It has been quite an eventful day, the first three pups were born in quick succession similar to Tilly's previous litters. Half an hour to forty mins has always been her time scale for the first 5-6 pups and then as she tires she slows down a little. One was born breech, but didn't pose any problems and all were settled and suckling from mum well.
However this time, nothing was happening. It was clear that there were still pups inside and she was still contracting but she just didn't seem to be getting anywhere. To pass the time I made a cup of tea to help take my mind of her, and then took her out to the loo - this tends to help when things aren't progressing but it didn't make any difference at all this time.
After two hours of no presentation from the puppy I decided to phone the vet, thankfully he hadn't had too heavy a workload and I arranged to meet him in ten mins. I then had to let Sean know that I needed to go and woke Tasha, who had been helping but was sent back to bed when nothing was happening. We loaded the pups into a basket and wrapped then up well against the cold and Tilly followed them out, willingly getting into the car, with a lift from me!
The vet had a thorough check of Tilly, checking her heart & breathing and then did an internal. A pup could be felt way back in the birth canal, but there appeared to be plenty of room for it to pass through and it was difficult to assess its presentation. Tilly was given an injection of calcium & oxytocin to help strengthen the contractions. We were quickly sorted out and sent on our way, and promised to phone and let them know how we had got on when surgery opened at 8.30 am. Both of us expected the oxytocin to sort us out and the remaining pups would be delivered quickly and fairly easily.
After another two hours of bouts of contractions and no puppies, I then called the on call vet again and apologising for disturbing his sleep. I did know that he was back on duty in the morning surgery so wasn't too worried about waking him up. He agreed with me that we had more of a problem then first expected, and Tilly was brought back into the surgery.
As morning surgery was due to open soon, all staff were arriving ready for the working day, and the puppies were greatly admired. Tilly was quickly seen by the on call vet and Andrew, after another internal it was found that the puppy in the birth canal wasn't presented correctly and there was no room for it to turn. They couldn't feel how it was presenting, but knew that there was no alternative to a C section.
So we took the three pups home to have a sleep on the heat mat, and left Tilly in the capable hands of the vets and staff. What a long wait that hour was, waiting for news. We knew that the stuck puppy wasn't likely to have survived but didn't know whether the remaining puppies would be born alive.
We were all thrilled to have the news that we had another three pups, one boy and two girls - and all doing well. We returned to collect Tilly with her new batch of pups and settled them all in at home. Tilly bless here was still recovering from the anaesthetic, but has been such a fantastic mum even though she has had such a rough time so far.
All pups are now doing well, they've all been weighed and checked now, and all feeding well. So we have a total of 5 girls and 1 boy!!Not had much opportunity to take pics as wanting to leave Tilly to rest at the moment, so just quietly sitting with her and the pups ensuring that all is well with them all. They'll be lots of opportunity over the next few days to take more pics.
Woo hoo! Well done Mammy Tilly and all working so hard at Seahaven. Can't wait for more pics.
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