If you follow us on Twitter (@PupsIsPups) you know that Lucille had her puppies this morning. On Saturday morning we noticed that Lucille’s temperature had dropped to 98.1°F. That’s usually a sign that the puppies will be born within 24 hours. She was pretty subdued all day, but nothing had happened by the time we were ready to go to bed. We set up an air mattress near the puppy room so I could sleep nearby to monitor her through the night. By morning she still hadn’t had the pups, so we went about our usual morning chores. When Harriett went down to feed Lucille at about 8:30 she saw a lot of fluid on the floor—her water had broken. She was also agitated and wasn’t interested in her breakfast. Lucille was about to have puppies.
Our birthing equipment was ready, so we grabbed the equipment basket and settled in to monitor Lucille and the babies. Our main job is to comfort the mom,keep track of various milestones as they happen, and change the bedding to keep it clean and dry. We keep a log that shows the time events take place. If we run into problems we use the log as a reference to know when the last contraction was, when the last pup was born, how many placentas we saw, etc.
We record the time each pup is born along with a description that includes the sex, weight, color, and markings. We’ll help open birth sacks and cut umbilical cords if the mom doesn’t do it in a timely fashion, but we usually don’t have to intervene. The puppies will be weighed twice a day for a week to ten days. This information tells us if each pup is eating enough and developing properly. The weight graph for the pups will be posted at the top of the left-hand column of this blog.
The first contraction was recorded at 9:10 AM. Lucille had seven puppies in about three and a half hours. So far she’s a very attentive mother.
 | Puppy Number 1 10:00 AM Female, Black with white star on chest, 425 grams |
 | Puppy Number 2 10:22 AM Female, black with white mark on chest, 415 grams |
 | Puppy Number 3 11:01 AM Female, white blaze, 420 grams |
 | Puppy Number 4 11:15 AM Male, black with white snip, 420 grams |
 | Puppy Number 5 11:59 AM Male, brindle (maybe just brown), white chest, 330 grams. |
 | Puppy Number 6 12:23 PM Male, double white stripe on chest, 440 grams |
 | Puppy Number 7 12:39 PM Female, white blaze on chest, 405 grams |
We welcome foster animals number 1,037 through 1,043.
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