Poppy’s first pregnancy

Poppy is our three year old black girl. She has excellent health clearances and has a close to perfect hip score of 1:1 and 0:0 for elbows. The breed average for show quality dogs is a total of 12 for both hips, with the lower the score, the better.

The stud dog who sired Poppy’s pups is Dougie (Kelindebar Power of Magic), an Australian champion. We are expecting the puppies around 10 February. It will be Poppy’s first litter.

Day 28: On 5 January at her ultrasound appointment, Poppy’s pregnancy was confirmed. At least five puppies were counted on one side, with likely more on the other. Weight 28.8 kg (slightly heavier than her usual 27kg). Embryos measured at 2.5cm – 2.8cm in length.

Day 33: 10 January. Poppy is noticeably less energetic but not lost her interest in food. I need to be careful not to increase the amount just yet, but wait at least another week, when I will introduce food with a higher energy (calorie) value, more protein and minerals. Puppies are still embryos but nearly at the foetal stage. See the Royal Canin website for a week by week description of the milestones of canine pregnancy.

Day 38: 15 January. It is 3 years since Poppy came to us as an 8 week old puppy and she is certainly starting to look pregnant now. Her usual slim waist has all but disappeared and she is sleeping a lot. She did have a swim today but is not running around much.

Day 44: 21 January. Poppy’s girth is getting bigger by the day. She has started nesting behaviour and has been getting under the deck and digging a tunnel, evidenced by a muddy nose and mud on her paws! She is still enjoying her walks, but much more sedate these days and not interested in fetching a ball. She had a play date with her friend Mickey on Wednesday (18 January) but other than that excitement is less interested in other dogs on her walks.

Poppy and Mickey on their walk 18 January 2017.

Getting in whelping supplies. Ordered vet bed, puppy scales and newborn puppy ID collars. Pick up a whelping box next week. Less than three weeks to go!

Day 49: Looking much larger and finding it a struggle to jump on to the bed. Vet bed (carpet-like material for the whelping box that keeps puppies cosy and dry) arrived and collected the whelping box yesterday. Poppy has checked it out but not yet sleeping in it as the room we will use for whelping is not yet set up. This will be the focus of the next few days. A swim at the beach and meeting new friends was enough exercise for one day.

Poppy in her new whelping box, sitting on the pink ‘vet bed’. She also has a grey mat which we’ll alternate. Substitute puppy aka chick-worm also trying it out.

Day 50: At the vet today Poppy weighed in at a portly 34.6kg! We went to discuss worming and availability of after hours vet services once she goes into labour. We were also there to get an X-ray to do a puppy count. Results were difficult to be certain but various opinions estimated 9-10+. It is possible to see both skulls and spines on the X-ray below. How many do  you think?

Two X-rays taken at the vet from both sides.

Day 53: 30 January. A warm day but not as hot as predicted. However Poppy is feeling the heat with her growing belly. She had a couple of swims which seemed to give her a little relief. Check the Papoulab instagram account to see Poppy swimming (filmed on Day 52). Today we set up some temporary fencing to stop her from visiting the nest she has been digging under the house, in case she decides this is where she wants to have her puppies. Her babies can be felt quite clearly now, moving around.

Day 57: Finding it difficult to get comfortable. The grass is nice and cool on Poppy’s tummy.

Day 58: The whelping room is now set up and supplies all ready, including the puppy cam!

Poppy at Day 58. Not long now!

Day 59: 5 February. Poppy is not pleased that I have restricted her access under the deck (& house!) where she had been digging a nice whelping nest, so is digging a new one in the laundry yard! A restless night again so we will take it in turns to sleep with her as we humans need sleep too! Favourite sleeping spot these days is on the nice cool tiles of the kitchen.

Day 60: After a very restless night, with panting, trips to the garden and eventually settling after an early breakfast, Poppy seemed back to her old self by the morning. We think her babies are especially restless at night which isn’t letting her settle. As she seemed keen to take a walk we went to Overport Park for some ‘come’, ‘sit’ and ‘stay’ practice. Check Instagram for some videos.

Poppy seems off her food this evening and spends a lot of time cleaning herself. The wait continues ….

Day 61: Whelping day! After 12 hours of panting and pacing (8pm Monday night to 8am Tuesday morning) there were signs that the puppies were on their way. Poppy took to her old bed rather than the whelping box where puppy number one arrived at 12.44, just as we were about to leave for the vet for a check up. I had spoken to the vet earlier as I was concerned about how long labour seemed to be lasting with so many puppies in there. We managed to get both pup and mum into the whelping box where another came 15 minutes later. Still going strong at 4.45pm. All puppies are doing really well as is Poppy. Check out Poppy’s first litter for updates on the little ones’ progress!