A couple of years ago I had a litter of puppies out of Abby and Mann. The guys that hunted them told other people about them and there was quite a bit of interest in another litter from them. I had 7 people on my list for a puppy before she was bred. Like watching a pot of water boil, waiting for her to come in season was a long wait. A lot of dogs are real consistent on their heat cycles. Every 6 months, regular as clock work. Not Abby. I write down each heat cycle and it was about 7 1/2 months.
The group shot before I separated for pictures.
White and orange male.
Tricolor male.
Usually, the 12th day is the typical breeding day but not for Abby. I started putting Mann in her kennel on the eleventh day (just to be safe and not miss her) and she would have nothing to do with him. On her fourteenth day I took her to the vet and he did a progesterone test and said it was still a little early. We got to the 17th day and she still wouldn’t stand for him so I took her to the vet. He checked her and said maybe a day early but we would do an artificial insemination.
That afternoon she still wouldn’t stand for him. The next morning I took her back and she was artificially inseminated, again. The vet and I both felt really good about this breeding. I still put them together for a couple of days without a natural breeding. I still felt good about the artificial inseminations.
A few days later the weather forecast was for really cold weather. Our area was supposed to get to a negative 8. I have really good dog houses with lots of hay but I always worry about the dogs. On the really cold nights I put the dogs in their dog boxes on the truck and park it in the garage. The garage is attached to the house. It isn’t heated but it never gets below freezing. Probably, this is more for me than the dogs. I feel better about them.
On this occasion I pulled the truck to the lower drive and turned all of the dogs loose. They always run to the truck and are waiting for me to load them. I got to the truck and loaded Sally and Mann and looked for Boss and Abby. On the 22nd day of her heat cycle and 30 seconds after turning them loose, they were hung up. Now with them like this I had to stand in the zero weather for 20 minutes until they were no longer hung up.
Most heat cycles are 21 days. Or at least that’s what I thought. I did have one stand for a male on her 22nd day but she didn’t get pregnant. After talking to other dog people I found out that’s not always the case. Then I got worried about having a litter out of two different males. How will I know which is from which male.
Little female.
I decided if the litter was born 60 to 63 days from the artificial insemination they would all probably be Mann’s. If they were born 63 days or so from Boss’s breeding maybe they would be his. Only a DNA test would tell for sure.
My vet had told me a long time ago that there were as many born on the 60th day as there were on 63 days, so I put her in the shed on her 59th day with a camera on her. Once the females go in the shed I wake up several times a night to check them. The closer to their due date the more times I wake up. By her 63rd night I was waking up 6 or 8 times a night. With the camera I could just check it and go back to sleep.
But nothing happened on the 63rd night. Not the 64. Not even the 65th or 66th or the 67th. The 67th would have been 63 days from Boss’s breeding. On the 68th day about 8:00 pm she started panting. Usually, 2 or 3 hours later puppies will be born. I checked her several times before bed time and nothing was happening. I just knew that I wasn’t going to get much sleep that night but I went to bed at my regular time.
White and orange female.
It seemed like I woke up every fifteen minutes all night. Every time she was panting but not delivering any puppies. It’s about 100 yards to my shed and about 2:00 am I walked down there. Abby didn’t seem to be in a lot of stress but I know how tough bird dogs are. I was up early and I took her to my vet’s office.
I got there about 30 minutes before he got to work. I was out of my truck, waiting when he came to work. I’ve used this vet’s office for more than 50 years. He asked what was going on. When I told him the long version of Abby’s ordeal he said, “Sounds like we need to do a C section”. I said, “How about if we give her a shot of oxytocin and watch her for an hour or so and see what happens.” He thought that was a good idea.
Tricolor female.
So he gave her a shot and I left her with him. About an hour later he called. He said, “we have two puppies on the ground but she would be more comfortable at home. Come get her”. So I picked her up and brought her home. He gave me 3 syringes with oxytocin in them and said if she hasn’t had another puppy in an hour give her a shot. I watched her for a little longer than an hour before I gave her the shot.
An hour and a half later she still hadn’t had another puppy. So I took her back to the vet’s office. I dropped Abby off for a C section. I had some errands to run and I had 2 puppies with me every where I went.
A couple of hours later the vet called and said we had 4 healthy puppies but there were two dead ones. The dead puppies had been dead for a while and one was folded up in the birth canal. That’s the reason she couldn’t have them. If she would have had the puppies at home one of the dead puppies may have been left inside her and she would have died. With the C section they were able to clean her out and she recovered quickly.
The other tricolor female.
One of the puppies was about half the size of the others. My vet thought that may have been from the time she was bred by Boss. That puppy may have been from an egg not fertilized by Mann and was 4 or more days younger than the other puppies, who may have been late being born.
Usually, if you have trouble with puppies it’s in the first three days. All of the puppies were doing good so I got on the chat line with United Kennel Club and told them my story. I wanted kits to DNA all of the puppies so we would know. Also, the litter can’t be registered until we determine who the father or fathers is.
Group picture after the separation.
They promptly sent the kits and I filled them out that day and sent them back. Now hopefully, they will be quick about getting the puppies sire determined and I can get the litter registered. Sometimes having a litter of puppies is quick and easy, sometimes it’s not.