Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Happy Birthday

Willow and newborn pups


The seven new pupsters

Willow gave birth to her second litter of pups on their predicted due date of 7/7/10. Six boys and one girl, all yellow Labrador Retrievers. As with the previous litter, Willow gave very little warning that she was going into labor. In true labby style, she ate dinner just hours before going into labor (most dogs have a decreased appetite or often don't eat 12-24 hours prior to whelping). Willow came in from outside, displayed some nesting behavior, was in Stage I labor by 10 pm, and had her first major contraction a little after midnight. Pup #1 (Purple Boy) was born at 1:06 am. Willow has something about starting to whelp at 12:00, although I much prefer 12:00 noon (as with the first litter, a rare daytime whelp) to midnight.
This whelp was a bit more stressful than many of the previous whelps at my house. Willow took her sweet time, taking 5 hours to whelp the first 5 pups. But then had 4 pups in just 1 hour, including two out on the lawn again. Unfortunately we had two stillbirths in this litter - this is very normal with large litters. The last surviving pup (yellow collar male) was born limp and not breathing, and required 30 min of resuscitation. He is our little miracle boy, and developmentally appears to have no significant brain injury as a result of his stressful birth. Pups' weights range from 8 oz to 16 oz. The two little 8 oz boys (Blue and Green) are going to be more fragile, and this litter will require lots of private nursing sessions to give the smaller pups a decent chance. We are also going to need to supervise Willow closely this first week since she is not the most careful of mama dogs, although her parenting skills have improved after her first litter.
Pups are currently identified with different colored hair band collars. Their coat colors vary from cream to darker gold.

2 comments:

  1. This is exciting to see! They are just so cute! I am sure Wes will have one of these guys in his home in the future! Can't wait to meet one or 2 of them! jill c

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  2. Congrats to Willow and family... wishing everyone a peaceful night of rest and recovery.

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