I was very happy to see Rugby again after a long night away from him yesterday. I was over our friend's house welcoming SEVEN new Kerry Blue Terrier puppies into the world. They belong to Yuliya and Brandy.
This was my first time watching the whelping process, and it was a learning experience for sure! I am so glad I was able to go and that Brandy had them all before I had to leave!
The first puppy was a girl - Rosie. She was the biggest of all the puppies at 9.2 oz. She also had a pretty good head start on the rest of the puppies since puppy number two didn't come for another hour and a half. Puppy two and three came within ten minutes of each other and big surprise... Sunny and Belle were both girls as well!
The three boys came quickly and quietly, one right after the other. Brownie, Bologna and T-Rex were easy puppies. It was interesting to see the differences between the puppies. Some of them were pretty sedentary when they came out, and others like the little blue ribbon boy literally came out running! The puppies that came out breach all took longer to get the hang of the whole eating thing and the first puppy, Rosie, figured out quick that she liked to lay up by mom's face.
We thought she was done, so Brandy got a potty break, and the bedding in the whelping box was changed. We sat admiring the puppies for a while when Yuliya noticed a contraction! An hour and a half after the last puppy was born, Brandy had another little girl, Lilly. Phew! That brought the total time up to four hours, and the number of puppies up to seven.
Thank you SO much, Yuliya, for letting us hang out and watch today!
Great puppy pile pic :-)
ReplyDeleteWhat cute little things they are!
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, we were helping a friend deliver a litter of Greyhound puppies. The day before the delivery, the expectant mama had seizure and fell down hard on some pavement. After the first puppy was born, it started to become obvious that something was wrong. That's when we were called. Mama dog was loaded up and we had to drive forty minutes to the vet's office. The next thing I knew, we were helping with a Cesarean birth of seven puppies! While it was a fascinating experience, I can't say I'd want to do that again. I'd rather see them come out the way Mother Nature intended.