A friend of mine has a dog who is giving birth, she has had only one puppy and no more have been born. It has been a little over an hour since the first one was born. Is this normal or should he be concerned and take her to the vet?

She'll need to drop by a vet tomorrow anyways since she's obviously a little inexperienced at this.

Ed put this in his breeding Q&A http://leerburg.com/breedqa.htm#step

It depends on if she's in active labor, or if she's peacefully resting. I was a paranoid wreck when Capri was having hers. I knew there were quite a few in there, and she had 3 w/in a hour, and then NOTHING from about midnight until 5am. I called the vet and he said it's not common, but if they are not straining, he has seen them go 24 hours. He said if she's not visibly upset and is able to rest, leave well enough alone.

I also read where calcium can help w/contractions. Someone suggested vanilla ice cream and I don't know if it helped or not, but she sure enjoyed it! ;-)

Melissa, why would she take her to the vet tomorrow if all goes well? Do you mean the bitch or the bitch and puppies?

 Quote: Jenni Williams

Melissa, why would she take her to the vet tomorrow if all goes well? Do you mean the bitch or the bitch and puppies?

Probably everyone involved, better yet would be a vet willing to come to you but those are pretty few and far between anymore. A person really new at this probably won't know if there are retained placentas, palate issues, milk doesn't come in, or how to do dewclaws (if they're removing them) or tails if appropriate. I prefer to encourage people to get everyone checked, especially if it's their first litter and they're doing it without aide of someone who has seen a few hundred animals born.

Gotcha. Just wondered. I HATE to bring tiny pups to the germ-pit of the vet's office if I don't absolutely have to. I got 2 shots of Oxytocin to have on hand in case of an issue in the middle of the night...but you really don't want everyone and their brother giving shots of that stuff right and left, either.

Maybe the vet would let them come and wait somewhere else, private, so as not to expose them to any more than necessary. I shiver when I think of taking a new mom and tiny pups to a vet for disease reasons.

Here you have a lot of trouble getting anything pit or oxy related unless you work in dairy. I don't like the idea of taking pups into a vet office either but I don't like the idea of a bitch dying from infection, a bitch that dries up when she doesn't have to, or trying to nurse pups with a cleft palate even more.

Sometimes if the weather isn't too horrid you can get them to take a look at puppies out in your car.

I did this last group of pups alone after a decade of not dealing with puppy births. I used to work in a dairy, on a working small animal farm, and have seen and assisted probably a thousand mammals into this world. I still had my vet on speed dial and my mid woof on the instant messenger just in case something went hinkey and I forgot what to do.

This dog belongs to a friend of mine, I had not yet seen the dog when I posted, just seeking for some advice for him from a place where I feel the community has experience and knowledge.

I ended up going over to his house. From what I quickly gathered as far as info regarding "welping" it was not uncommon for there to be several hours between pups.

OMG. When I saw this poor little female, she looked like she had 25 dogs in there. She did not seem to uncomfortable, I looked at the only pup that had been born and it had a "cleft", I wondered if it could suck and asked if anybody saw it eating at any time since its birth?

I watched her while she had first 4 contractions in a minute, she would go thru the procedure that her instincts would guide her to do, she began cleaning the pup already born, as the contractions should have given her another pup. But nothing.

I gave her some water and got her up to walk around a little. I told the guy who owned the dog, if she were mine, even though his vet said you can wait up to 24 hours before being concerned, all those contractions should be pushing out puppies.

I finally got him to take the poor thing to the vet as she was starting to pant and she was just so darn big.

Long story short, there was a pup stuck and they are doing a C section as the other pups are also very big and may not fit thru either..

So, thank you for your responses and for the opportunity to share all this.

That bitch and pups are lucky you went over thers, as is your friend. If he'd waited he'd probably have had a dead dog and several dead pups. I hope, for her sake, he has her spayed once she's weaned the litter.

Good God. Does he have any common sense whatsoever??? I assumed from the fact that there was even a QUESTION of what to do that she was NOT in fruitless active labor! ARGH.

Good call, Kimberly. I hope he neuters himself.

 Quote: Kimberley Voyles

I gave her some water and got her up to walk around a little. I told the guy who owned the dog, if she were mine, even though his vet said you can wait up to 24 hours before being concerned, all those contractions should be pushing out puppies.



I'm hoping your friend misunderstood the vet, 24 hours between pups without a vet looking at the girl doesn't sound quite right to me.

Just thought I would point that out in case someone reads this and down the road thinks 24 hours between pups is fine.

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Betty (Waldron) Mathena

http://www.littlerivercanine.com