Puppy Delivery - No Serious Complications
Well, our Rosie, a maltese-west highland terrier cross (her parents were purebreds) delivered her puppies today, one day overdue.
We were thinking she was carry 3, maybe 4, but we should have paid more attention to how huge she was. Rosie had 7 puppies. When she was up to 5 (and we thought she was finished) we were all ‘Good puppy, good girl’. Once she had pumped out 7 we had moved on to ‘Thats enough, dont have anymore!!’. Just as well she has 8 teats!
The whelping went well - I wasn’t home for the first few (we figured it was on today, but I had a client meeting this morning, so Dave did some semblance of ‘work from home’ today) #4 and #5 just happened (’hey, theres another puppy hanging out of her!)
#6’s umbilical cord didn’t break, and she didn’t chew through it, so I tied it off (sorta - it was really short) and cut it. That was a bit of a worry, as the remaining cord retracted back into her - the thread from the the tie-off on that side was still hanging out, so at least we would know when (if) it did get expelled. Then #7 arrived, so I assume she delivered the placenta first.
7 was a breech and still in the bag - I pulled it out the rest of the way and broke the bag off its face. Rosie did the rest - its weird to see a pup in her mouth and know she isn’t eating it…
In hindsight, I wonder if #6 and #7 were twins - that would mean that she couldn’t deliver #6’s placenta as #7 was still using it. I would expect her to chew through it - but it was a very short length of cord extruding from the girl, so perhaps she just couldnt get her teeth in there?
Its cool - I get to use all my maternal birth-is-good instincts, and not have a baby to show for it 
I think I was as stressed out as Rosie, though 
So eventually I gave her a quick half bath, (man, she was grossly filthy) and she wouldn’t let me dry her - had to rush back to the squeakers
Puppies are such fun. I get to play midwife, without any legal liability. Have to find out how many boys and girls we got