I am not a breeder, but have whelped a couple of litters of large dogs many years ago, and have been around the dog world awhile......
The puppy count x-ray is helpful, but not always 100% accurate, so you will want to stay with Joy for awhile after the "last" one is delivered. I had my whelping box in my bedroom!
Puppy size and pelvic size is important, and if her labor goes on too long and seems to be very hard, you will need to take her to the vet. Waaaaaay back in the 60s, on our first night in our new town in Georgia, a car in traveling in front of us hit a beagle and just drove right on. We stopped and carefully put the crying dog on my husbands suit coat and carried her to the car and found a vet. She had a broken pelvis. She was obviously pretty old and had only a few teeth. Tried to find the owner. No luck. So we took her in and named her Daisy. And within about 4 weeks, we realized she was PREGNANT!
When it came time for her delivery, she labored too hard because of the way the pelvis healed, and I went next door to our new neighbors for help......He was a USDA vet and they were having a dinner party for another vet and his wife. The visiting wife was a delivery room nurse at the local hospital. Well. They all got right up from the dinner table to examine Daisy and decided that she needed a Caesarian, so we sterilized the tops of the washer and dryer, brought in extra bright light, scrubbed up and operated in our laundry room! It was sooooo neat to take those pups out of the sacks and help them breathe their way to life! Daisy had five pups and was certainly well attended with TWO vets and an RN! All for free, too. Epilogue: When Daisy was through nursing pups and they all had nice homes, John, the vet next door, and I made an operating room out of the laundry room again and SPAYED her! |