Visa is in labour..

[wolfsoul]

Looks like we'll have puppies tonight or tomorrow! Temp is down to 99, she is very restless. Panting, pacing drooling, whining (any noise is very unusual for her). Right now she is settled because I am sitting here. I'm washing some blankets, just cleaned out her whelping pen. I forgot to buy yarn for around the puppies' necks (don't you love how the last minute is always when you remember things...) so I'll have to find some other way to mark them. Just getting everything together.
I'm expecting three pups but hoping for more. I have quite the waiting list and they are all once-in-a-lifteime homes.
I'm very tired and I have to work tomorrow.. I told her she should wait until Wed afternoon because I don't have to work on Thurs LOL. I can already tell this is going to be a long night of me, sleeping in the whelping pen. I imagine I'll wake up and she'll have already had them without my help LOL.
Anywhos, back to things! I'll keep everyone updated.

[K9karen]

I can't wait!

[Karen]

Good luck, pretty girl!

[cyber-sibes]

AH! I'm glad I checked PT tonight! Good luck, mommy Visa! Will check back for news of pup-pup-puppies!

[wolfsoul]

Nothing yet! She is finally relaxed, sleeping behind me. She has been up so long it's good to have her chill for a bit. I'm very tired and have to work tomorrow so I'm just going to have her sleep beside the bed tonight and I'll keep an alarm on my phone so I can keep checking her every so often. I imagine at some point in the early morning she's going to need a trip back to her whelping area.

[bckrazy]

I am sooo excited for you and Visa! I hope you get 3+ big, healthy, beautiful babies. Eagerly anticipating pictures!!!

[beeniesmom]

Hoping for beautiful and healthy puppies!

[happylabs]

Oh puppies!!! I remember the days when our Chocolate Lab Maggie had puppies. It was an exciting time, a lot of work but very rewarding. Hope all goes well.

[Spiritwind]

Looks like we'll have puppies tonight or tomorrow! Temp is down to 99, she is very restless. Panting, pacing drooling, whining (any noise is very unusual for her).

Has her temp dropped anymore? Only down to 99 doesn't seem quite low enough. When my girls are pregnant they are naturally around 99-100.

They may be very restless and nesting for a couple days before labor, but I don't expect much until it drops to low 98's or below...

Amy was like that with her "litter" (one puppy) just over 3 wks ago.. she nested for 2 days and drove me INSANE... wouldn't eat, and FINALLY had the puppy after her temp dropped down to 98.2... and stayed down lol

[Husky_mom]

OMG!!!!... I can´t wait either.. oh the anticipation... I can almost feel your excitement.... oh wait ... I DO FEEL IT ... YAY!!!!

please charge your batteries.. as we´ll need TONS of pics!!

[wolfsoul]

And Jordan provides yet another good reason for people NOT to breed.... LOL

Well, she's been in labour for, oh about 15.5 hours... I made an emergency appt this morning when she was continuing to leak fluid but there were no contractions or pushing, and I couldn't feel the pups move anymore. If progress isn't made, it will likely be a c-section this afternoon. We did an x-ray. Turns out we only have two puppies (I just can't win... LOL atleast we doubled the last litter count!!) and they are GIANTS. They haven't made it into the birth canal yet, which is why Visa isn't having contractions or pushing. They seem happily content waaay up in her abdomen. We can only hear one heartbeat, but that really means nothing, my vet just doesn't have a fetal heart monitor so she can't get a good reading.
I gave Visa some calcium and have been giving her herbal remedies (that may kickstart things a bit more) every 15 minutes. I gave her some Biocalm. I'm tryign to get her outside to run around after her remedy but she is very reluctant. The exercise might help move things along though.
I'm so disappointed about there only being two. I had several amazing breeding homes lined up all over the states. Oh well, what can you do. I just hope the puppies are healthy and happy puppies.

So, another lesson to the person who wants to breed... I have spent almost $3000 on this litter. By this afternoon I may have to spend yet another $1000 on a C-section for this litter. I get two puppies, which is convenient because I want one..and stud fee is a female puppy. There goes ANY money I could have made -- AND -- if there are no females, I still have to pay the $1200 stud fee. Who says breeding makes money??? I sure don't!!!

[Spiritwind]

Good luck with the litter! I know what you mean about small litters. I had several people interested in my litter, born May 2nd, but there was only ONE puppy! lol luckily a rough sable bitch.. at least it wasn't a male... lol

Hopefully things go well and you don't have to do a c-section.

Its really not all that uncommon for them to leak fluid for a while, before going into hard labor. Amy nested HEAVILY for 2 days before she had her puppy. She was off her food for at least 2 days as well. Temp saw always between 99-100, finally when she got down to 98 you could tell she was really getting into labor. Didn't ever have many real noticeable contractions.. until right before the pup came out. A HUGE female.

I have also learned over the years that once the dam starts into labor its often very hard to feel puppies moving.. they tend to get pretty quiet.

Hope things work out for you! I know those surgical implant AI's are VERY expensive. A collie breeder I know spent $3500 on that and follow up check ups on her bitch several years ago!.... I've never done that with any of my girls.. did a chilled AI once, several years ago, but the vet was a moron (LONG story) and the bitch missed.

I've done many freshly collected AI breedings... myself, no vet involved and I've had great luck. Never had a bitch miss. Unless I bred a bitch like yours was bred.. or I was planning to do chilled again, I have no use for vets, in regards to getting breedings done LOL I think they (and also some breeders I know) make things WAY more complicated than they really need to be LOL

[wolfsoul]

I know what you mean -- my last litter was asingleton too -- only it was a unilateral cryptorchid male. Like I said, I can't win LOL.

We went ahead and did the c-section. She was not progressing, they were still way up in her abdomen and the vet said that they were not going to elect to come out on their own, but Visa's body wanted them out. So we did it. It went very well, it was a quick surgery and I watched the entire thing. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
So we now have an 18 ounce female and a 16 ounce male. Both pups are beautiful, VERY strong, love to be held and pet. I'm extremely disappointed because I've made the very difficult decision to give the male to another breeder on co-ownership. I really wanted to keep something out of this, but I know she will have more time to show him in the next couple of years, so we will just share him back and forth so he can be specialed in the states and I can atleast finish him in Canada. She is sending me a female puppy in return anyways, so I will still have something.
I will breed Visa one more time after this, next spring, and then she will be retired from breeding. I figure from her last litter I will finally be able to keep something from her. This time it will be a natural breeding to a male in Texas.
I love these puppies. Boy puppy has white toes on his two back feet and a tiny white spot on his chest. Girl puppy has quite alot of white on her chest (but not too much) and all four of her feet have white toes (it's a fault to have white front feet, but many Belgians do and place just fine in show). They have very nice rears already, I love to watch them climb and crawl. Alot of strength in them for such young babies. The minute they were able to breathe fine they went straight into a box and the female figured out how to climb out within seconds.
Right now mom and babies are sleeping all snug. Visa is probably wiped right out. The good thing about small litters -- my husband was all depressed because we couldn't do any camping this summer with a bunch of puppies. Well, two puppies are easy to take along with us everywhere. So they will be coming on camping trips, road trips, everywhere. They will be very socialised.

[Alysser]

Congratulations to you and Visa! I'm glad mom and puppies are ok. LOL, at least it's more then just Solo. I can't wait for pics

[Spiritwind]

Congrats on the two healthy puppies! At least you have a bitch puppy for the stud owner.

I personally LOVE small litters! This singleton puppy I have now is so much fun! lol if my girls always had like 4 puppies, max. I'd be happy!...

Not a bad deal on the male puppy though. I prefer not to keep many, if any males. I have 1 right now, and he is going to a show home in Ohio in a couple weeks -- he'll be a year in June and is pointed, but not been shown since Jan.

He gets to go live with another breeder.. she cares for him, pays for him to be shown and finished and I have stud rights!! Works for me! LOL The smooth sable male from my Sept litter just left almost 2 wks ago, he went on co-ownership as well, will be shown in breed and juniors... and possibly agility in the future and I think they want to try herding with him (his sire was a great herding dog!). Same agreement as the other male.. I have stud rights to him.

Since you are going to co-own him, and he will be with you at times, in the future maybe you will have a nice bitch to breed to him and then you can hopefully get that pedigree you like, and hopefully in a bitch!