I am sitting here watching my virgin bitch in labor tonite.Poor girl. Shes got a ful load in there. A first for me in some time .7- 9 puppies abouts.
She been in labor having the contractions where the belly is hard and she stands there, of course panting and pacing, and wanting to go out to potty all the time . She frustrated I know. Being new .Well, Im so used to an easy whelper, and a girl with out alot of the long contractions times , and then boom, some arching of the tail, and some leakage and then some pushing and out a baby comes.
This lady, has had the contractions coming since 230 am this am , and its now almost 600 am . And just the contractions, no pushing, and no arching of her tail to indicat things are happening . Her contractions come about every 7-8 minutes .and will last for maybe 4 mins . She then relaxes when it fades and curls up to rest in her crate on her blankets. Because she wont settle in her carefully prepared whelping room, with soft blankets in her kiddy pool, to do the mesy pat of the delivery today,no shes happy to go in and out of her crate today. But she will rest in there so Im leting her do it.
When is it unusualy long to have contractions only.? im waiting for it to be 630 -700 am to wake the vet if I can, but you know, its an hour drive , and its about 13 degrees tonite. Id prefer to try to see if we can get them born here.
Im just panicing again is all I guess.
Ive had litters over the years, but I have had Cs's too.
But I had so hoped she wouldnt have to go thru that . Im just looking for a bit of support tonite while I sit and sooth my girl.

Uphs, I meant to put 3 1/2 hours on that time for my girls contractions.
I must be tired .

sue

Take a pair of gloves put some vaseline on them and try to take at least two of your fingers and go up inside her. Do a circuliar motions to see if you can stimulate her down there. Also see if you can feel any pups yet. I had to do this once with one of my girls because she was still pretty tight down there. Once I did the stimualtion down there and walked her outside to go potty things started to progress. I guess with it being only 13 degree's that might be a bit cold. Bring Towels outside just in case. Good Luck. Would call Vet to give him a heads up too.

I would have had her to the vet before this no matter if it is an hour. She has already waited an hour with contractions. And you can maybe put nice warm blankets in your car and go. When she is having those contractions, the puppies are probably already detaching. Best wishes

That sounds like a blockage. I would go to the vet immediately. It's a long time having contractions with no puppy out by now. Good luck.

That was my concern too Sue, placentas detaching with those contractions. Let us know how things go. Hope everyone is ok. I'd be at the vets to be safe.

Renee

I can't believe that on a breeders forum we use terms like 'down there'. Really?

Has her water/mucous plug come out yet? She's not pushing but contracting, so is she exhausting herself you think?

I'd give her a few more hours, with all my maiden (not virgin) bitches, I give them a bit more time. Once they relent to what is happening to their bodies, and let things happen naturally, they are usually just fine. When she starts straining and pushing, I won;t let her go more than 2 hours.

Breeder...like now is really the time to be correcting peoples terminology.

Good luck to the the o.p. and her dog.


p.s. to "breeder" the word won't does not have a semi colon in it!

As soon as she is NOT pushing and there is NO green discharge it is OK. She is in the first phase of labor. It can take up to 48 hours and the puppies will be fine.
Her contraction periods should get closer each time. Panting, nesting, and rest. If she stops having contractions or does not keep progressing, she'll need a C-section. The longer it takes, the more she looses Calcium and Glucose which are needed to complete the labor. You can offer some milk with sugar, and give her a couple of tablets of Calcium citrate every 2 hours.
Vitamin D as Cholecalciferol 500 IU. Calcium 400 mg.
Once she starts pushing, the first puppy should be delivered within 2 hours, and it is usually withing the first 30 minutes.
Stimulation of the area can help to accelerate the process. Already explained by another poster.
Ask for someone to help, you'll be exhausted if it takes too long.
Good Luck

What happened? Did she finally start having the pups on her own?

hi my freinds,
Well after I had quickly typed out my message on the forum, I clicked send and jogged back in to my lovely virgin soon to be mom.Things were a bit hectic.
As can be expected with a first time virgin bitch .
I will fill you all in.
The contractions were only her contractions. Strong ones that are the tightening of her belly, and as one of you mentioned this is sometimes a sign of a first timer, panicing and not working with the flow of mother nature . I also senced this was the case. And when I saw the onset of a contraction coming I would comfort her and tell her she is a good girl. Distracting her till the 3-4 mins passed . I had already done a gloved vaginal exam and felt for any sign of a head. I really didnt think I would feel anything because she had not had any sign of the clear fluid, mucus plug leak on the newspaper on my floor. I have learned to always carry a dish towel when we go out side to encourage the mother to potty.I have pulled puppies from a mother lab in the past years. I had thought she was possibly having those contractions longer than normal. I had already called my 2 vets earlier that day to have them both on standby if needed.I did not want to be hasty and do a CS, if I was only being nervous. Believe me I have had done those if its needed.
My puppy tote container ,towels,surgicasl spare supplies,& water bottle were ready to go.
What finally turned me around to give me some confidence in my girl was at 31/2 hours she stopped the contractions. She calmed down,and sitting in front of me she leaked her water,I took her out side for a moment and we returned inside,from the cold bbrrrrrrr, and she stepped into her kiddy pool and laid down . Within minutes it seemed she began to do some arching of the tail and pushing vaginally.
Now I knew we were getting somewhere .I gloved her after she had done some nice arching and I felt the nose of her first puppy.After about 1/2 hour of trying I walked her back outside with my puppy towel.She did two nice tail arhinjgs and here came my puppy, big too. I caught him as he was born and we ran back into the house. From that point on we averaged 1 every 1/2 hr to 1 hour.
I am now a happy grandma of 7 lil puppies.
Shes nursing the puppies every 2 hours for now, and we are hoping she will catch onto cleaning butts. Thank you all for your support. Seems like we never stop worrying over our girls. Or panicing. Boy Im so tired tonite no sleep yet/

Whew! And thanks for the update. Congratulations.

Congratulations!!! So glad that it all went well and hope you get some sleep soon too!