I don’t think the word “stressful” quite captures the emotions that we’ve experienced over the weekend. I didn’t really want to share this happening, but I decided it would be a good opportunity to celebrate God’s protection and grace.

On Thursday, I was feeling really optimistic. The puppies were doing very well, and even Nova was gaining weight and looking much healthier and filled out. Duchess was being a great mom and was recovering very well from pregnancy and delivery. I was still bottle feeding Nova around the clock, but she was definitely getting stronger and able to nurse on her own more. I was planning to lengthen the time in between her night time feedings on Thursday night, so I could get a decent night of rest.

Duchess was in the kitchen getting a special “mommy snack” before bed, when she noticed that the screen door was open just a few inches. Before I could stop her, she zipped outside, and I assumed she needed to go to the bathroom. She wasn’t wearing her collar for the underground fence. When I went outside a few minutes later to call her back inside, I didn’t realize she had already wandered across the road in front of our house. When she heard me calling, she began crossing the road to come back, but she got hit by a car before she made it across.

It was a very sickening feeling when I realized what happened. I was amazed when I found her still standing on the side of the road. We didn’t see any outward injuries, but we took her to closest 24-hour emergency vet to have them check for internal damage. Miraculously, she has only minor injuries that don’t require any treatment besides time and rest.

We still don’t know what prompted her to cross the road. She has NEVER bothered with the road before. We still don’t know how she escaped with only a brush burn and some bruising. Actually, that statement is incorrect. I do know how that part happened. We serve an awesome God, one who created our vast animal kingdom. Although I believe human life is infinitely more valuable than that of an animal, I also know God has created every animal with a purpose. He cares for each and every one, just as He has asked us to do, as well. He cares enough to spare the life of one sweet mama dog.

Duchess was back at home and caring for her puppies again in less than three hours. We did some extra bottle feeding overnight to give her a break and allow her body some time to rest. The following days (and nights) were filled with nearly constant observation of Duchess and her puppies, but everyone is doing well. Again, this is nothing short of a miracle.

Our God is an awesome God.

I still haven’t posted individual pictures of the puppies, but I will try my absolute best to do that very soon. We currently don’t have any clean towels, our yard is morphing into a hay field, I’m not sure when my daughter last got a bath, and I could probably use a shower myself. Once those things are checked off my list, I’ll spend some time behind the camera.

Have a safe week, and take time to thank God for life. He holds all life in the palm of His hand, and nothing happens that is outside of His control. I’m grateful to place my trust in God who is so much bigger than I am.

We have passed the first huge milestone- the first 48 hours. These two days are such a critical time for puppies, and I always breathe a sigh of relief when we pass this point.

Overall, it’s been a very good start. Duchess is doing well as a first time mama. She’s diligently caring for her babies. She’s drinking the well dry, and eating us out of house and home, but those are good things. 🙂 Feeding ten babies requires a lot of calories!

Nine of the puppies seem to be doing well. They are gaining weight, nursing well, and are acting like healthy puppies. Some signs I like to see with puppies are round bellies, hydrated skin, a strong suck reflex, activated sleep (twitching while they sleep), the ability to crawl to their mom, the ability to stay close to their littermates for warmth, and steady weight gain. By those signs, we have a healthy, thriving litter.

The tenth puppy, the runt I’ve named Nova, isn’t thriving quite as well as her siblings, but the fact that she is still alive is huge! I’m honestly amazed that she has survived. I was pretty unsure about her when she was born. Some people say it’s possible for a few puppies from a litter to be conceived several days later than the others. This means when they are born, you’ll have a set of large, older puppies and a set of smaller, younger ones. With puppies, even just a few days in the womb makes a very significant difference. I have two puppies that are noticeably smaller than the others. This litter was born fairly early on the time table. If these two puppies were indeed conceived later, then that means they are a few days premature. Another possible explanation is that the placentas were attached at a place that didn’t have as much blood flow, limiting the nourishment that they received. Either way, Nova had nature working against her.

In comparison to her siblings, Nova is TEENY! It’s hard for pictures to show just how tiny she is. Currently, she is no bigger than an iPhone 7. I am a petite person, so my hands are very small in comparison to most.

However, she does have some things going for her. Besides being small and weak, she appears healthy. She was also able to nurse some from Duchess during the first 24 hours. This means that she got some of the antibody-rich colostrum which will be a great benefit and protection for her in the coming days.

When she was born, she weighed 5.5 ounces. I could pinch her skin and it stayed in a pinched ridge, meaning she was dehydrated. She kept getting pushed away by the other puppies, which meant she struggled to stay warm. She could hardly hold her head or crawl.

Zach put up a heat lamp to keep her warm. I gave her Nutri-stat regularly and helped her nurse. This helped to hydrate her. I also started bottle feeding her raw goat’s milk every few hours from a slow-flow baby bottle. A wonderful friend of mine gave me a recipe to pump up my goat’s milk. I added plain yogurt, Karo syrup, and a raw egg yolk. This makes a rich, creamy formula full of fat, sugar, and calories. I feed her one milliliter for each ounce of body weight at each feeding. Right now, she is guzzling about one teaspoon each time.

Nova’s weight dropped in the first 24 hours to 5.4 ounces. It’s not uncommon for puppies to lose a bit of weight in the first day, but little Nova doesn’t have any weight to spare. She held steady at 5.4 until last evening. This morning, Nova tipped the scale at a whopping 5.8 ounces!

Now, she has the strength to hold her head and crawl. She stays with the other puppies and doesn’t get pushed away. She can even latch on to nurse by herself sometimes. She takes a bottle well, but her suck is still weaker than that of the other puppies. But she is a fighter! She squeals now when other puppies try to push her away when she’s nursing. She has a bit of strength to compete with them. Based on how far she has come in the first two days, I’d say there is a reasonable chance she will pull through. I’ll be bottle feeding for a while yet, but I’m hoping to wean her back onto nursing from Duchess full-time as soon as possible. If that’s not possible, I’d like to at least back off bottle feeding so that it’s only a supplement and not her main source of nourishment.

I am hoping to get individual pictures of the puppies very soon, so check back in a day or two to check them out!

Instead of publishing a Munchy Monday post yesterday, I spent my day caring for Duchess as she delivered her very first litter. It was an exciting (and exhausting) 24 hours! Things didn’t go quite according to plan, but everything seems to have turned out well.

I was expecting the puppies to be born the end of this week, so I was a bit surprised when I started noticing some signs of labor Sunday, only 58 days from her first breeding. This is not unheard of, but often delivery happens closer to days 61-63, or if it’s Mia- 65. I was expecting 5-8 puppies, based on an ultrasound done at 4 weeks pregnant.

Duchess lost her appetite over the weekend, and I noticed that her belly dropped. Her waistline and hips were a bit more prominent, suggesting the puppies were getting in position to be born. This meant delivery was close, but not necessarily imminent. Things could still drag on a few more days. I hadn’t seen the temperature drop that indicates delivery within 24 hours, but I had also missed a few temperature readings, so I couldn’t be sure.

Then Sunday evening, I saw green discharge, which is usually not a good sign. Green means that a placenta is detaching. Premature detachment can mean a dead puppy, which can create labor complications. Usually, the only time there is green discharge is after the birth of puppy. If it’s before birth or, in this case, before labor even, it’s not a good sign. It’s not necessarily an emergency, but it’s definitely a red flag.

Sooooo, I stayed up most of the night Sunday, thinking that the puppies would be coming that night. Duchess was restless, but clearly not in active labor. I went to bed around 3am. I was extremely grateful for the small blessing that Reese decided to sleep in until 9! That gave me a few precious hours of rest.

Monday was a tiring day. One cup of coffee wasn’t really enough. Not only did Duchess need a lot of attention, Reese is currently teething. So I had two very needy companions for the day.

Monday morning brought a tough decision. It had been 12 hours since I saw green discharge, but we still didn’t have any puppies. I finally saw the temperature drop, though, letting me know that labor was definitely beginning. Should we take her to the vet for an ultrasound and x-ray to try to diagnose a problem or should we wait to see if nature would take care of things. Dead puppies aren’t all that uncommon, although they can cause problems. Many times, everything is fine. The dead puppy is delivered and causes no harm to mom or siblings. However, if the puppy dies too long before birth, it can create problems in utero. Also, dead puppies are harder for a mama to deliver, possibly resulting in a c-section and/or the death of other puppies due to stress.

Duchess didn’t seem to be stressed, so we decided to take the “wait and see” route. I don’t like to rush into things like c-sections or other interventions. If nature is allowed to take its course, it often does a fine job. I like to give it the chance, but I was prepared to make an emergency trip to the vet if things didn’t progress well.

During the day Monday, Duchess was restless and uncomfortable but not stressed. She wanted to go out to the bathroom frequently. She was nesting. She was clingy. I was desperately hoping for birth to happen during the day, so I could get a decent night of rest.

Around 6:30pm, active labor began. The first four puppies were born alive and healthy. The fifth puppy, however, was the trouble maker. This puppy had died before birth. Thankfully, it was recent. The puppy looked almost totally normal, indicating it hadn’t been dead very long. The longer a puppy is dead in the womb, the greater the chance of it creating other complications. I do think, though, that this puppy’s death triggered labor a few days early.

After the dead puppy was born, I could tell Duchess wasn’t finished. But I wasn’t prepared for just how many were still waiting to be born. They just kept coming and coming and coming until approximately 9:30pm. She had eleven puppies total, with ten of them surviving! This is going to be a busy place in a few weeks!

I have a couple of smaller puppies, with one in particular I am concerned about. The smallest puppy was born very weak. She kept getting pushed away, and she didn’t have the strength to try to nurse even with my help. She was dehydrated and fading quickly. Even in just two hours, she was becoming weaker, so I made an emergency trip to get Nurti-stat from a friend, a high-calorie liquid supplement. I gave her a small dose around 10pm, and she was soon able to nurse a bit. It was very weak, but it was better than not at all. By the time I gave her the next dose at 11pm, I could already tell a difference. Her body was warm, and her skin no longer looked dehydrated. Her sucking was significantly stronger. We will see what the next day or two holds for her. Runts in a large litter like this often struggle to survive.

This is one of those instances where intervention is necessary. I’ll be bottle feeding her and continuing with the Nutri-stat, but I am currently leaving her with Duchess and her littermates. I don’t want to bottle feed her full time. My goal is to give enough supplementation to give her the strength to nurse. Mama’s milk, especially the colostrum produced in the first 24 hours, is the best thing for puppy. Colostrum is what gives puppies immunity from diseases like parvo until the puppies’ own immune systems are developed. No other supplement or milk replacer can come close to mama’s milk. Even if this puppy only nurses half of the time, she is still getting some beneficial immunities from Duchess’s milk.

This is what breeding and raising puppies looks like. I am currently minus nearly two nights of sleep. I’ll be spending majority of the next few days hand-raising a weak puppy and weighing and monitoring the others. I’ll be carefully observing Duchess and tracking her temperature to make sure she recovers well. Breeding is not an easy business, but it’s definitely a rewarding one. I know there are a lot of people out there who criticize breeders, thinking that they only care about money. I really wish those critics could see behind the scenes. I know there are some bad breeders out there who do view their dogs and puppies only as a money source; but most of us really do care. Our dogs are our family. We pour an immeasurable amount of time and tears into each dog and each puppy. We lose sleep and sometimes sanity in an effort to help a puppy pull through. We spend hours each day caring for the daily needs of our adult dogs. We are always searching for ways to make our dogs happier and healthier. We are rewarded by the love of our dogs, by the warm snuggles of a puppy, and the by the happiness of the families who take our puppies. Yes, we depend on the income from our puppies to help support our own families, but it’s so much more than that. It’s a demanding job, but I love every step of way.

Here are some pictures from yesterday.

Duchess getting ready. She insisted on carrying around the stuffed puppy and having it in her nest.

First puppy!

Trying to help the runt nurse

All the babies! Can you count ten?

A very tired mama getting some well-deserved rest

That’s all for today, folks! I’ll post an update on the puppies in a few days! Have a happy week!