of water on occasion between pups.
Make sure each pup nurses during the first 24 hours. The bitch's milk has special extra valued added ingredients to protect the pup from diseases. The antibodies are in the milk during the first 24 hours only. If there are a lot of puppies (10 or more), you might mark the smaller ones and weight them every day during the first week. They should be gaining weight at a rate of perhaps an ounce or more per day. Mine usually grow from 7-8 ounces to 14-17 ounces during the first week. A kitchen scale with a cup to hold the pup works well, but check that it is accurate by weighting a few small canned goods with known weights, or 10 quarters is exactly 2 ounces.
A major cause of death during the initial weeks is CHILL. Make sure there are no drafts and the whelping box is warm. Put a thermometer near by. 75-80 degrees is a nice range. Hang a red heat lamp a few feet above it at one end if necessary. The pups will crawl close enough to the heat until they are comfortable. I had a bitch move her pups out of the box late one night. When I awoke several pups had crawled away from the new unwarmed area the bitch had chosen. Three succumbed to hypothermia. This was in JUNE!!
The pups eyes stay closed 13-14 days. They open for a day or so. A small slit enlarges slowly and is fully open after a day. The eyes may be gray for a while and take time to get color.
When the pups feed, the bitch is having major amounts of nutrients removed from her body. She may lose some or all her hair due to nutrient and hormone problems. Make sure she has food and water available 24 hours a day. She won't overeat after a day or so if you don't normally let you dog self-feed. She will quickly adjust to the food being available 24 hours per day. Calcium deficiency can be a problem (watch for shakes and weakness). Feed her cottage cheese, milk, cheese, TUMS (calcium carbonate) and the like. A bowl of warm milk and dry food mixed together is a real hit with my dogs. Scrambled eggs with shell and milk are a favorite. I have also been feeding my bitch TUMS as a calcium supplement - mint flavor for better breath.
If you have hunting dogs, then the dewclaws should be removed during the first 3 days. Also the tail should be docked. I use a copper pipe template cut to 1 inch long.
Immunizations can start at week 6. I start mine as soon as recommended, but no sooner. Starting sooner is a waste of money and time as it does the pup no good. The bitch's antibodies are still active in the pup.
CONTACT Bill at BOULDER BROOK KENNELS
©copyright 1998