We ended up taking Belle Starr to the vet yesterday. She took to throwing up the night before and then onto into the morning. When I called, the vet said to bring her in for a checkup to make sure her chemical balance was okay. He was quite amazed at how big she is. She is now getting small portions of food throughout the day to accommodate her growing puppies that are taking up a lot of room. We need her to carry them through at least next Tuesday, October 6th. We don't want to have little preemies. Like children, they need those last few days for lung development. While in Missoula, I shopped for the last of my puppy room supplies. Today my goal is to finish the puppy room and have most of it ready to go. I'll construct a warming box using a plastic tub and things that I have here. That is so when the puppies are born, there will be a place for the ones who are born while mommy has another. It also serves well for little ones who are sick, or if you need to do maintenance on a puppy. Hands Out to all our mommy dogs in the world for they have a delicate job to do when whelping puppies. They must be good, for look at all the dogs in the world today. Know that I did sneak in a hair cut yesterday even with the eventful day...
Preparation
Okay, all I can say tonight is, "Take a deep breath Linda.", all will be fine. After ending up working 3 days in a row, I haven't had the time to work on the puppy room as expected. Belle Starr is getting rounder and rounder as I type. She is also a little restless, and on top of that threw up her dinner. Yeah, in my bedroom on the carpet. Tomorrow I'll start the temperature check 3 times of day and start tracking for the final stage to begin. Her temp has been running on an average of 100.5. When it drops in the 90s, then she is close. I have the whelping box in my puppy room, lined, and heating pad ready to go. Waiting for some orders to come in yet, and I have to admit, I'm not sure what I have ordered and forgot. Too bad they don't have one site with all the things needed and at a reasonable price. I have been shopping, comparing, and getting things here and there. I'm sure I have forgotten to order the colored collars for the newborn puppies so you can tell them apart. Also having problems finding a little scale to weight them on. Tomorrow a trip to Missoula to find all the small items I need to finish my whelping supplies. Probably Walmart. While there, I'm going to get my hair done. Then to the Wine store...
Anxious
Of course this being my first litter, I am reading everything I can get my hands on about whelping. My learning curve is still very steep and I'm sure will stay that way for a long time. After reading in the book , "Puppy Intensive Care" , by Myra Savant-Harris R.N. I was having dreams of Belle dropping puppies and I'm running her to the whelping area, then getting mucus off the face, trying to get Belle to lick it, and trying to get the puppy to eat for we know that the colostrum is very important that first 24 hours, whoa. I woke up, checked on Belle, sighed as big relief, and didn't get much sleep after that. Then it has been serious shopping for the supplies I needto get ready for those pups. I know, dogs have been having puppies forever and they do just fine. But, I want to be ready in case she has problems.
Cravings
Belle is now in her 7th week and has this thing about eating my squash stems. She has chewed 3 hubbard squash off of their stems. With this I decided that maybe she has some type of vitamin deficiency and when I was in Missoula Wednesday I bought some dog food that was made of only bison and sweet potatoes. I am mixing it with her other food. Don't know if it is helping or not. I did find her in the box of harvested acorn squash eating the stems off from them last night. Maybe I should harvest the stems and sell as a pregnancy supplement. There's a thought. Major medical breakthrough for pregnant dogs. She's slowing down a bit and sleeping more. I took her for a long walk and she was very exhausted by the time we got home. They say that exercise is good for them to help with birthing. But, I am going to shorten her walks quite a bit.
Pregnancy
For a few weeks we couldn't even tell of she was pregnant. At 28 days we took her to the vet and they did an ultrasound and I got to see those little blobs that were growing into puppies. Very exciting. The tech counted seven and honestly I couldn't see all that he was seeing. Did see a few that were for sure babies. Other than being tired, her pregnancy is going well. She drinks a lot of water and she then has to wizzle a lot. Reminds me way back when I was expecting. She did throw up once. So, don't know what caused it, but it didn't last. Her is getting round now. She is in her 6th week with 3 to go. With her roundness her legs are getting shorter. My husband calls her the dashador. Really hope it doesn't give her a complex. Love our pregnant Belle Starr. Shadow on the other hand could care less. Typical male... No worries... Couldn't do it without those males. Love them.