jexxie | 11-24-2008 09:00 AM | I did the same thing as you. Watched all the youtube videos, researched for hours, stayed up all night with her.. I was worried sick. You can watch and read all you want and it helps, but you never know what you're getting into until it happens. They can come out breach, and if that happens you need to know how to pull them out (toward the belly button of the mother) or they can get stuck in the birth canal, die and possibly hurt mom as well. I thought my female had 2 maybe 3 pups, but when she had them on the 13th she had five!!!.... One died, but the other four are doing great and have already doubled their size. You need to make her a whelping box that is big enough for a bed area and half of it for a potty area/food area.. Food and potty being in seperate corners. Have her start sleeping there so she is familiar with her space. In a week or two if shes pregnant you will most likely start to feel the babies moving around. Anyway, Here's the list of all the things I bought b4 they were born: Unwaxed dental floss, a baby nasal aspirator (nose sucker bulb), hand sanitizer, scissors, digital thermometer and therm. shields, a pack of tums for mom after the birth, a heating pad and a few other things I'm probably forgetting. The dog will be prego and deliver around 58-63 days gestation. Mine delivered around 60. I started taking her temp every few hours. If fluctuated for a few days going from 100 down to 98 and back up again. But, before she gave birth it stayed at a constant 98.2 for about 9 hrs. and she delivered. She got really clingy towards the end. She woke me up panting and barking and about 15 minutes later she popped them all out in less than an hour. I bought dental floss and scissors to cut the cords and tie them off but she was a spazz and had the placenta and cord eaten b4 I had a chance to do any of that. It is their nature, the know what to do when the time comes, and she's a first time mom as well. I did break the sacs open and help her with removing them so pups didn't suffocate.. After you do that, you need to suck their mouths out with the nose sucker to get all the fluids out. They should start to whine either before you do that or definately afterward. The sac is harder to break than it looks so I had to be careful and actually make a small cut in them with scissors. My bitch chewed one of the cords a little close and it was bleeding a bit, but I just squeezed the cord between my fingers for about a minute and the bleeding stopped. Make sure you have a vets number or an emergency vet in case she goes in to labor after hours. I thought it was going to be traumatic, but my girls birth came fairly easy. You may not get that lucky though. It just depends. I'm not experienced breeder, like I said this was my first time but I am confident now with what I went through that I can give good advice if you need it. If nothing else, keep me posted, I'll give you my number and if the time comes and you need some encouragement, you can call me and I'll be happy to help out.. Hope you got some useful info and if you need anything else, just ask me and maybe I can tell ya.. Good Luck!!! |