Litter January 1, 2000
Birth
During the week before the expected date of birth (4 January) Spottie's body temperature was monitored to determine the moment of birth. In the morning of the 31th of december Spottie surprised us with a remarkable drop of temperature, which was still present at six o'clock in the evening. The delivery was to be expected within the next 24 hours.
Spottie's body temperature during the past ten days.
Spottie was pretty restless during the entire new year's eve and busy rearranging her box. In the beginning of the evening the contractions started to be visible and at half past ten it happened.
The delivery
First of all an overview of the resulting litter:
 |
| Time |
Gender |
Colour |
Weight |
|
| 22:35 |
dog |
tricolour |
345 g |
| 22:47 |
bitch |
tricolour |
325 g |
| 23:17 |
dog |
black/white |
405 g |
| 23:26 |
dog |
tricolour |
290 g |
| 01:07 |
dog |
black/white |
360 g |
| 02:44 |
dog |
black/white |
400 g |
|
Around half past nine the contractions followed each other with an interval of about five minutes. After an hour of hard work of Spottie the first dog was born. It was a posterior presentation (a normal way of birth in dogs), complete with amnion and placenta.
Spottie seemed to be going well, because twelve minutes later a bitch followed. She was also born in posterior presentation together with the placenta.
It was quiet for a while, but at 23:17 (30 minutes after the previous one) number three—also a dog— was born in posterior presentation. We were given only nine minutes to enjoy this pup, because the next dog—with anterior presentation this time— found her way out.
The fireworks were getting more noisy and this probably was the reason for Spottie to stop for a while. It was already 01:07 when it was finally quiet enough for Spottie to produce another young lad. In the mean time she was so tired, that she hardly had the energy for the finale. We were on the phone with the veterinary assistant to send for the vet, when at last, after lots of encouragements the last pup (a very dark coloured dog) was born. The new year was already 2:44 hours old when we could call it a day. After making a lot of pictures and video recordings we went to bed at four o'clock in the morning.
The pictures
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A newborn pups is cleaned.
Full size picture. |
A proud mother with her offspring.
Full size picture. |
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| A pile of puppies. |
Because he resembles one of his brothers we marked him with red nail polish; it's not an injury! |
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| Eating is hard work. |
But some of the pups quickly work up an appetite. |
Copyright © 1998-2013 Jigal van Hemert & Danielle Boshouwers
URL: http://www.bordercollies.nl/litter2/ewk0.shtml
This page last modified: Friday, 01-Aug-2008 17:14:09 CEST
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