[pyrnet] 11 puppies and how they grew

[Ken McNamara <conmara@grandcanyonhiker.com>]

Hi -

Our Great Pyrenees, Elaine, whelped last week.  I thought I'd post our
experiences (and in some case lack of experience) to stimulate
discussion and comment.

From what I could tell Elaine was due on Wednesday 6/14.  This was an
unintended event but since I'd had her completely separated from
Alexander (our Pyr male) beginning 63 days prior to 6/14 - I thought it
would be the day.  This time I learned that waiting until they show a
little interest is waiting too long.  Even though we missed the main
event they didn't.  I'm sorry now that I kept them apart during the more
urgent part of their season.

6/14 in the morning Elaine laid down - and appeared to strain a little -
then yelped a couple of times.  I thought she was on the way - so I took
the whole day off.  But nothing.  During the day she crawled into her
'den' a place dug out from under a large skid - and generally refused to
come out - even for biscuits.  A very odd behavior for her.

6/15 same and no indication that she was starting.  When I put her up
that night I thought she was walking even slower than she had been - but
didn't pay enough attention.

We have a whelping box - built for the last big event.  It's about 4' x
6' with  2' high walls.  (about 1.2m x 1.8m x .6m).  It was clean and
ready to go.  This time I added a 'pig rail' to give a pup a place to
work into if mom laid down with the pup between her and the wall.  The
last time we think we lost at least one pup because the box lacked this
feature.

So you guessed it - during the night she whelped.  And she used the ....
nope ... she didn't use the box.  She had them on the dirt floor.  If
people eat a peck of dirt in their life (my grandma's comment to me the
when I tried a spoonful) - then a whelping Pyr licks that much in one
night.

We were up at 5 AM and she already had 9 pups.  A 10th came right after
we moved her and her litter into the whelping box.  Then I started
hearing this little, bitsy yelp, yelp, yelp.  Like the other pups - but
it seemed out of place.  At first I didn't catch on - then suddenly I
knew!  I almost jumped the fence into the sheep stall - and there laying
right next to our oldest ewe was a lonely puppy.  Fortunately the
weather was warm that night and it was only a little cold from the
experience.  So mom and pup were reunited.

Then about 8 AM she had #12.

We got all the pups on teats and rotated them to insure a good start. 
New pups may have an instinct to find and suck - but you couldn't tell
it by me.  It seems to take forever to get them attached correctly.  Is
this a lack of technique?  Probably so.  But fortunately nature works it
out even when people only stumble.

About 3 PM Mom was out in the barnyard - and I noticed she dropped an
after-birth (should this be one word - seems odd...).  We hadn't been
there to make there was a one-for-one match between puppies and
after-births.  The vet confirmed that this was something to worry about
- they really need to clear their uterus.  But after 12 puppies - it's
pretty tired and may not finish the job on it's own.

So mom and I made a trip to the vet for a shot of Oxytossin (I didn't
get the spelling and even the word may be a little off here).  It makes
their uterus contract.  About 6 PM there was another after-birth in the
whelping box that she cleaned up when I point it out to her.

While there I scheduled the 6 week and 10 week vet visits for the pups. 
I know I could give my own shots (presuming I had a source for the
vaccine that I could absolutely depend on) - but I prefer to have the
pups examined and shots given by a real vet.  So far the families where
I place pups view this as extra value.  I don't claim to have the
experience with dogs to really give them a critical medical evaluation -
my vet does.  In addition he gives me certification paperwork which the
new owners can take to their vet.  When he sees new pups from other
sources which don't have papers from a vet confirming their shots - he
gives them another set of shots.  And finally the rabies vaccine has to
be given and certified by a vet anyway.

That evening we weighed and tried to identify each pup.  7 girls 5
boys.  They weighed between 1# and 1# 4 oz (.45 to .56 kilogram).  These
are badger marked pups - so I drew (badly) each pattern to help us tell
them apart.

With so many pups (she only had 8 to deal with the first time) we were
worried about Elaine having enough milk.  So I dropped a note this list
and received some very quick replies - reassuring me that the amount of
milk was the least of my worries.

The first time Elaine had pups we had real problems with mastitis
(breasts harden to the point that they feel like a lump of liver - and
in Elaine's case she one of them developed an abcess).  We got her on
antibiotics and although it didn't clear up completely her milk stayed
good.  But in some cases the milk can go bad - and you end up feeding
out a dozen pups.  Not an cheap or easy proposition.

So on Saturday morning when I noticed what I thought was some hardening
in her teats - off to the vet again.  Boy did I take static from my wife
for not doing this the night before.  The vet didn't think it was
mastitis - but as a precaution he put her on antibiotic.  Did I feel
guilty about overusing antibiotics - well, only a little.  The first
time was scary enough - and I didn't want to see that condition again.

Sunday morning one of the male pups was lethargic to the point of barely
responsive.  Elaine new something was wrong and held the pup in her
mouth.  Something we haven't see her do before.  It was still alive -
but we couldn't get it to take any nourishment.  We left it with her -
and by that evening it had died.

Elaine was very disturbed by this event.  We had to sneak the puppy away
from her and make her lay down to nurse her pups.

It's been 8 days now and the rest of the pups are thriving.  We attend
the AM and PM feedings - the puppies have no problem attaching to her
teats now.

Elaine isn't eating as voraciously this time.  Which worries us to the
point that we have hand fed her to some extent.  But the progress of the
pups shows she's getting the job done.

Today I'm going to redraw their markings again and check their weights.

I'll continue to post these somewhat wordy reports - unless I get thumbs
down from the people on this list.

Ken McNamara
my passion: www.grandcanyonhiker.com and Great Pyrenees
but we live Pittsboro, Indiana where even a gully raises the property
value...<g>