I’ve heard numerous times “I want to breed my dog, puppies are so cute and cuddly I want to have a litter of my own” or ” your so lucky you get to have a litter of puppies, to get to play with them all day must be so much fun” or ” my dog would make such a great mom” or the best one “you can make good money having a litter”. Those might not be the exact saying’s that I hear but you get the drift.

The general public doesn’t get to see or hear what happens behind the scenes, they just see pictures of cute cuddly puppies and think that all went well and this might be something they want to do…. to have a litter of puppies themselves.

Is there anything cuter than baby puppies? They are cute and cuddly but when your a reputable breeder a lot of time and money goes into research, titles, health clearances, supplies, veterinary medicine along with blood sweat and tears.

As you can see Josey has many ribbons which turns into many titles (and this isn’t all of them). She has her genetic testing done as well as her OFA clearances (Orthopedic Foundation for Animals). She was vet checked and healthy. This was all done before thinking about breeding. Once all the health clearances/genetic testing was done and results recorded the research began on finding the proper stud dog that had the same health clearances/genetic testing done, titles, healthy and who would compliment Josey. When you breed you breed to better the breed so there are many things to consider when putting a breeding together.

Another thing to consider is what type of breeding will take place, natural, side by side, TCI, Surgical AI. There are different things that need to be done with each procedure. This breeding Josey’s owners decided to go the all natural route as in the past they tried natural, side by side, TCI twice with all the same stud dog with no pregnancies (stud dog’s semen was collected and checked and viable), next was a surigical ai with frozen which resulted in a singleton so this breeding they went back to natural with a different stud dog than before.

The all natural route was the way to go, Josey is pregnant.

Around 33 days after a breeding you can have an ultrasound done to confirm a pregnancy. Some breeders have ultrasounds at home but Tom doesn’t so a vet visit was in order. Once a pregnancy is confirmed dewormer is added to the pregnancy regimen, adaptal collar and increase in food.

Around 55 days a radiograph is taken to count puppies so you know how many are going to arrive. This will be a trip to the veterinary clinic as you don’t have the ability to take radiographs at home. At this time it’s time to get the whelping room ready. Whelping box is needed, blankets, towels, pads, warming unit, heat lamp, kitchen scale, bulb syringe, thermometer, hemostat, dental floss and this is just a small start to the list. You need to be prepared for just about anything to happen. At this time you will talk to your reproduction vet about free whelp or doing a planned c-section. With Josey’s reproduction vet she recommends a c-section on litters over 8 puppies. Since no progesterone testing was done during her heat cycle to determine when Josey would ovulate the vet wanted to do a reverse progesterone test to determine when a c-section should be done. This was suppose to be done on July 23rd and a tentative c-section for July 24th.

Josey had other plans, she started to whelp in the early morning on July 22nd. This natural whelp would be Tom and Irene’s first natural whelp, Josey’s first litter was a singleton so she had a planned c-section. Tom contacted me early morning to let me know she started to whelp, I jumped in the shower then grabbed my supplies and off I went to help out.

A couple puppies were born before I got there, Josey, Tom and Irene all did an excellent job with the pups.

Josey started having contractions once I got there. She didn’t want to lay down, Irene said she had the other puppies standing up as well. Irene was there to catch them and take care of them after they were out. You could tell that Josey was getting tired. She still wouldn’t lay down and would stand there with her eyes closed trying to take a break until the next contraction. When she was having contractions the puppies already born were tucked away in a basket with a heating pad and a heat lamp to keep them warm until they could go back into the whelping box with mom.

I finally got Josey to lay down, once down she took advantage of laying down and took a little nap, while napping the puppies got to nurse. It’s not unusual to have one puppy a hour so we waited for the next one to come. At about a hour she started having contractions again and she delivered the next puppy laying down which is normal way to deliver puppies.

After 5 puppies Josey was slowing down, she was extremely tired by this time. While we waited for the next contractions there was a gush of water that came out of her vulva so we thought a puppy would be next, there was no puppy but a dark black and green discharge. We got Josey up and walked her around outside to get things moving again, more black green discharge and no puppy. By this time we made the decision to take her into the reproduction clinic and have her checked out. You need to catch things early when in whelp instead of waiting it out as if it seems like something is wrong it usually is and you don’t want to have intervention too late. So we packed up the puppies, supplies and off we went.

While Josey napped the puppies got to nurse on the way to the vet clinic as we weren’t sure if Josey would need a c-section to have the rest of the puppies so if she did at least the puppies would have been fed and could go a bit without a feeding. During this time Josey started having contractions again and out comes a puppy. Irene put pups back into the basket while I helped josey have a puppy in the van.

This puppy was having problems coming out, I needed to help it out as the sack was already off the puppy so it needed to get out before it ran out of air. We weren’t sure what was going to come out as it had been a long time since the gush of fluid.

It’s a girl and the puppy was just fine. No problems at all. Cleaned it up, tied off the umbilical cord and let mom snuggle with her. This was the only puppy born in the van. She stopped having contractions again. We finally made it to the veterinary clinic. Tom and Irene took Josey and the puppies in to be examined. I stayed in the car because of COVID-19 only two people were allowed into the clinic. I waited for news.

Josey had an exam, was started on IV fluids, different medications were given to help her with the whelp. The vet gave medications to try and have her deliver the puppies in the vet clinic vs going right to a c-section. The vet felt she was doing alright so she proceeded this way.

Dr. Greer at Veterinary Village delivered two of the puppies in the vet clinic. She needed to help one of the puppies out. Both puppies were fine. They were put into the incubator to keep warm and have oxygen while waiting. At this time a x-ray was taken to see if there were anymore puppies, we thought there would be 8-9 puppies from the previous x-ray. According to the xray there was one more puppy to be delivered. Dr. Greer did an ultrasound to check to see if the puppy was alive, she checked for a heartbeat and check gut motility. Unfortunately there was neither, this puppy had passed away most likely from an extended labor and being in to long once whelp started. At this time Dr. Greer decided to get really aggressive with the whelping medications so that Josey would deliver this puppy and not have to have a c-section to remove a dead puppy.

The last puppy was delivered naturally. It was time to have everyone nurse before the ride back home. The pups all got a clean bill of health. Josey now needed rest before starting to take care of the puppies.

Wednesday night we made it back to the Pawlisch’s house and got everyone settled into the whelping box. Josey was a good mom and took very good care of the puppies.

Willow was a good big sister and was helping care for the puppies. Two days had passed and Josey started going down hill, she stopped eating and was sleeping more and not wanting to do anything. She was still nursing the puppies but she didn’t have much milk because she wasn’t eating or drinking. It was time to pack everyone back up and back to the vet they went. Josey was examined and found to have a fever, she ended up getting an infection in the uterus so she needed more fluids and antibiotics to get her back to good health.

All the medications and supplies from the vet clinic.

Irene weighing the puppies to make sure they are gaining weight.

The puppies needed to be supplemented with goats milk since Josey wasn’t producing milk like she should. She was getting her antibiotics was getting SQ Fluids to help rehydrate her and a medication to help her milk come down. She was on a schedule to receive all her treatments. The pups took to the bottle just like that and were able to hang out with mom and nurse on her when they could.

It took a couple of days of round the clock monitoring, feeding pups and giving Josey medication before her fever came down and she was feeling better.

During this whole time of her having an infection and fever she still took care of her little ones. She really is a good momma. She needed two weeks of medications and now she is done taking medications and doing really well. All the puppies are doing very well too. This Wednesday they will be 3 weeks old, at this time gruel will be introduced and they will learn to eat on there own in order to prepare them for weaning. At this time they are being exposed to different surfaces, different toys and different noises. Right now their eyes and ears are open so it’s time to start the startle and recovery exercises to prepare them for the big world out there.

I am blessed that I live close to Tom and Irene so I could be part of this experience and help out when needed. There are whelps that go easily with no problems and there are whelps that have problems and it is up to us to know when there is a problem and address it. Anything can happen during a whelp. Just when you think everything is fine is when things can go arye. You do all that you can do to make sure momma and pups stay healthy, the worst thing about breeding is if you loose your momma which can happen so fast or puppies which can happen even faster since they are so small. I’m glad Josey was taken to the vet for treatment and recovered with no adverse reactions.

If you breed correctly and are a reputable breeder you don’t make money at breeding. All your money that you make breeding if you do goes back into your breeding program to pay yourself back for all the money spent throughout the years to prepare for this day. People forget about all the money spent before, during and after a whelp. They just see a litter of puppies and think “cha ching” look at all that money. We don’t breed for the money, we breed to produce sound healthy dog for others to enjoy and spend their life with. We try to do it right so the puppies live long healthy lives, sometimes that doesn’t happen but it’s something we need to shoot for and in the end we do want we can to ensure the safety of our breeding stock as they whether it is a bitch or a stud dog are still part of our family and we choose to breed them they don’t ask to be bred so it is up to us to do it right.

Welcome to the big world little craws!

This litter is all sold.

If you would like to follow the adventures of the little craws for the next 5 weeks while they are growing and before they go to their new homes you can follow them on facebook at Crawfish Chesapeakes.

Thank you Tom and Irene for including me in this wonderful experience, for all the puppy visits and for letting me blog about your experience.