Nessie's first (and probably last!) litter is almost here!
 

Hello all!
This is my first post to Yorkie Talk and I want to say that I feel blessed to have found this site! My 2 year old Yorkie, Nessie, is due to have her babies within the week and the advice I have found on this site has been invaluable. I feel much more prepared now and hopefully can be a good midwife to my girl.
Today is her 57th day, so I opted to have the vet E-Ray her to rule out any obvious issues. Imagine my surprise, (and the vet's) when we discovered than she is definately carrying 7 (yes SEVEN) pups! I must admit, it un-nerved me to hear this. She only weighed 5 lbs 14 oz. when she was bred so needless to say, she looks like she swallowed a cantaloupe and she still has a week to go.
Please keep her in your thoughts and if any of you have any advice or experience with large litters you would like to share, I would welcome it!
Thanks All!

First welcome to YT, congratulations on your litter, WOW 7, that is a lot of puppies, i hope you have plenty of calcium she is going to need it...
my silky is pregnant too and I am taking her for xrays next week.. I am shaking of the thought of 7 or 8..:D I am so getting over prepared that with my luck she will have 3...LOL
hugs,

wow, 7 pups.
well i know nothing about breeding but i just wanted to wish you the best of luck.
i hope the momma and 7 babies are all strong and healthy.

Welcome to YT:D! I wish you and your little Momma to be all the best:)

Congrats on the 7 babies!!! Like Carmen, we are xraying next week. I am almost positive we have 5 or 6! I have never had a litter over 3 so this is making me pretty nervous over here. :) Miss T also looks like she swollowed a canteloupe. She has a huge tummy, but just the last 2 days could I tell she was PG by looking down at her while she is standing. WOW she ballooned up!!! Weight gain is already 2 pounds 4 ozs. We have 12 days to go! UGH!!!!!

Good luck with your whelp! Keep us posted as to how things are going!!! :)

Wishing the very best for mommie and midwife.

One recomendation I have is calcium for during and after whelping I have oral cal plus on hand and this product that was discussed in my breeding group, I have 2 jars coming this week..
Hope this helps you a bit, I am so careful to make sure my girls have plenty of calcium while lactating.. to prevent eclampsia..
here's the link..Animed DiCal Powder 16 oz Dogs Canine Calcium Puppy | eBay
hugs,

Welcome to YT. I live in Bartow, Fl. If you want my phone number PM me. My Vet is wonderful and specializes in fertility, whelping and Insemination. She has taught me so much. And Some times we just need another Yorkie person to talk to. I know how excited and worried you must be. Congrats.

Pacing with excitement!! Omg 7 pups! Poor mama. I know nothing about breeding. But Im hoping for updates on the mama and babies. Welcome to YT. Make sure to post pics! :)

make sure...
 

my friends yorkie had 9 yes 9 puppies!! only 7 survived and then she didn't MAKE SURE all of the puppies got a good chance to nurse, so 2 of her puppies are very small (runts) because they were pushed off the nipple by the bigger , stronger puppies, so if you can -- rotate the puppies every 2 hours the first week so they pretty much develope at the same rate they should be about the same size in a weeks time if you ratate, you can use a shoe box to put half the litter in with a warm hot water bottle or heating pad to keep them warm, just rotate every 2 hrs that's my best advise. good luck and keep us posted. also make sure that none of the puppies crawl away from mama and get cold they can get cold and die oh my don't want to scare you, just help :)

wishing you and the mommy the very best of luck for a smooth, safe delivery.

Nessie had her Pups!
 

Thanks to everyone for your kind messages. Here is an update on Nessie.
She had her 7 babies on Sunday the 23rd. I first saw the water sack at about 4 a.m. (of course, the middle of the nite on a weekend!!) I had done a lot of reading to ready myself so I knew seeing her push for 45 minutes with me seeing nothing but a tail (no feet) was not a good thing. I called my daughter in law who lives down the street to come help me take her to the all night vet. She took one look at Nessie and said "we need to do something" At that point, she lubed up and literally pushed the pup back in slightly, found the legs, turned the pup slightly and pulled him out. (Mama did not care for this). Levi was fine and weighed in at 4.3. No all night vet bill! The other six were born without incident within 4 hours. 4 girls, 3 boys.
The smallest was the last one, Ruby at 3.8.
As expected, they lost a little weight the first 24 hours, but on day two, there was not the expected gain. Nessie only had 5 developed nipples and she was trying to feed seven. By day 3 all of them were below their birth weight and I was starting to worry. How was this little 6 pound dog going to feed 7 pups with 5 nipples?!
I texted the breeder who provided the Daddy and asked her if I needed to learn to tube these babies. (already tried bottles, they were having none of it). She called me immediately and told me that one of her females had given birth to a single pup the day before that had died. She offered to let me borrow Daisy as a wet nurse! I housed Daisy down the street at my daughter in law's house so her presence would not upset Nessie, and gave her 3 of the 7 pups. She took to them immediately as though they were her own.
The next day, Nessies pups had gained, but only one of Daisy's had. The one gained quite a bit, so we knew her milk was good. The next day, same results. Now I was worried I was going to lose those two.
I had noticed that Daisy's teats were considerable bigger than Nessies, so I decided to make yet another switch. I took the two who weren't gaining and gave them back to Nessie and her little nipples....Took two of hers that had been gaining well and gave them to Daisy. Neither Mom seemed to notice or be concerned about the switch.
I am happy to report that the two pups in question started gaining and by the next day were up .4 oz. and have since continued to gain. All seven pups are gaining and seem strong and active. I guess even though the two little ones appeared to be nursing from Daisy, the size of her nipples may have been making them work too hard! I don't know if they would have started gaining if I had left them one more day, but with 3 days of no gain, I had to try something.
I know this is a long post, but I thought maybe someone may red this and find it helpful down the road. I know I learned a lot!:animal36