Dinner and a nap...

Dinner and a nap....Ranger

 Ranger seems the farthest along in trying to walk.  All the pups are starting to pull themselves up on their front legs and lurch around, instead of just crawling.  They all orient to Ecko's presence in the whelping box much faster than they did a week ago too and rear up to try to get a drink even before she is able to lay down.

Capri's cute socks and bib.

Love the happy arched tails when they are nursing.

Progress Report

Nothing sweeter than a full belly on a tiny puppy. -Jasper

Ecko has obviously had a stiff neck and, in hindsight, we think she had for a week or so before the pups were born.  Being a canine Mommy means lots of bending low and licking to clean pups, etc, so a stiff neck must be very uncomfortable.  We were lucky to find a mobile canine chiropractor very close to our house and Dr. Kalina Scherer of Portland Animal Chiropractic was able to come out yesterday afternoon to adjust Ecko.  She is moving much more freely and resting more comfortably. We scheduled a follow up for Saturday.  We want our girl to feel her best.  We use chiropractic care to support our dogs when they are active in agility and other high impact activities as a preventative measure.

Some weight gain stats:
1st puppy to double his body weight was the littlest guy, Gordo, who sports the dark green rickrack.
1st to exceed 1 pound was Cabot, one of the Parti-color boys.

Jasper (blue collar)

 Developmental Periods:

They have been in the Neonatal period (birth to 12 days).  During this period the puppies and the mother are best kept in a low stress, controlled environment.

Saturday will mark the start of the Transitional period - 13 to 20 days  Eyes open, puppy can hear, and begin to walk in a wobbly fashion.They will respond to taste and smell.

This is the time to introduce novel stimuli to the whelping box such as a plastic milk bottle, knotted towel, cardboard box, etc. This is also a time to introduce puppies to friendly cats. It is important to continue picking up the pups daily, cuddle them, talk to them, and spend a few minutes with each one individually.

A long weekend...

Heating Pad Gang

I hope you all enjoyed Memorial Day weekend and took a moment to remember the men and women who died while serving their country in the military. 

We are fighting a little skirmish of our own as the puppies agonizingly slow weight gain finally prompted us to take them to the vet on Sunday to see if we could figure out what was going on.  Thank heavens for the reproductive specialist I go to who makes time to deal with these issues at all hours and is only a cell phone call away.  She concurred that the pups all looked healthy: good heart sounds, no cleft palates, normal temperature, good poops... 

Pixie has unusual markings on her tummy.

Sadly we did lose a pup on Saturday morning.  Little Kiwi seemed fine one minute and was gaining at about the same pace as her siblings, and was gone across the Rainbow Bridge just as quickly.  Heartbreaking...

The vet believes that Ecko is not producing as much milk as she should, or that the caloric content of her milk is not high enough.  She is now on medication that will hopefully increase her milk flow and, in the mean time, Jan and I have to make up the difference.   Our options were to attempt to bottle feed the pups or to tube feed them and, given the information that tube feeding is the safer alternative (there is less risk the pups will aspirate than with bottle feeding), we chose to follow that option.  We are currently tube feeding them twice a day and have seen a noticeable increase in weight gain since then.

Pixie taking a nap with Mama

Pictures will get more interesting as the pups get older.  Don't read anything into the fact that Pixie got her pics taken more than the others for this update - she just happened to strike a couple of cute poses.

More and Less

Things that are less when there are newborn puppies in the house:

• sleep!
• walks and entertainment for the other dogs (Chili is quite put out over all the fuss over the new arrivals!)

Things that are more:

• laundry! lots of towels and doggy bedding to wash and the rug under the whelping box gets swapped out every day and washed
• meals for Ecko - we are pushing as much food into her as she will eat, gearing up for needed calories as the pups get older and drink larger quantities of Mama's milk
• record keeping - pups are weighed twice daily and results recorded to make sure everyone is gaining
• electric bills - space heater runs on and off all night along with hot pad under whelping box to keep puppies toasty warm.  Pups don't regulate their body temperature completely until they are several weeks old.



Ranger uses his sibling as a headrest.

• coffee

 Usually our litters "hit the ground running" and begin gaining weight immediately.  This crew had us a bit worried because they lost a bit of weight the first 24 hours (very common) and then bounced up and down a bit for the next day or so.  We suspect it was because they were born several days before their actual due date, so were perhaps not as strong as they might have been.  They are all gaining nicely now and we are starting to relax a bit.

Cabots nose showing black pigment starting to come in already.

We usually remove dewclaws on our pups, but decided not to this time, mainly in order not to stress the pups (or ourselves!) out any more.  This is considered an elective procedure and last year's litter fussed and cried for 24 hours after their dews were removed.  We just can't face that this year!  Not removing the dewclaws will mean two more nails to clip on the front legs, but also possibly better ability to grasp objects being chewed and traction on an agility course. 

 Kiwi (red, female), Jasper (light blue, male), Hank (no collar male), Capri (light green, female), Pixie (pink, female), Fargo (dark blue, male), Cabot (no collar, male), Ranger (orange, male), Gordo (dark green, male)

Cowabunga!

What a day!

pre-whelping xray on Friday

I should have known if I let Jan play golf that the puppies would come early.  I called him mid-way through his round today (just started hole 4) and told him to get home pronto!  He is our calm whelping coach and was ably assisted by my friend Julie, while I am a nervous Nelly and pace anxiously in the background.

First puppy was born at 11:57 AM and last one at 3:37 PM.   We had a total of 11, but 2 were stillborn, 6 of the pups are males and 3 females.  I titled the post "cowabunga" in part because we have way more Parti-colored pups than I thought we would have.

"Hank" - parti male

We like to be silly with our puppies and give them themed litter names (which can be changed when they go to their new homes, of course).  This time they are named after tomato varieties.  We have:
Pixie - female
Capri - female
Hank - male
Kiwi - female
Jasper - male
Ranger - male
Fargo - male
Gordo - male
and Cabot - male.

Hopefully they will sail safely through the first fragile days of puppy-hood and grow into strong and wonderful PWDs that will bring their families great joy.

Fargo - male

Box 'o Puppies - 6 of 9

Spring time is for puppies....

Well, really, puppies are pretty fun any time of year....

We are expecting a litter of puppies in the end of May.  Spring is here, the grass is growing, flowers are blooming and we are doing everything we can to keep expectant Mama Ecko as fit and content as possible so that she will have another easy delivery and bless us with another healthy, happy litter of pups.

Woodland Ecko

Saturday was beautiful and Ecko and I left the other dogs at home and went for a peaceful walk by ourselves in the woods at Camp Rivendale.

Last night we went for a walk in the neighborhood.  Ecko was eager to go, but despite waiting until it cooled down a bit, she was pretty hot and panting when we got back.  The dogs always love the cool tile floor when they are too warm and she spent some time there before coming to lay near me as I worked on the computer.

Our weather will be sunny and warm in the next few days, so we may be doing shorter walks in the morning and evening to get our exercise in without getting overheated.