Koyuk had a long, difficult whelping. She started into labor at 2245 on 7/18/2017 and labored hard all night. During our potty walks in the dark, she drug me to numerous "dens" she had dug in preparation for the litter (and here I was blaming Trask for the holes I knew about). Kerstin, my recruited canine midwife and wonderful owner of now deceased BrownStone Lupin from my first litter, and I left an anxious Trask and Cedar and took Koyuk to go to the vet at 0800 when they opened.
My vet/clinic owner was still on vacation but his new partner was on duty. She gave calcium and oxytocin to initiate contractions and took another x-ray. This one clearly showed 9 whelps all packed together. Dogs have two uterus' or horns. In the text diagrams, the whelps all line up in a neat line and alternate which horn to drop down out of and be born. The x-ray looked like a can of worms with heads, spines and legs all entangled. Two more oxytocin shots with 45 minutes and several walks around the parking lot between, and me curling up with her on the exam room floor, did not progress the labor.
At noon, we were then sent to the Emergency Vet in Springfield with written orders for an Emergency C-Section...
where the ER vet decided to take a wait-and-see approach. Koyuk was given IV fluids. An ultra-sound was done to look at fetal hearts for signs of stress due to the prolonged labor. The US was exciting and fun to watch. One pup kept putting his paws over his chest just as the vet started her heart-rate count. She had to re-start several times.
At 1500 Koyuk was taken back to surgery for her C-section and spay. Kerstin and I waited and waited and waited on the wood bench. (Kerstin's husband brought us his homemade pizza which did wonders to revive us. We had not had sleep or food other than granola bars since labor started.) At 2030 we were able to go back to see the pups and got the news that there were actually 10 but 4 had not made it through the surgery. Five boys and one girl had survived.
The pups were in an incubator and Koyuk was still in recovery. The little girl was the most active and had to be moved into the picture frame. She was more than ready to explore her new world while her brother huddled and whined.
We were sent home. I went back at midnight to pick up Koyuk and the pups.
It was immediately apparent that my warming transport box was stuffed to it's limit.
Koyuk was still under the effects of anesthesia and pain meds along with the hormonal crash of the spay when we got home at 0140. She was confused, unstable and only wanted to hide outside. I did bring her in to meet her little ones but she was too out of it to care.
Puppy pile on the warming blanket after being weighed.
I spent the rest of the night alternating between feeding all the little ones and caring for Koyuk who was resting on a blanket down in the mud room.
Finally at 0500, she accepted my invitation to settle into the whelping box.
The pups found the milkbar and the pain meds kicked in.
Knowing that she would accept the pups and they had their first colostrum, when all was quiet, I too crashed on the nearby couch.
Today was a blur of trying to catch naps; dealing with the caboose movers; watching the little ones explore their world; answering e-mails and taking pictures. Kerstin generously brought us dinner when she cane over to meet the pups and for a whiff of puppy breath.
Again all is quiet. Everyone is fed and clean. I am off to the couch.
