A vet can do a quick x ray and they will know for sure then, but if she is not in labor and is acting settled in, and based on the size of the puppy, there probably was just 1. She should keep an eye out for any pus like discharge or smelly discharge that would indicate an infection that would result from a retained dead fetus.
There is no rule against pulling puppies out, I often have to help mine out, but the key is to pull with mom's contractions and to pull down, not straight out, as that is the path of the birth canal. And to try to grasp as much puppy as you can, try not to grap just the tootsies if possible. Another help is to take a syringe and attach a feeding tube, fill the syringe with KY jelly, wedge the tube in next to the puppy and squirt in the lubricant, can make delivery MUCH easier.
Newborn size generally is not dependant on the size of the sire. Puppies grown to fit the room that is available to him, thus why singletons can be huge. They can also be quite small as one of my girls had because he was located extremely high in the uterine horn and was growing deep in her chest where there was not much space for him. In a litter, my first puppy is usually the biggest, because of its location lower in the abdomen where they had more room to grow. I wish that was not the case because I'd rather have the smaller, easier whelps come first! I also see this on the xrays, the puppies further up in mom are generally smaller than the lower ones... |