The pups of the fifth generation

Bitch giving birth naturally

Bitch: Dona Goodbody What Else (Dona)
Pups: 4 pups according to an X-ray on 27 April 2016
Date of litter: 4 May 2016

Temperature table of the days before the birth

Pursued by bad luck and having learned something!

It doesn’t always go as you would have liked. Here is the course of the birth on 4 May 2016 in approximate chronological intervals:

• 7.25 a.m. Light scratching and then on-and-off napping
• 1.20 p.m. Suddenly heavy scratching and panting at intervals of 20 to 30 minutes
• Starting at 2.30 p.m., again and again some clear mucus
• Starting at 4.00 p.m., again and again some amniotic fluid
• Starting at 5 p.m., strong pains moving like waves over the body

In between a break with naps.

• Starting at 7 p.m., sharp pushing contractions
• 9 p.m., I feel the foot of the first pup
• 9.15 p.m., the first pup has arrived but is still-born. 1 male, 365 grams. This is nothing exceptional during whelping.

Dona is sleeping and recovering.

• 22.45, renewed pushing contractions. It is now going very quickly.
• 11.15 p.m., the second pup has arrived, again feet first: a white bitch at 365 grams, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed.
• 12 p.m. midnight, renewed strong pushing contractions: this time head first, and what do I see – a cleft palate! I put the pup aside. Dona is resting. The healthy pup is suckling.
• 1 a.m., renewed pushing contractions of approx. 10 minutes, and I’m already feeling a head again. I am met with another cleft palate.
• 6 a.m., trip to the veterinarian to euthanise both deformed pups. The veterinarian informs me that folic acid (vitamin B9) has been used very successfully with pregnant women to prevent cleft palates and spina bifida. Good to know!

Of the 4 pups, one remained for me as a naturally born bitch, who presumably could also have given birth naturally. That would then have been the sixth-generation naturally birthing bitch in a row. Unfortunately the mother dog never accepted this pup. Mother dogs know instinctively when one of their pups is not sound. On the fifth day, this pup suddenly didn’t want to drink any more, had a little blood in its mouth and died soon thereafter. I thus had a natural birth but not a single pup. A very experienced breeder in her bad luck phase told me once: ‘You only have to breed long enough and then you also have something like that happen.’

It is not always easy as a breeder to remain true to yourself!