Preggers

Abbe and Angus a few nights ago.

Abbe is pregnant. When I got my Cockapoos I had an inclination to breed them once. I tried to get litter mates but I couldn’t, so here were two beautiful dogs with good genes that are able to mate. Lucia would every now and then say about Lilly, "I wish we hadn’t neutered her" because she was such a special dog. I don’t think she had any real regrets, just one of those passing thoughts.

So I hadn’t spayed Abbe and Angus like I did with all my pets since Ganja because I hadn’t decided about breeding them. I protected her from being pregnant until accidentally they tied in July. After the tie I put her diapers back on because this was a deterrent in case it didn’t take. I had mixed feelings about whether I wanted her to be pregnant. I stopped using the diaper when I thought her heat was over.

I have always been a responsible dog owner. My last pure bred dog was Ganja, my Irish Setter. I bred her once also, she had nine pups. In fact she had her pups almost the same time I had Isa: nine pups and a baby. That time it was said that it was good for a female dog to be bred once. Now I know it is simply an old wife’s tale.

I know that the healthiest thing to do is spay them before their first heat. This gives them their best chance of avoiding mammary tumors when older.

There is only one negative side-effect to neutering, and that is that it slows down the animal's metabolism, making them more prone to weight gain. I’ve never had any trouble with weight in any of my dogs or cats, just me! Besides all these facts, I will be adding to the already vast overpopulation of dogs in shelters. So it has been a bit of a dilemma. Now the deed is done, I am being a responsible breeder.

When she started showing symptoms of pregnancy about 3 weeks ago, I took her to the vet to confirm and to make absolutely sure that she was in good health (although I pretty much knew she was). I had her x-rayed to see how many pups. It is important to know how many pups she will have because the more she has, the smaller they are and the easier to give birth. If she has one or two, the pups could get very large and she would be a candidate for a C-Section.

The first x-ray didn’t show anything. This could be a concern because if she was having her pups soon, she didn’t have enough milk for the pups and I would have to bottle feed them. So she asked me to bring her back a week later. The second x-ray showed that she may have 4-5 pups. The vet said that she would have a better idea after the radiologist read the picture. That night she called and informed me the following:

She was not impregnated on the tying I witnessed, but there must have been a second or third time after in which she got pregnant. This is the reason why nothing showed in the first x-ray and why there was little evidence that her mammary glands might lactate soon.
The due date therefore was moved to 10 or so days. This is good because now she has time to lactate.
Still thinks 4-5 pups but it is still an estimate since the puppies are still almost two weeks away.

When nothing showed in the first x-ray, in some ways I was relieved that possibly she wasn’t pregnant, but worried because she was getting big and the x-ray indicated that her uterus had enlarged. The vet also said that many small dogs can have false pregnancies. She said that they have a lot of the symptoms and in fact sometimes will latch on to a toy or stuffed animal and protect it as if it were her puppy.

Now that I definitely know she is pregnant, I am learning everything I can about what to expect. In some ways what is happening to me is comical, I saw a few dogs give birth as a kid and certainly was involved with Ganja’s delivery. There was no internet then. You just depended on Mother Nature to take its course. Today, there are so many sites about breeding, gestation, whelping, whelping kits, whelping boxes, etc. There is even a site with images showing the steps of delivery blow by blow! In some ways it is good to be informed but at the same time I am suffering from information over load. At the same time I feel grateful that there is all this information to get me well-educated and prepared. If I am not careful, however, it could potentially stress me out.

The happy couple and parents to be frolicking in the beach.

It used to be, you prepared a quiet area where your dog can deliver her pups, you may have had a big cardboard box or you laid newspapers on the floor to keep it clean and be able to efficiently clean up after the pups and birthing debris. Now you can find several sites and some illustrated plans for building whelping boxes! Being a responsible breeder, I will build one.

So Abbe has been so sweet. She is also very hungry all the time. I am giving her puppy food as prescribed by the vet and many of the sites on gestation. Last night she woke me up at 4:00am, she was on top of my chest licking my face (all 18 lbs of her). I realized that she needs to pee more often. So tonight I will leave my bedroom door open so she can go whenever she wants. She is having a hard time getting up on my bed, so she jumps up on the chest on the foot of my bed. As she gets bigger I don’t think she will be able to do that anymore either.

Angus has been mellower, for the most part. I think he has a sense that something happening to his girlfriend. He cocks his head in a jaunty and significant way when I say “Abby’s going to have your puppies.”

In 10 days I will have little puppies and a mom to attend to. In another week I’ll have puppies to watch, in a few more weeks I’ll have puppies to adore and play with. At eight weeks they will all have homes!