I ruined my 25+ year record! But I'm glad I did! PART ONE

(For those that can't handle waiting for the end of the story). I'm glad we ruined our record, because we have 5 beautiful puppies and a healthy Mom! Fia needed a caeserean section.

PART ONE - At 9:00AM on November 19, 2020 Fia started acting strangely. Here we go I thought! She was due to have her puppies on November 22 so I wasn't surprised by her restlessness and wanting to stay close to me. You could see she was having small contractions so we went into the whelping room and I sat expecting a puppy any time. By 10:30, nothing. That's not a good sign.

I felt inside and could feel a puppy head. It's mouth opened when I touched it. Good! It's still alive! Intervention was needed. The puppy was not proceeding down the birth canal as it should. It was STUCK! I had travelled to Cranbrook many years ago and taken a 3 day course on Puppy Intensive Care. Best thing I've ever done. I can't tell you how many perfectly healthy puppies I've saved just because of bad luck on their part. Too long in the birth canal and starved of oxygen, hip locked, placenta detachment etc. All the puppies are perfectly healthy, but without intervention would have died. I'm ever so grateful to Myrna Savant Harris!!

As it turned out, this puppy was hip locked. That means the puppy's hip is locked up with the Mom's pelvis. There's no way the puppy could possibly come out. Strangely enough, you need to push the puppy back IN! That unlocks the hips and hopefully when it is squeezed through the next time, it comes through properly! And it did! So at 10:38 in the morning, the first pup was finally born! A beautiful little Black and Tan girl! Two hours later, another girl was born with no problem at all.

And then we waited. And waited. And waited. It was now 5:00PM so a call to the vet. Fia was not in distress, so we waited some more. And some more. At times I could just reach high enough in the birth canal to feel a nose. Other times I'd feel for it and there was nothing. I could never feel enough that I could grab hold of it. I stayed up all night with her, giving her glucose for energy and calcium for strong contractions. In the form of ICE CREAM! Fia loves ice cream! But to no avail. The vet called me at 7:00AM to see how she was doing. I LOVE MY VET! We decided even though Fia was not showing any distress (sleeping soundly and taking care of her two pups) that I would bring her in to the clinic.

Part Two to follow...