The Last Time
Isbie's first litter was "textbook". We had X-rayed at seven puppies. Her temp dropped the day before whelping, once labor started, puppies kept coming from 10 minutes to an hour and a half. Over two hours after what we thought was the last, another puppy was born dead. The tongue was pink, but no revival efforts worked. We ended up with seven puppies and lost a surprise. Our litter represented all the colors of a rainbow - Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.
This Time
Based on Isbie's first litter, we expected her to whelp 60 days after her breeding instead of the average 63. Our only "bet" was whether the first would come before or after noon on day 60. We had X-rayed at seven puppies. Tuesday should have been the delivery day of our second rainbow litter.
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Monday 3:00 PM: Isbie's temperature dropped, indicating she should whelp in the within next 24 hours or so.
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Tuesday 1:08 AM: Isbie starts to have significant discharge. It is dark green, which in dogs is a sign of old blood.
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Tuesday 7:16 AM: There is lots of green and water.
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Tuesday 7:30 AM: Isbie starts having contractions. The discharge has continued at a slow pace.
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Tuesday 9:00 AM: Labor starts to get hard after a short trip outside. Isbie is visibly more uneasy than the last time. She is barking often.
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Tuesday 9:37 AM: Water.
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Tuesday 10:48 AM: Blood in discharge. We've talked with the Vet a couple times, and the thought is to bring Isbie in for a shot to help the contractions.
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Tuesday 11:30 AM: We leave for the Vet.
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Tuesday 11:34 AM: First puppy is delivered a few blocks from home. We decide to go back home.
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Tuesday 11:37 AM: Second puppy is delivered. It is not good. Revival is attempted, but the puppy did not have as well developed fur and had a ruptured umbilical cord. We decide to continue to the Vet.
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Tuesday 12:45 PM: Third puppy is delivered. Did not start breathing right away. It was given oxygen, and drugs to help it, but it never came around. After two losses, we decide to keep Isbie where she is until this is over.
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Tuesday 1:26 PM: The fourth puppy is delivered after a few minutes of hard pushing. It is healthy! After this whelp, Isbie is taken outside for a short time to relieve herself. She came back in and threw up - lots. Whelping is messy business.
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Tuesday 2:15 PM: The fifth puppy is delivered. Labor has started and stopped with each one, this one had hard labor 20 minutes before which stopped and then a few minutes before.
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Tuesday 2:32 PM: Isbie is getting very tired. Labor started again and did not produce anything.
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Tuesday 3:37 PM: The Vets decide to give Isbie a shot of Calcium and Oxytocin to help the contractions. This is suppose to take about 15-30 minutes to be effective.
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Tuesday 4:11 PM: The Vet does a physical examination and feels a head. Labor has been non-productive.
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Tuesday 4:25 PM: An X-ray is taken. It shows one large puppy ready to go. There is another one hard to see, and one theory is it may be mummified the other is that it is just at a bad angle for the picture.
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Tuesday 4:35 PM: The recommendation is to do a C-Section. The surgical staff gets the operating room ready.
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Tuesday 4:40 PM: Isbie delivers the sixth puppy naturally right before they came to get her for surgery. We are all relieved. The advice was to take her home for the last whelp. We were given another shot of Oxytocin to administer if she had not whelped by seven o'clock.
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Tuesday 7:00 PM: No additional puppies. Isbie is given her shot in the leg.
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Tuesday 7:10 PM: Hard labor starts. Isbie is very uncomfortable and barks often.
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Tuesday 7:50 PM: Labor ends without producing the reclusive puppy. The Vet calls to follow-up a few minutes later. He wants us to call in the morning.
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Tuesday 8:40 PM: More labor, but nothing.
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Tuesday 11:30 PM: We get a placenta. Could be we missed one from puppy four or five. Or this could be from number seven.
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Wednesday 8:00 AM: The Vet wants us to come in, because the seventh puppy has still not made an appearance.
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Wednesday 11:00 AM: We arrive at the Vet. A physical exam does not show any signs of a puppy. An X-ray is taken which confirms there is still one more. In this picture it looks to be a good size, but is very high up in the uterus. At this point Isbie's body thinks it is done whelping and she has started the next chapter of motherhood. The odds of her going back into labor are slim. Because it is so far up, inducing would probably not help either. A C-Section is required. It feels like a story out of "Emergency Vets" on Animal Planet.
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Wednesday 12:10 PM: The seventh puppy is delivered via C-Section. It is not alive. It looked a good size like some of the others. Now Isbie would need to recover from the anesthesia before returning home.
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Wednesday 2:00 PM: Isbie is able to leave for home and return to her whelping box where she can raise her four healthy puppies. She will be Okay. We have a partial rainbow of puppies - Red, Yellow, Orange, Green.
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What we have learned is to trust the initial feelings we had that something was wrong. It's possible that an early C-section COULD have saved two of the puppies. The belief is that the one must have died a several days before and slowed down the whole process so much that two more died as a result. There is no clear explanation why this puppy died, it just was not meant to be. Wanting the best for Isbie, we were avoiding surgery and hoping the problems were behind us when the dead puppy was already out. Our Vets were wonderful and had suggested a C-section, but every time we started to consider it, she would have strong labor or a puppy. In the end, we accept that given the circumstances, we did all we could. There may be a reason these puppies did not make it. And yet, losing life is always hard. Now we will focus on the new lives that will need our attention and our love.
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For more information regarding whelping complications that we experienced, here is a good reference: Medical Management of Complications Affecting Delivery (Whelping)