Puppy delivery adventure

Starting Saturday Basil stopped eating. I knew labor was eminent. She was acting uncomfortable. It took longer than I expected but around 8:30 on Sunday night I knew it was time. She was sitting on the couch with us and started nesting in the towel I had on the couch (it's been wet out so I'm trying to protect the couch from muddy paws). I told her, "let's go to bed." She jumped down and ran to her fenced off spot. She started nesting right away and wouldn't let me leave her side. If I left to go get anything she went to the gate and stood there staring at me whining. Last time her labor progressed smoothly. She had her puppies anywhere from an hour to 15 min apart. I expected similar this time. Boy was I wrong! The first puppy came at 9:30. He came out without a sac and his umbilical cord pulled off the placenta on his way out. 

First born

 He became cold really quick. I think he didn't get his last boost from the placenta. I held him but my hands are never warm enough so I put him on a microwavable heat pad. That still didn't seem to do the trick so I gave him to Greg. He put him under his shirt and warmed him. Eventually he had to go to bed so I put him on my stomach then got the heating pad in front of the space heater, and wrapped him in a hand towel on that. He finally stayed warm! 

Snug as a pug in a rug

During all this I kept expecting Basil to have another contraction and expel the rest of the sac and placenta. After about 30 min of waiting for that I decided to help her out. I took a washcloth and grabbed the little bit that was hanging out and pulled. Luckily, it came right out. 

Bit of sac hanging out

I expected the next puppy before 10:30. Around midnight I was getting worried. Got on the internet and found that up to 4 hours can pass between puppies and as long as momma doesn't seem uncomfortable or straining for long periods, all should be good. Around 1:15 I hit the internet again and found that low calcium and/or glucose can cause a stall in labor. Thanks to someone online for the suggestion to feed momma a bit of ice cream. Of course normally this would not be fed to my dogs, but under these circumstances, I didn't think a little would hurt. Luckily we had about 2tbls left of some all natural vanilla ice cream. I gave her about 1tbls of it and she gobbled it down. Within 5 min we had a second puppy. I don't know if it was the cold, the sugar, the calcium, or just a coincidence but I was happy. This second puppy also came outside of the sac and was hanging from her for a little bit by it's umbilical cord. 

Hanging puppy

I tried to hold the puppy up to help her but she kept spinning and sitting so I wasn't much help. Eventually the cord ripped and I was really worried it was going to hurt the puppy. It did look like it pulled quite a bit away from the body but hopefully all that will result it an outie belly button. I had to help her pass the placenta again. Luckily this one didn't have the cold problem since I had a nice warm spot with a sibling to cuddle up with. 

 Around 2:30 I again started getting worried. While I had found that 4 hours could pass, I also saw a lot of references to 2 hours being the max and after that to get your dog to a vet asap because the puppies could be in distress or start to die. I tried the ice cream trick again. It seemed to give her one contraction but then nothing. By 3:00 I was giving her a 15 min count down. At 3:15 there was still no sign of anything so I loaded her and the 2 puppies into the car. As soon as she got in the car, the garage door hadn't even finished shutting yet, she started acting like she was having contractions. I didn't really want her having puppies on my car seat so I brought her back inside. She ran out and pooped instead. Then just sat there like nothing was happening. I gave her 10 more minutes then loaded everyone back up in the car. The emergency vet is 30 min away and she acted like she was having contractions often, but no puppy. We made it to the vet, got inside, did the standard vital check and history, and they took her back for xrays to make sure no one was stuck. As the tech carries her back into the room Basil yelps and a puppy drops right there onto the floor. Luckily its fall was broken by the tech's shoe! It was quite a surprise for all of us. She wasn't whining or acting like she was in labor at all. 

Cleaning her first hospital puppy

 The xrays came back clear but they were surprised to see so many still inside of her. 

Next they did some blood work to see how her calcium and glucose levels were. While they were waiting for those results to come back they gave her a shot of oxytocin to try to speed things up. Withing 30 min of that shot the next puppy arrived. Again with no real sign of labor. Basil was just sitting calmly next to me, then yelped and there was a puppy. 

They setup 3 IV bags full of warm water covered by a towel to keep the puppies warm. But eventually we had too many puppies and they brought in a warm water mat and made a new bed for them. 

Sharing the warm water bed with her puppies

The blood tests came back normal. The next puppy arrived 12 min later. Each time a puppy came Basil would yelp and the vet would hear it and know to come check on her. That left us waiting on three puppies. Around 30 min in the vet wanted to do an ultrasound to make sure the last 3 weren't stressing since they had been in there so long. As the vet tech comes in to get her Basil stands up and drops another puppy. At this point I'm thinking an ultrasound isn't necessary since only two puppies are left but after 15 min and no more puppies they take her back to do the ultrasound. The cynical me is thinking this is just for more money at this point but I can't really argue since their argument is that the puppies have been in there for over 9 hours since labor started. While she is back there I hear a yelp and am not surprised when the door opens and the vet comes in carrying a puppy. She said the one that was just born had a slow heart rate but the last one looked good. It didn't take too long for the last puppy to come. 

Cleaning the last puppy

After 10 hours we were finally able to call it a night. Needless to say Basil and I are exhausted!

On the ride home.