Anutta Blog

Life With Poodles

Jazz’s puppies born! 11-15-2013

by | Nov 16, 2013 | Uncategorized | 3 comments

How many again????

What an eventful day we had yesterday!!  It started off pretty calm.  Keith was scheduled to be on call all night, which means he didn’t need to show up to work until 3PM.  He took the kids to school, we puttered around the house, did a morning jog, evaluated what we wanted to do with our day.  THOR was showing at 11AM at the local movie theater and we both though it would be nice to see a movie without having to fork out 10 dollars an hour for childcare.  All the dogs were good, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.   The movie was entertaining and we arrived back home at about 1pm.  As I walk in the door, Jazz is dancing.  I hurried Jazz and River outside, ask her to pee and she did, but then she runs up to me crying and panting.  OH NO!!  NO!  I knew she was in hard labor.  This morning there was zero indication of the impending birth of puppies.  She wasn’t due for 5 days!  I hadn’t even started checking her temperature for a drop.  I was going to give her a ‘prebirth’ groom today, Saturday. Oh the best laid plans…

I yell at Keith to get the floor to the whelping box, Jazz was in labor.   I stick her in the bathroom because she is trying to claw her way into the whelping box, which I had closed with an ex-pen surround.  We get the bottom in place, covered with an old blanket, and set the box on top.  I release Jazz who promptly jumps in and starts digging in.  We are scrambling at this point.  Towels, scissors, hemostats, scale, newspaper, etc.  I’m tossing stuff on my bed like there is no tomorrow.  Keith asked how he can help, I tell him “Go get the kids, check them out of school.  I won’t have time to get them after you go to work”.  He argues with me about it, say’s he didn’t think it was necessary.   I tell him “FINE, I will get the kids, whelp the litter, do everything.  Just leave, go to work now.”  I was a bit unreasonable, but I knew she was going to have them soon and he did ask what he could do to help.   In any case, he did the smart thing, didn’t attempt to speak to me and drove straight to the school.   As the kids walked in the house at 2:10PM, the first puppy was being born.  Keith helped me get the little girl cleaned up, hugged me goodbye, wished me luck, and headed to work.  Solo whelping is so much fun.  I said a little prayer and buckled down for a long night.

Jazz was simply AMAZING.  I’ve had few first time mom’s as calm and collected as this lady.  She never once cried, she didn’t panic in any way.  She put total trust in my judgement and let me handle everything.  If I took the puppy out to clean, weigh,  and photograph, she focused on the next contraction, knowing I had it all under control.  After I logged the puppy’s information, I would take the pup back in for her to lick and love on for a short time, then mark the puppy with nail polish before placing that baby with the rest of the litter.  I kept a tubby with a heating pad on low covered in a towel for the babies to stay in while Jazz was actively giving birth.   When there was a lull in the delivery cycle, I would give Jazz some time to rest before placing the pups in the box to nurse.  Factoid: Allowing puppies to nurse between births can help to stimulate labor contractions by the release of the hormone oxytocin.   When the pups were in the tubby, she would rotate so she could watch the tubby from the opening of the whelping box, but she never tried to get the pups or acted upset if they were not right under her paws.  Jazz and I have a great relationship and I really believe she thought “Hey, Mom did this last year with Zelda.  I should trust her judgement in this and let her do her thing, while I do mine”.

All the while this was going on, River was in my bathroom, right next to the whelping area.  I put up a gate so he could see what was going on, but not be so close as to make Jazz nervous.  Actually, I am not sure Jazz would have been nervous with him right IN the whelping box, but the gate allowed me to keep him back so I didn’t trip over him as I rush around.  He was involved enough to know I was busy and not simply ignoring him.  Lina and Mica were either outside playing (weather was amazing yesterday, thank goodness) or in the ex-pen in the living room.  Having the two puppies was great, they kept each other company and out of my hair.  River would have been no fun to Lina, as he was all worried about what was going on in the bedroom.

Aiden and Kenzie did amazing.  Both were involved and eager to help by handing me things as the pups were born.  During the lulls they would watch TV.  At bedtime we had 10 puppies born, but I told them not to be surprised if there were a few more in the morning.  Jazz wasn’t done yet!

Proud Momma!!

All total between the hours of 2pm and 11pm 13 puppies were born.  Sadly, one was a tiny stillborn male, but otherwise the rest are thriving.  One little female had some breathing issues, but I worked hard on her, kept her warm against my skin and cupped in my hands until she was toasty and breathing well.  We now have 12 strong and vigorous babies all eating well, 7 girls and 5 boys. All solid colored but for one boy with a tiny blaze on his chest.

  1. GIRL – 9 1/2 oz
  2. GIRL- 7 3/4 oz
  3. BOY -6 oz
  4. BOY- 7 1/4 oz small blaze on chest
  5. GIRL- 6 1/4 oz
  6. GIRL- 6 oz
  7. BOY- 7 3/4
  8. GIRL 7 3/4
  9. GIRL- 7 3/4
  10. GIRL- 9 1/8
  11. BOY- 7 1/2
  12. BOY 8 3/8

Jazz has been great.  I have to watch her close, 12 babies is a lot for even an experienced mom to wrangle.  Thankfully she is not a fussy mom, she does not circle and worry, but there will be a serious risk of her laying on one by accident for at least a week.  I’ve saved a few already.  Mostly I see her curled up around them resting, gently grooming, or passed out sleeping.  I’m going  to have to stay withing spitting distance for the next few days.  The pups are small, due to being born early and the sheer number of them.  They need to gain a lot of strength and weight before I will feel safe leaving Jazz longer than a few minutes.  I am glad she had them on a Friday, hopefully by Monday I will be able to take the time to get the kids to school and not worry myself sick.

Jazz and my new living arrangements.  Home for the next week.

I’ve moved my computer into the bedroom now.  Laptops are the greatest.  I am going to try and contact everyone who has placed an application with me recently and get the ball rolling now that we know exactly what we have.  It might take me a day or so, because I’m going to grab sleep when I can.  In any case, If Jazz and I do our jobs right, I think most of you will be able to pick a puppy from this litter!

~Becky