P.J.'s Puppies
I know many of you have been waiting for a birth announcement… the wait is over. Our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies are here! And what a night it was. This was my first time delivering puppies AT THE VETS OFFICE!!
First, let me say, that P.J. had her puppies August 31st. 3 girls and 2 boys, all are doing well. Now let me back up to the night P.J. went into labor. As any breeder can tell you, with the first signs of delivery, your heart flutters and your blood races through your veins until that first (and last) puppy is delivered and doing well. This time was no different.
At 9:00 p.m. Tuesday, August 30th, P.J. was in her whelping box when she had the first signs of labor. She had some discharge of water. I’m thinking how great this is, in my mind I have this whole litter born by midnight. This was not to be the case. At midnight we still didn’t have any puppies… I called “paged” the “on call” vet. I was told there was nothing to worry about yet, she was not in distress (which I knew) and I could wait it out for awhile. If she didn’t have her puppies by morning to call back. So P.J. and I crawled into my bed at 12:30. I figured we may as well try to get comfortable while we were waiting.
To say we got any sleep would be an understatement. P.J. couldn’t get comfortable, she was having contractions pretty regular. So she was all over the place. She would rest for awhile and then another contraction would come and she would go from one side of the bed to the other. Then she’d settle down and another contraction would come. This went on until about 3:30 a.m. – and then I knew things changed. I felt the first pushing contraction. I bounded out of bed and took her with me. Back we went to the whelping box, where we waited for the approaching delivery of that first pup.
By this time I’m already exhausted from not getting any sleep, but your adrenaline kicks in and you get a second wind. So now the minutes seem like hours as they slowly tick away. I waited for about 45 minutes without any signs of a puppy. Now I was starting to get worried. I’ve had a first puppy take about an hour before to come, but this wasn’t her first delivery. She’d had puppies before, I didn’t expect her to take this long. But I had to remind myself that every delivery is different and I had to focus on how P.J. was doing now, not what she had done in the past. At times like these you have to learn to follow your instincts. So I did, something just didn’t feel right to me, so I picked up the phone to call the vet. I went with the old saying; “it’s better to be safe, than sorry”.
Now remember, this is in the middle of the night, most vets don’t give you their personal home phone number. So I was calling the vet on call, through a paging system. My first call was approximately 4:10 a.m. and I waited for the call back. No call after 10 minutes (which is what the instructions said; “if you don’t get a call back in 10 minutes, please call again”). So I called again at approximately 4:20. Again no call back! At this point I’m starting too panic. What am I going to do if I can’t get ahold of my vet? Is the call not going through? Is the vet on the other end just sleeping through the page? WHAT IS HAPPENING???
One final call at about 4:30, still no answer! I couldn’t believe it, of all the times not to be able to get ahold of the vet, this is not the time. I pulled the phone book out and looked for a clinic that was about 30 plus minutes away from me that my sister had gone to one time when her dog had to have a C-section. After the second ring there was a “human” on the other end. I explained my situation and after talking it over we decided it would probably be a good decision to bring P.J. in where he could take a look at her. She had been working at getting this puppy delivered for long enough and we wanted to make sure we didn’t lose it by waiting any longer.
Now I found myself running around trying to make sure I had everything I need to get P.J. to the vet and her puppies home. So I grabbed a towel for P.J. to sit on, a couple of microwave heating socks and muffler for the puppies to keep warm, and a crate to put them all in. And off I went, P.J. sitting next to me in the passenger seat.
Did I mention the vets office was 30 plus minutes away? At about 20 minutes into the ride P.J. started making whining noises. Then suddenly she jumped into my lap with a crying sound. I quickly put my hand under her and felt a puppy coming. Here I am going as fast as I dare to get her to the vet and she’s having this puppy here in the car! I wasn’t sure if I should keep driving, or to pull over and try to deliver the pup. Well the decision was made for me. With one more push a puppy landed in my hand. So I had to pull over to the side of the road, put mom and pup back on the towel in the seat next to me to make sure everything was O.K. and the puppy was breathing. Once I knew mom and puppy #1 were doing O.K. I got back on the road and quickly finished my trip to the vet.
After explaining the situation to the vet, and after discussing all our options, we both felt it would be best if we continued to let P.J. try to deliver her puppies naturally. I had two choices. I could either take P.J. and her puppy home and finish the whelping process there (and hope she was able to deliver all the pups naturally). Or I could stay at the office and deliver them there. Well it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that I wasn’t about to go home (another 30 plus minute trip) with a dog in labor. I didn’t want another puppy being born on the trip home. So I choose to stay and allow P.J. to have her puppies there. I felt better about it anyway knowing that if in the event something did go wrong, I was in the perfect place to get help.
I made the right decision, because it wasn’t 15-20 minutes later and we had puppy #2. Puppies #3, 4 and 5 were all born over the next 2 hours. Once we were sure she was done delivering puppies we all headed home. Needless to say, the trip home for both P.J. and myself, was quiet and uneventful.
That was two weeks ago, and it seems like just yesterday. I’m glad P.J. didn’t have to have a C-section. It’s always best if they can have their puppies naturally. But that first puppy was the largest in the litter. He weighed 9.6 ounces, her largest puppy to date. Which is most likely why it took her longer to deliver him. But I’m happy to say that all puppies are doing great and they are now at the age where their eyes are starting to open. So cute!
As to why I never got a call back from the vet that night… I guess I’ll never know. I made a call into the office that morning to explain what had happened. They said they would check into it. I didn’t make a big deal about it, what was done was done. I just wanted to make sure they knew so someone else wouldn’t have to go through the same thing I did.
All in all, I would have to say it was a great night. Mom and pups are doing well, and that’s more than anyone can ask for.
© PupJoy – September 14, 2011
