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This site is devoted to the welfare, care and breeding of Golden Retrievers. Daily Diary - Sabah's First Litter - August 2009
Sunday 6th September 2009 Today began, like most days since the birth of the pups, at 6.30 a.m. They were all asleep and it seemed quite cruel to wake them, but then in a few days time, when they are being weaned and expecting to be fed, no doubt the roles will be reversed. With Sabah's full (almost) English breakfast prepared and duly eaten, there was time for a quick cup of tea before the morning weigh-in was conducted. Unfortunately the more active the pups become the more difficult it is to obtain an accurate weight. The best time to weigh them is usually after they have fed and are beginning to drop off to sleep. Sabah and Elsa both came out for a long walk and a paddle in the sea and I took the opportunity to take some more photographs of them. Because of the ever present risk of bringing back an infectious disease to the puppies, once they are back home we always rinse the dogs off with clean water and towel them dry. Saturday 5th September 2009 Elsa has been itching to get in with the puppies and yesterday evening she seized her chance whilst Sabah was out on the patio. She clearly remembered what to do as all of the pups were topped and tailed whether they needed it or not. Quite surprisingly the puppies made only a token effort to see if Auntie Elsa had any milk. Sabah is still very protective of her litter and we had to ensure that Elsa was out of the box before Sabah came back into the house. Usually, if she sees Elsa looking into the box, Sabah will put herself between Elsa and the pups and there will be a short stand-off before Elsa, sensibly, backs away. This morning Elsa didn't take the hint and got a nip on the nose for her troubles. I had to get up in the early hours as the puppies were yelping fit to bust. When I went downstairs Sabah was fast asleep in the lounge and oblivious to the commotion in the dining room. Peace was soon restored with a midnight snack. Friday 4th September 2009 The smallest puppy at birth, Susie, has made the largest weight gain since birth of any of her siblings, over 315%. Both Nullarbor Ranger (the largest pup) and 'Molly' (the smallest) have increased their weight by 214%. 'Billy' has gained nearly 270%. Weightwise they are now nine days ahead of Elsa's litter CompWeight Chart.htm. Sabah had the remainder of her stitches removed this morning and the wound seems to have healed very well. She sneaked in for a crafty swim in the sea during her walk. This afternoon we were treated to a choir session led by Billy and Molly. They both sat in their box and bayed at the ceiling. We don't know why they did this. It couldn't be because they were hungry as they had just finished lunch. The likely reason was that the washing machine was on. Thursday 3rd September 2009 The puppies are weighed each morning after their breakfast. On most occasions it is very difficult to obtain an accurate reading because the pups tend to move around too much but not so this morning. As you can see in the above picture, the largest boy, Nullarbor Ranger, feel asleep on the job. You can also see that he has now trebled his birth weight. They were all wormed this afternoon and I think that I got more of the worming liquid down me than I got into them. After a good deal of thought we have now decided to keep one of the girls with a view to breeding from her. We are concerned about the possibility that she may have the same problem giving birth as Sabah did, so we will be seeking veterinary advice beforehand. When the puppy is older it may be possible to have her scanned in order to determine if her uterus has developed normally. Wednesday 2nd September 2009 Sabah is spending much less time in the box with the pups who, as expected, spend most of the day fast asleep. Despite being with them for less of the time, Sabah is clearly still providing them with plenty of nutrition. We turned the heat lamp off for most of last night whilst keeping a check on them in case they showed signs of being cold. They seem to prefer it with the lamp off as when it is switched on they migrate to the outer edges of the box. As the weather is a little cooler today I have placed a small electric heat pad under the matting in one corner of their box. It is quite noticebale that the boys are lighter in colour than the girls who also have honey coloured highlights at the top of their ankles. Little do they know it but they are due to have their first dose of wormer tomorrow; that should be fun!! Tuesday 1st September 2009 Day 12 and everything is absolutely fine. Three of the puppies have their eyes fully open now but, from the drunken stares they are giving me, they still have some way to go in the focussing department. One of them was playfully trying to bite Sabah's mouth after lunch so we are really beginning to see the first signs of their individual characters. The puppies no longer rely on Sabah to stimulate them to pass urine or motions now. As a result of this the bedding needs changing at least once a day now. As they are also able to better regulate their body temperature it is not necessary to leave the heat lamp on during the daytime. Sabah went to the vet's this afternoon to have a check up and to have her stitches removed. As her stomach seems to have taken a pounding from the puppies when they feed, it was decided to leave some of the stitches in until the end of the week. Monday 31st August 2009 Three of the puppies have now started to open their eyes and the other one won't be too far behind. They continue to do very well and all of them have now passed the 1kilo weight mark. One of the boys has discovered his bark and he let me know, in no uncertain terms, that he didn't appreciate the noise of the vacuum cleaner disturbing his morning slumbers. Sabah is noticeably thinner now so, to compensate, we have increased her food intake. Sunday 30th August 2009 The puppies are becoming more responsive to us now but still seem to spend most of the day either sleeping or eating. They all enjoy having their backs and stomachs rubbed. Their eyes should begin to open towards the end of this week, a time that they will probably look back on with mixed feelings as Friday marks the first worming day. I took Sabah out over the fields this morning whilst Elsa went off down the beach. When I got back I gave Sabah a trim to get rid of the remnants of fur which had become matted with her discharge, which has almost but not quite stopped. I then gave her a shampoo freshen her up. Once the stitches have been removed on Tuesday we will begin to take her back to the beach so that she can have her daily swim in the sea. The average weight of the litter now exceeds 1kilo following an increase of 10% in the last day. In comparison, Elsa's litter didn't reach the 1kilo mark until day 17. To see the weight difference in more detail see the Comparative Weight Chart. Saturday 29th August 2009 Again a very quiet 24 hours. The puppies weight gain is again slower than it was earlier in the week. Whilst the litter now has an average weight of 910gms the largest boy has stormed past the 1kilo mark to reach 1075gms. Friday 28th August 2009 A very quiet 24 hours with nothing very much to report. Sabah came out for quite a long walk this morning; we were away for the best part of an hour. Until now she has always asked to go back home after we have been out for around 10 minutes. The puppies are still very contented although the rate of increase in their body weight has tailed off a little. For the last two days the combined weight of the litter has increased by 9.6% and 8.8%. Their average weight is now 850gms which is double their weight on day one. By way of a comparison, Elsa's litter took one day longer to double their weight. Thursday 27th August 2009 We had a worrying time yesterday evening. The larger of the two girls became quite distressed and was obviously in some discomfort. She appeared to have been quite normal during the day but later on began to make a quite mournful mewing noise and wouldn't suckle from Sabah or take the bottle. It seems as though she may well have had a bout of colic as her stomach was slightly bloated and she was drawing her hind legs up to her stomach. Happily all was well when I came down to check on her shortly after midnight when I found all four puppies were latched on to Sabah and suckling furiously. This puppy had clearly had a problem as her recorded weight gain today was less than half of that for the other three pups. It may have been a coincidence but yesterday was the first full day that Sabah had not been taking the antibiotics that had previously been giving the puppies loose motions. For those of you who are worried about the fact that only three puppies appear in the picture above. the cause of yesterday's minor emergency is the one at the front - Mollymook Mischif. You can see that she has a distinctive gold spot on her left heel (she also has an identical spot on the right heel). Sabah has now allowed me to take individual pictures of her litter and you can see them in the Puppy Gallery. Wednesday 26th August 2009 A very uneventful and peaceful 24 hours which the pups have clearly spent simply suckling and sleeping. The combined weight of the litter has increased by 12% since yesterday; the average is now 715gms with the largest boy weighing 825gms and the smallest girl 660gms. Tuesday 25th August 2009 The average weight of the litter has now increased from 420gms last Friday to 635gms today. In the last 24 hours the weights of both boys have increased by about 100gms. At the same time the girls' weights have increased by around 70gms. The puppies average weight is 185gms greater than the average weight of Elsa's first litter at the same stage. Clearly Sabah's litter is benefitting from it's small size and the fact that they don't have to compete for the food, although this is not the only factor. The main difference between the two litters is the attentiveness of Sabah is far greater than that displayed by Elsa. Sabah's check-up at the vet went okay. Her temperature remains within the normal range and today is the last day of her course of antibiotics. She is still occasionally discharging from her vulva and it is often necessary for us to follow her around with a sponge mop. The loose motions experienced by the puppies seems now to have stopped. We have had a couple of close shaves in the last 24 hours. Twice yesterday Sabah laid on top of a puppy. Fortunately I was close at hand and on hearing the squeals was able to lifft Sabah up and retrieve the puppies who appeared not to have been harmed. Sabah understandably has quite a voracious appetite. Breakfast is usually three scrambled eggs, half a pot of cheese and the meat from two chicken thighs. Lunch is ox liver and half a tub of Natures Diet dog food. Dinner is more ox liver, four chicken thighs and another half tub of Natures Diet. Supper is another half tub of dog food. Sabah came out with Elsa and me yesterday evening and we walked for about 20 minutes. She seemed quite happy to be out, although at one stage I had to put her back on the lead as she was about to run off back to her puppies. Monday 24th August 2009 Just a short entry today as there is not a great deal to report. The puppies are doing very well and their daily weight gain over the last two days has been around 10%. Sabah was quite restless last night. She only seems to quieten down once the puppies are suckling from her and can't understand that full and contented pups tend to just want to sleep. Sabah is off to the vet this afternoon for a check up after her operation. I don't envisage any problems as the wound is very clean and her temperature has been normal since the puppies were delivered on Thursday. Apparently on Thursday evening, the veterinary nurse had some difficulty getting the smaller of the two girls to start breathing. When she eventually took her first breath it was to the sound of the Everley Brothers' song "Wake up Little Suzie" playing on the radio. It therefore seems quite appropriate that we should call her Suzie from now on. Sunday 23nd August 2009 We have just spent a rather restless night having had to get up a total of seven times not, I might add, because of Sabah and the pups, but because of Elsa. She had helped herself to a bowl of the cat's food yesterday afternoon and it clearly did not agree with her digestive system!! On my first trip down the stairs with Elsa, shortly after I had dropped of to sleep at 11.00 p.m., I looked in at the puppies only to find no sign of Sabah. She must have realised that I was looking for her as the next thing I heard was her tail beating on the wall immediately behind the sofa - she had breached the barricades that I had carefully installed and was obviously having a few minutes quiet time in the cool away from the heat lamp. Order was restored and I returned to my slumbers. This morning I weighed the pups and they all seem to be progressing quite well in spite of their continuing loose motions. We are now half way through Sabah's course of antibiotics which seem, at the moment, to have prevented any infection in her wound. She has shown the first sign that the wound is possibly irritating her as we caught her scratching it this morning. Fortuantely the stitches are still intact. We have been regularly monitoring her temperature and it has stayed within the normal range. I am about to start the daily clean-up and bed change operation and, hopefully, give Sabah a good wash (that should be fun.....). Saturday 22nd August 2009 I hope that I am not tempting fate but things are going very well so far. Sabah is a complete natural; she is very reluctant to leave the pups, even to go out into the garden. Because Sabah is on Nisamox (Amoxicilin/Clavulanic Acid), to prevent post operative infection, the puppies have been suffering from very loose bowel movements. We had a similar problem with Elsa's first litter when Elsa was being treated for mastitis. The big difference on this occasion is that Sabah is continually feeding her puppies and therefore preventing the pups from dehydrating. Elsa, bless her socks, was a very reluctant mum who needed to be forcefully reminded of her parental responsibilities. Consequently some of her pups did suffer from the effects of dehydration and we had to supplement their fluid intake with the bottle. I also remember the many occasions when I was forced to bathe Elsa's pups myself. Sabah, on the other hand, is keeping her puppies and her bedding in an almost spotless condition. Another sign of how good Sabah is at being a mother is the fact that we have hardly heard a sound from the puppies. Whenever they need a feed Sabah is close at hand. Consequently I had an almost undisturbed night's sleep last night. Friday 21st August 2009 Yesterday was quite a traumatic day in more ways than one. By 2.00 p.m. Sabah had begun to discharge a dark green fluid which indicated that at least one of the puppy's placentas had started to detach from the uterus. Normally, if they haven't already started, this would be followed by contractions and the delivery of the first pup. However, an hour passed and we had seen no contractions and no sign that they were about to start, so off we went to the vet. Over the next three hours Sabah was given two injections of Oxytocin which were supposed to stimulate the missing contractions but, unfortunately, to no avail. So at 7.00 p.m. Sabah's puppies were delivered by Caesarian section. When we went to collect the new family shortly after 8.30 p.m. Sabah was still suffering from the effects of the anaesthetic but the puppies were in full voice. Because the birth had not been a normal one we were aware that it was possible that Sabah, when presented with her offspring, could have rejected them. Fortunately Sabah immediately began washing the puppies and then allowed them to suckle from her. The larger of the two boys and the larger of the girls were soon able to perfect the art of finding a nipple (free or otherwise) and hanging on to it long enough to get their fill. Their smaller siblings required a lot more hands-on instruction from us. We even bottle fed them on occasions during the night. By morning it was clear that they were all feeding well. Sabah, like Elsa when she had her first litter, is displaying signs of stress which usually manifest themselves in the form of panting. This isn't surprising, where Sabah is concerned, as she has gone through a lot in the last 24 hours. She seems far more protective of her litter than Elsa was. When her puppies needed feeding during the night, Elsa had to be woken from her sleep and physically lifted into the whelping crate; she wasn't going to do it herself. Sabah, on the other hand, will go to her pups and feed them unbidden by us. She also clearly does not want Elsa near her puppies, at least not at the moment. If Elsa dares to put her nose into the crate she is met by a warning snarl from Sabah. Today has been quite hectic with the washing machine working non-stop cleaning all of the soiled bedding and spare sheets that we used yesterday. The pups were weighed for the first time and will be weighed daily for at least the next 10 days so that we can monitor their development more closely. I took Sabah for a very short walk this morning. We had gone less than 50 yards when Sabah decided that she couldn't bear to be away from the puppies any longer. Whilst we are looking forward to the joy that the new puppies will bring there is one note of sadness. Having spoken to the veterinary surgeon who performed the Caesarian on Sabah, it is apparent that if she were to become pregnant in the future it is likely that she would require another Caesarian as her uterus is abnormally shaped. Sadly, therefore, Sabah's first litter will be her last. Thursday 20th August 2009 10.30 p.m. Sabah gave birth to four puppies shortly after 7.00 p.m. this evening. There are two boys and two girls, Mother and puppies are well. 12.30 p.m. Sabah continues to be very restless and seems to have picked a new location for her nest, now that she has been barred from behind the sofa, our bed! I have now given up trying to remake it every time that Sabah rearranges it. Her temperature is now a steady 37.2 C having risen from 36.7 C at 5.00 a.m. 8.45 a.m. We had a very restless night but no contractions and no puppies. Sabah is definitely close to delivering her youngsters. She is very agitated and keen to find a nest site other than the one we have chosen for her. During the night I had to block off the back of the sofa as the carpet there was in imminent danger of being dug up. There was also a lot of digging in the garden shortly after 5.00 a.m. but then she settled down and slept peacefully for a couple of hours, which is a couple of hours more than I got! I took her out for a walk at 7.00 a.m. hoping that that would start things going but, unusually for Sabah, after walking a couple of hundred yards she turned round and headed back home at a pace where breakfast was consumed with great gusto.. Wednesday 19th August 2009 Still no puppies! Just as a precaution we took Sabah to the vet to check that all was well and it is. She was able to hear multiple heartbeats, so at least we know there is more than one puppy!! Apparently there is no cause for concern and that we have at least 48 hours before any other action needs to be considered. The vet said that it is not unusual for smaller litters to go beyond their due date by a few days. We are now going to regularly monitor Sabah's temperature with a view to detecting when she is likely to whelp. Sabah's appetite continues unabated and she quite happily went for her usual walk this morning. 8.30 p.m. Finally it looks like things are on the move. Her temperature has dropped, she left a large portion of her dinner and she is very much more agitated. When Sabah was at the vet's this morning her temperature was taken and found to be 38.5 C. It was probably a little higher than her normal reading as she had only just finished her walk. By midday it had dropped to 36.7 C. A dog's normal temperature can range between about 37.2 C to 39.3 C (99 F to 103 F). Her temperature stayed between 36.4 and 36.5 until around 4.00 p.m. when it slowly began to climb, reaching 37 C by 7.00 p.m. It is now approaching 9.00 p.m. and her temperature has again dropped slightly to 36.7 C. Sabah has been showing clear signs of nesting throughout the day. She has made a couple of attempts to dig holes in concealed places in the garden but her 'chosen' place is behind the sofa and she has even made an attempt to dig up the carpet there. At the moment she has no intention of using the very plush whelping box we have provided for her. It looks as though we will be working the night-shift although I am still hopeful she will hold onto them until daylight (I am forever the optimist!). Tuesday 18th August 2009 Sabah is apparently in no hurry to deliver her litter. I did rush down the stairs at 4.00 a.m. because I thought I heard her straining but, no, she was just having a stretch. She greeted me at 7.00 a.m. by running around then rolling on the floor as if she hadn't a care in the world. Her morning walk and swim went off as normal, although we had strategically placed the car so that it was fairly close to us throughout the walk just in case. We will have to see what the next 24 hours brings. Monday 17th August 2009 There was a false alarm this morning. We thought that things were about to start when Sabah woke us at 5.00 a.m. We let her out into the garden and she stayed there, clearly wanting to lay out in the cool. The puppies were trampling around her insides and Sabah appeared to be quite uncomfortable, however, when breakfast was offered she wolfed it down. No loss of appetite there then! Unusually, when we were out walking (& swimming), Sabah was constantly asking to be given a biscuit. This is Elsa's normal behaviour, so perhaps instead of going off her food 24 hours before delivery Sabah is marking the run up to the puppies arrival by eating as much as possible! Sunday 16th August 2009 I have to report that Sabah's puppies are still safely tucked away inside Sabah and giving no sign whatsoever that they intend to emerge in the very near future. Sabah walked with us as usual this morning and swam a good half a mile in the sea (I had visions of wading out after her as she decided to have one of those water baths!). Her appetite does not seem to have diminished and she is not really bothered about nesting apart from sleeping behind the sofa. We'll see what the next 24 hours brings. Saturday 15th August 2009 Having made it absolutely clear that she wasn't interested in any short strolls close to the house, Sabah resumed her normal walk this morning. There are no signs that the pups are going to put in an appearance any time soon although they were clearly engaged in a game of football yesterday afternoon and evening! Friday 14th August 2009 Sabah is well and is clearly going to hang on to her puppies until the due date. Much to her clear disappointment Sabah was restricted to a walk closer to home today just in case she decided to go into labour unannounced. The puppies have clearly moved to a position lower down her abdomen which has taken a great deal of strain away from Sabah's diaphragm. We are now taking bets as to whether it will be a daytime delivery, like Elsa's first litter, or a night 'shift'. Both Sabah and Elsa featured on last evening's West Country News - Sabah was doing her impression of an otter whilst Elsa very kindly shook off a coatful of seawater over the camera lens. Thursday 13th August 2009 I could be tempting providence but I don't believe the birth of the puppies is imminent. Sabah's appetite is normal and she has just come back from what will be her last normal walk before the birth. She also happily swam about half a mile while we were out. We were intending just to take her on a short walk over the fields behind our house but she insisted on tagging along with Elsa. Judging by the obvious discomfort that Sabah was feeling yesterday evening it is quite apparent that the puppies are jostling for position at the 'starting gate'. Wednesday 12th August 2009 No new developments to report other than Sabah does appear to be more subdued today. It's comforting to know that we are now entering the period when, if Sabah was to give birth, we shouldn't have any of the problems associated with premature delivery. Earlier on we took Sabah and Elsa down to the local country park as ITV West Country News were doing a piece on the local council's proposed Dog Control Orders against which we have organised a protest. One of the orders would see dogs being banned from the sandy beach all year round instead of May to September as at present. There were about 60 very well behaved dogs there but you should be able to pick out Elsa and Sabah as they were the only Goldies amongst the pack. Tuesday 11th August 2009 Everything is proceeding normally. Sabah had no problems taking her usual early morning walk although she didn't swim so much today. Her whelping box has been set up and has been draped with a large sheet to make a 'cave'. It's wishful thinking I know but perhaps she will suspend her planned excavations in the garden and use her ready-made nest instead. Monday 10th August 2009 'Morning' sickness can occur at any time during a pregnancy as witnessed today when we were woken at 5.00am by the sound of Sabah being sick. It soon passed but she found it far more comfortable to lay in the cool out on the patio until it was time for everyone else to get up. Sunday 9th August 2009 There is a visible daily increase in the size of her belly but Sabah still manages to get around with little trouble although she was a little restless during the night. We did our usual walk this morning and Sabah swam for a good deal of the time whilst we were walking along the beach. On her return home she went to sleep on the patio but not before she had dug a small hole underneath the Gunnera! Saturday 8th August 2009 Sabah is due to give birth to her first litter of puppies next weekend. She is in very good health and we are all looking forward to the event. We took Sabah and Elsa for a walk through the local bird reserve and along the beach this morning. The sunny and warm weather made a pleasant change from the dull, wet stuff we have had lately. Sabah made the most of the calm sea and spent as much time as she could swimming in it. Later on we met up with Alfie, a 12 week old Goldie, but Sabah was more interested in hunting for small furry creatures in the undergrowth. |
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