Puppies Are Born!!! (But Friday, November 5th co-op is cancelled...)

 Hi All!

So good news!  Angel had her puppies!!! The final count was 10. Everyone is healthy so far, and Angel is a champion! I've been warned that sometimes there are internal issues that we can't see right away, so we may still lose a puppy or two, but so far all is going fantastic! (See below for more details on the birth and pictures/videos).

But, bad news. I am going to have to cancel co-op for this Friday, November 5th.  Even though she had the puppies in plenty of time before Friday, I am figuring out that I will need to provide around the clock care to these babies for a few days. I am just going to be too exhausted to do more than normal chores. 

But...good news. I decided instead of trying to combine groups to make sure everyone gets a project done in December (because I am already planning to miss December 10th as well because of a class), it works out to just move this week's project back one week and keep on schedule. Then, December 17th we will have a Christmas Party/Potluck. That rounds out everything nice and neat to start again back in January.  I'll figure out the details and update you all on that later. 

Now, on to puppy details! :-D

As some of you may have heard me worrying about, Angel is a livestock guardian dog that prefers to be outside, however, we have no control over when our flood irrigation will come. I just KNEW that if I let Angel choose where to have her babies, they would drown. However, being a freedom-loving dog, I didn't think I would get her to stay inside a whelping box, and I was right. She wouldn't even go into the corner where we wanted to put a whelping box. So, we decided to just put a piece of pegboard across the entrance way and feed her there for 2 weeks.  And it worked. She got used to going in there. So win!!  

Monday night, I was SURE she was going to have her puppies. She had been sleeping in our bedroom at night for the last week, but Monday night she was extra restless. Lots of panting,  pacing and licking. I locked the dog door so she could not go into the dog run and moved her into the whelping area we had set up. She attempted to jump out a few times, so I decided to sleep in there with her. She stayed. At 3 in the morning, she fell asleep and my husband insisted that I actually go to bed. No puppies Monday night...and no sleep. 

All day on Tuesday, Angel pretended Monday night never happened. No panting. No pacing. She just wanted to spend the day in the dog run, hiding behind the air conditioner. Thankfully, Mr. D. was able to block off that area for me. So she decided to lie down in the holes she had already dug. 

And then we irrigated (because I KNEW that we would!)

Her holes got all muddy, and she was extra happy.

Last night (Tuesday night) around midnight we forced her to come inside. She happily came in and laid down on the floor of our room. I wanted to shut the dog door to the dog run, but our black cat, Sophie, was still outside and wouldn't come in. We decided that since Angel wasn't even panting, she probably wouldn't have her puppies and it was more of a risk of Sophie getting eaten by a coyote. The dog door stayed open.

At 3 am, I checked on Angel. She wasn't in our room. I went out in the living room and the really good dog was lying in her whelping box. Good girl, Angel!  But she wasn't acting like she was going to have her puppies, so I went back to bed. At 4:30 am, her big ol' head got shoved in my face. This happens anytime she's in the house and she didn't seem panicky, so I wasn't worried. She laid back down in my room and I went back to sleep. I woke up at 6:30 and she wasn't in our room or the whelping box. I looked out my window and saw her going to the bathroom in the dog run, so I didn't worry. I went back to my room and read for a bit. My husband got up at 7 and I asked him to check on Angel. 5 minutes later he came running into the room. "There are two puppies in the dog run!"

Of course there was.

I jumped up and ran outside. Sure enough, there were two puppies in a hole about a foot away from Angel's hole. Thankfully the dog run was only muddy and not flooded! But the puppies were cold and there was no way they would have been able to get back to Angel on their own. I am so thankful I had Mr. Davis check on Angel! Puppies are supposed to stay at a temperature of around 95* when they are first born. It was a little less than 60* this morning and the ground was wet, so even colder. I hurried to get them inside and on a heating pad in the whelping box. Then I went out to get Angel. In those 5 minutes, she had birthed another puppy. I was hoping if I grabbed that one, she would follow me, but she didn't. Eventually Mr. Davis had to shove her back through the doggy door. THEN she allowed me to move her into the whelping box. 

The puppies were filthy, but getting warm quickly. Then the 4th one came. And the 5th. And the 6th... Angel was a complete pro! She had them out and cleaned up before I could even see them through all of her fur! And it all happened so quickly! I was told it would take up to 9 hours or more. She had all 10 puppies out and cleaned up before 9:30 am--around 2 1/2 hours from start to finish. My job became throwing the puppies out of her way when the newest puppy arrived. It's all I had time to do!

Here's a video of the puppies crying because I had to move them so she could take care of the new arrival. Sounds of whelping! (Throughout the entire process, Angel made absolutely no sound!)

Here is a video of her cleaning up the 9th puppy (I tried to get the birth on video, but the puppy came out too quickly!).  Please note: the puppy was perfectly fine! Mama licks them quite roughly to make sure they breathe and encourage them to nurse. 

Eventually all 10 made an appearance and Angel was finally able to relax a bit. 

I love their sweet little faces!!!!

In case you weren't aware, puppies are born blind and deaf. They will not open their eyes or be able to hear for the first 2 weeks. Angel trusts us to make sure they are completely protected during this time. Bright lights or loud noises during this final development stage can cause lifelong damage to the puppies.

Great Pyrenees have extra toes on their feet. This is normal and not a deformity. The extra toes are there to offer more leverage and grip while they are performing their livestock guard duties.

After all of the puppies were born we allowed Angel to sleep for a bit while all the puppies were attached. 

This afternoon, I finally coaxed Angel away (she loves boiled egg whites!), allowed her to go potty, drink some yummy goat milk and eat some food. She only stay away for less than 10 minutes. While she got herself resituated, we checked their gender and weighed each puppy. All of the puppies weighed around a pound. The smallest puppy was a female and she weighed 13.5 oz.  The largest puppy was also a female and she weighed 1 lb 3.5 oz. 

Checking the gender is not as simple as it looks (definitely not as easy as on a goat!), but we're pretty sure we got them all correct-- 6 Females, and 4 Males altogether. 

Now that all the puppies are born and Angel is more relaxed, Mr. D and Mr. Davis built me a professional-looking whelping box (because I was worried about the crevices that the puppies could get hurt in). As usual, it is WAY nicer than I was anticipating. I think I'll turn it into a bookshelf when this is all done! :-D

This evening, I will make Angel get up again and take the puppies out and weigh them to make sure they are gaining weight appropriately.  At that time, we will put in the new whelping box, which will be easier to clean and safer for the puppies. The will stay in that for the first 4 weeks or so, then we will move them out into the dog run so that they can start learning their new jobs. 

Exciting adventures await!