Rosie has her puppies

Rosie spent the night with us in our bedroom. I woke up with a start at 6:00 a.m. to the sound of a dog doing the doggie labor panting. My first thought was "oh my gosh, Rosie's having her puppies". Well, no, she wasn't. She wasn't nesting, wasn't licking herself, wasn't having discharge, her temp wasn't down. This has happened before when I thought a girl was going to have her puppies just because she was panting, but she panted like that for a week. Rosie is just loaded with puppies, so of course she was panting.

An hour later I saw some black-green gunk on the floor. Uh oh, that is not good. In the human obstetrics world that is a medical emergency. For humans that means the baby had a bowel movement while still inside and if the baby were to "breathe" it into his/her lungs it would be really bad. As a former L&D RN (Labor & Delivery Registered Nurse) my first thought was to rush Rosie in for a C/S (Ceserian Section). I had to keep reminding myself that it is different in the doggie world. Although this is not good, it is not necessarily bad. How is that for vague? If the calculations are correct, Rosie is only on day 57 and the puppies would likely not survive if born today. It would not be wise to take her in to have her babies.

I took Rosie with me when I took Bryony and Jill to school. I did not want her unsupervised while I was gone. Plus, I was planning on calling the vet while I was out. Jill's school is halfway to the vet and depending on what the vet said I might go there from her school. No sense coming all the back here first. While out, I called my vet who wasn't due in for another 45 minutes; then I called the vet who gave a talk at our breeders gathering. He specializes in doggie fertility and routinely does C/S. He is really the one I wanted to talk to. He was busy and they transferred me to his voice mail. He made it clear in his message that he may not check his messages until the afternoon, depending on how busy he is. Humf! I didn't feel comfortable waiting that long. I called the animal hospital that took care of Ellie our cleft palate puppy 2 years ago. They are a well known and respected surgery center and ER. That is also where I took Bobby the not decapitated puppy. They said it could be that she is just got stressed and that she might be just fine. They said I could bring her on in, or just watch her to see if it continues. While we were in the car she seemed just fine. We went on home. When we got back home she wouldn't get out of the van. She would not budge. That was odd. I picked her up (no easy task...I think she has 23 huge puppies in her) and carried her inside. I took her on in our bathroom. She didn't want to stay in there. She went in my bedroom and started digging in the carpet. Uh oh....Rosie's gonna have puppies today. I real quick like got everthing ready. I now have kits put together so I only have to grab a bag and some towels and we are ready for puppies.

At 10:45 a.m. a black bag of fluid was hanging out of her. Uh oh...I called the surgery center back and told them I need to bring her in for a C-Section. I'm taking her to the place Ellie used to go. I'm not taking her to my usual vet who did Velvet's C-Section. When Luida and I got Rosie back in the van, Rosie started pushing and the bag of black and green water broke but no puppy came out Uh oh...

I carried her in to the hospital and they took us right back to a room. The ER doc examined her and did an x-ray. She said since we didn't do the progesterone testing to know exactly when Rosie ovulated, it is possible she is due today. The x-ray showed the first puppy was just a little sideways. We had two options, either give her some Pitocin to help give her stronger contractions and possibly push the puppy out, or do a C-section. She said the first puppy the likely problem and once he/she was out the rest will hopefully come out without problems. I said I would like to try one dose of Pitocin and if it didn't work in 15 or 20 minutes (the time it would take for them to get everything ready for a c-section) then I wanted her to have the surgery. There was no need to put her through a surgery if it wasn't absolutely necessary and she just needed to get that first pup out.

11:25 a.m.- one shot of Pitocin (Oxytocin) given.

11:30 a.m.- Female born, cream, stillborn. Her tongue was sticking out a little bit and was green-white. It was obvious she was dead and no need to even try to revive her. The doctor did a quick exam and didn't find anything obviously wrong with her (except that she was dead). She didn't appear to be premature.

Noon - Everything is fine now. The doctor sent us on home to finish the delivery. I was going to carry Rosie out, but she seemed to not mind walking. She is such a good girl.

12:52 p.m.- Male born with no problems. He appears to be a carmel color with a faint white crest on his chest and a white line down his back. He weighs 11.4 ounces.

1:20 pm - Female born. When Luida and I were at the hospital the tech kept telling us, in a nice way, to leave Rosie alone and not to hover. She said Rosie is a good mom, knows what to do, and will be fine. So when this one was born I kept repeating that to myself. When this pup came out I couldn't see anything from where I was sitting. I was trying to stay back. After about a minute I couln't stand it any longer and peered over to see. Uh oh...Rosie did a great job and got off the sack and chewed the cord...but the pup was face down in a puddle of fluids. She was moving around and trying to breathe. Ack! When will I ever learn? I am a hoverer and vow to remain a hoverer unless a mom tells me to go away. Luida worked on the pup for just a few minutes. She was gaspy and raspy. I sent Luida with the pup to the hospital and I stayed with Rosie. They were only gone about 1/2 hour. The pup started crying on the way over to the hospital. The vet did a quick exam and sent them on home. This puppy girl is a deep dark red with what looks like will be a thick F1B wool coat (no, she isn't an F1B but that is the type of coat she has). She is beautiful and I'm keeping her. She weighs 10.4 oz.Girl

3:30 pm - Male Rosie was pushing and pushing and I finally saw a foot sticking out. I reached in (no, not with my whole hand) and found the other foot and pulled and pulled. Out plopped a boy with what appeared to be a long gold-red coat.

4:15 pm - Female - still born and smelly. She came out in the sack that was all black-green. As soon as Rosie opened the sack...peeewwwww... I knew something was wrong. This girl had the very same appearance as the first. The green-white-yellow tongue was sticking out a litle bit and she had obviously been dead for some time.

5:45 p.m. - Male born without difficulty. His coat looks like it has a green hue to it. It also looks like an F1B wool coat. He weighs 13.3 oz.The green boy.

9:14 p.m.- Male born without difficulty. Although it has been several hours since the previous pup, Rosie has been sleeping. With each puppy she seemed to only have a few contractions right before having him/her. She has not been in hard labor much today. Guess that is easy for me to say...of course the labor wasn't hard for me, Rosie is the one in labor. This puppy boy has a straight deep dark red coat. He weighs 12.8 ounces.

10:10p.m.- Male born without problems. Rosie's favorite position to have puppies is standing up. With several of them, including this one, she pushed and he came plopping down right in my hands. This looks like a white puppy and he weighs 13.7 ounces.

Whew! So there you have it. Rosie had 6 beautiful healthy puppies today. She has one girl and 5 boys.

Rosie seems to be feeling pretty good.
Rosie's puppies.