Faith, impatient as always...

Well, another week (and a bit) without a posting so I'm going to have to do a few to catch up on a rather busy past week. Firstly we had Faith's puppies arrive, a week earlier than expected! Faith was only mated once on the 6th January so I had a very definite due date of 10th March, I had been rather concerned she may come a couple of days early (as my girls tend to) and have the pups while I was at Crufts but I really needn't have worried! On the Monday night I started having her sleeping in my room which is something I always do for the last week of pregnancy, she hardly ate any tea and she was very restless, up and down and fidgetting all night...I put this down to her being quite big and feeling uncomfortable. Tuesday evening I popped over to see my cousin Amy as it was her 21st birthday. I got home about 11pm and let Faith out, she came back in and sat on the sofa, all wide eyed and panting...I knew exactly what this meant, she'd started in labour. I was a little worried as I've never had a bitch whelp so early before and was a bit concerned about the pups. I left her on the sofa while I set the whelping pen up in my room and sorted out vetbed, newspaper, towels, wet wipes etc...when I called her to come upstairs she gave me the most pitiful look 'I can't get off the sofa...it hurts too much'...bless her. She was awake most of the night, not digging and tearing newspaper like they usually do...just sitting and crying. In the morning I got up and took her downstairs, let the other dogs out and then went out in the garden with her to peg some washing out. She just sat in the the garden crying so I took her back in, called work and told them I wouldn't be coming in, settled her in the whelping pen and went for a quick shower. I got out the shower to find she'd had the first pup but wasn't quite sure what to do with it! I broke the sack and gave it a rub...a big black tricolour girl, very similar to her mum (and firstborn like Fi too); Faith seemed to get the idea and stared to clean her up, the next born was a sable bitch but the strangest thing I've ever seen, she came out of the sack with a huge great tongue lolling out of her mouth...I mean..it was massive...bigger than her head! I couldn't believe it was ever going to fit back in her mouth! I checked her mouth and palette etc and everything else seemed perfectly normal and she was able to feed fine. The next 2 pups arrived in quick sucession, a black tri boy and sable boy so she'd had 4 pups in just over an hour. The whelping pen was immaculate, no shredded newspaper, the vetbed perfectly flat as I'd placed it, very unusual. I think Fi put all her frustrated energy into crying instead! Four more boys arrived over the next few hours, 2 more black tri, a very dark shaded sable and what I thought was a blue tri but am now starting to think is actually a blue sable (Yes Joy...you were right!! lol)

Here's the newborn pups...



Faith is being a very good attentive mum as I hoped she would be. She's also very relaxed and is very pleased to receive visitors (so long as they make a fuss of her and not just the pups!). I've been weighing the pups every day to make sure they're all gaining weight with them having been so prem and relatively small at birth and they are all gaining steadily, some faster than others.

The little girl with the enlarged tongue is feeding ok and gaining but more slowly than anyone else. I've been doing some online research and this is known as 'Congenital Macroglossia', it is very rare in dogs so I have been struggling to find much information or anyone else I can speak to with first hand experience of it. It's most commonly seen in short-nosed breeds such as pugs and bulldogs which I guess is as a result of their abnormally short muzzles rather than abnormally long tongues!! lol According to the Merck Veterinary manual 'it is seen in belted Galloway cattle but resolves with age and is rarely clinically significant', I am keeping everything crossed that this is the case with this little girl. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.