In the blink of an eye....

....your whole life can change..

I have lots to update about Bea's pups and it starts with some tragic events.  Thursday morning Bea's temperature dropped, this is normal and tells us that pups are likely to arrive in the next 24 hours.  Later in the morning Bea started to nest and by six o'clock the first puppy had arrived.  Everything went well and within a couple of hours we had 4 healthy pups.  At this point Bea settled in to nurse and rest and I waited for the labour to continue.  Within a few hours it was obvious we had problems with puppy number 5 and I rushed Bea in to the Vets, they agreed a puppy was stuck in the birth canal and Bea was prepped for a c-section to deliver the remaining pups.

Happily 7 more healthy pups were removed, sadly the pup in the birth canal did not survive.

I was busy cleaning the pups and the vet was finishing up surgery when Bea's blood pressure started to fall, while working on getting pressure back up Bea crashed and her heart and lungs failed.  They worked for a long time to revive her but in the end Bea passed away.  It was devastating, in 25 years of breeding I have never lost one of my girls in surgery.

Friday is still foggy as I was stunned by the turn of events and having to return home with 11 pups and no Bea.  Thankfully the urgency of the situation has not allowed me to get lost in the tragedy of events.  We have set up a schedule every 2-3 hours to feed the pups, day and night, eventually I will be able to stretch that out to 4 hours and in a couple of weeks we will start to wean them.  Because only four of the pups were able to get the first milk from their mom (this is called colostrum and passes all of mums immunities to the pups) we have administered fresh frozen plasma to the pups to provide them with the necessary healthy immunities that they would of gotten from the mothers first milk.

The pups are super healthy and vigorous and are thriving, an unexpected turn of events is Bea's half sister Clover, she is such a super mom herself that I decided to see what she would do with her sisters pups, Clover stepped right up for the job and has taken on the role of mom for the puppies.  She cleans them and even allows them to nurse, right now there is no milk from Clover but it is very possible that she will start to produce some.  In the meantime they are getting the value of her maternal care and just the action of nursing is mentally and physically stimulating the pups and allowing them to mature normally under abnormal circumstances.

Clover looking after 'her new' pups

For everyone on our waiting list I will be in touch, I want to allow the pups, Clover and myself a little time to settle into our new routine and to feel confident that all is indeed good with the pups before I officially confirm if I have a puppy for you.  Please feel free to email me at dinsdale@eagle.ca if you have questions and to let me know you are still indeed interested in a puppy.

Please consider if you are open to leaving a natural tail on your puppy, or, not.  I need to know your thoughts on a natural tail by Tuesday as I have to decide how many will be docked, or, not at that time.

In the meantime, here are some photos I took yesterday of the lovely pups, we have 3 girls and 8 boys.