Day 61 - The Morning Report

6 puppies!

It was a long night.

Before the birth of the latest puppy, there had been an interval of 7 hours. As I had been told and had read that after two hours you might call the vet, I was, in a word, panicked.

At 3 am and 4 am, I thought she had delivered pups, but I was wrong. Actually, I had fallen asleep and had awaken to some noise that I thought indicated that there was another puppy. It was just the chaos of the den.

At 6 am, some 4 and 1/2 hours after the last puppy, and after some intense internet searching about "time between puppies," I called Friendship Animal Hospital in DC-- the emergency vet --for some suggestions. http://www.friendshiphospital.com/index.html

An attendant "Roscoe" answered. I told him, "Hi, Roscoe, this is Alan in Silver Spring. How are you? I guess you know that I wouldn't be calling unless I had a problem. My German Shepherd has given birth to 5 puppies. Two were stillborn. But an xray at Takoma Park Animal Hospital--their sister clinic--indicated that there were ten puppies."

Roscoe: "That means there are three more in there." Thanks, Roscoe.

Then Roscoe told me to leave her alone, that I might be stressing her out, by checking out the puppies, comforting Deca, etc.

He said, "We don't worry unless a puppy is half in and half out. Let her do the work. Leave her alone. Leave her water and her food, turn out the lights, and get out. Let her do what she has to do. Check on her in a few hours, and see how things are going."

Stress her out? Me?

So I turned off the lights and left her alone.

I took Ajax for a walk in the park in the cool Sunday morning air. He needed the exercise and so did I. Then a quick trip to the bank and to McDonalds for a "grande desayuno." Back at the house, I ate, then took a nap for couple hours, to be awaken by my friend Elizabeth in San Diego. She asked about the pups and I came down to see how Deca was doing.

Imagine my joy--that's what it was--to see another healthy pup! Number Six!

I fed Deca some of the raw food I got at the Big Bad Woof yesterday, and she ate all of it.

I'm going to leave her alone again.

Mother and pups are doing fine.