Our girl Savannah had her "Rush" puppies today. It was supposed to be a nice easy 'planned c-section' this afternoon after the office closed. But Savannah never reads those books or pays any attention to our plans. Even though her progesterone level yesterday am was at a 6.9 she still went into labor last night so I stil had to stay up all night just to see if she was serious or not. I decided she really was serious about her labor when she started pulling all the books out of the bookcase and trying to rip them to shreds for her'nest'. That is when I locked her in the whelping box with a couple of newspapers to destroy. Had to call the Vet at 3:30 a.m. to tell him she wasn't going to wait until this afternoon and did he want to do the surgery before office hours. So at 4:00 am I was off on my hour and a half drive to the Vet hospital. Yawn!! All went well, we got six big fat pups, 2 black boys, 2 black girls, 1 yellow boy, 1 yellow girl. Now, seriously my idea of the "planned" c-section, is to have an appointment at a reasonable hour, get a good nights sleep, shower, dress nicely, mosey on over to the Vet hospital, maybe stop at Starbucks, drop the bitch off, then go have lunch with a friend or do a little shopping, go to a bookstore, then go back to the Vet, pick up the bitch and pups, pay the bill and go home. Doesn't that sound right to ya'll!
By the way this is not an advertisement for anything (except possibly sleep aids) as this litter is 'way' sold. Just sharing!
Judy H.

Guess I'll just have to make some of my own "Rush" babies then. Congrats and go take a nap!

Great story Congrats on the litter!

Judy ~ don't you just love the way the "girls" follow their own schedule!! Congratulations on the babies, and I love the way you write...such great dry humor!!

Congradulations on your litter of Rush puppies Judy....we are expecting Rush puppies next weekend and I am taking our Sydney into the Vet on Tues. for her x-ray and to decide when the C-section will take place....I will be remembering your story until they are born...wish us luck ! We are so excited!!! Congrat's again!!!!

Congratulations on your Rush/Savannah litter Judy, even though Savannah gave you a hard time.

Hi Judy,

Thankyou for sharing, you had me laughing! Nice to hear a moment of crazyness from someone elses life. I have always believed it's not plan A but how you can handle plan B,C and D. Yes!! I want the shower, the clean clothes, the starbucks coffe, and a good friend to talk lab to, but most of the time I am running with puppy schedule, kids and husband... who thinks I am his personal assistant... and I am. But the best we can do is make the best plans possible and then do the best we can. You have lovely, lovely dogs, and your post shows how intimately you care. Thankyou again for sharing.
Keep up your sense of humour and congrats on your litter. I am excited for you and from Hyberspace send you and your pups only good wishes.

Judy, since when do any of our beloved kids make things "easy" LOL.... congratulations on a beautiful litter. Cute Story!!

just wanted to know... who is rush. the whole name would be very appreciated!!!! thank-you

Judy,
Cute story. Remember you often get what you name a dog so with a father named Rush what did you expect.

LOL Judy! I had one of those "planned" c-secs with my last litter. I had to go visit my mom overnight on a Saturday, so I took Tilly along since she was scheduled for the c-sec on Tuesday and I didn't want to leave her home with Lyla to have to worry about her. No signs of labor, no drop in temp, she wolfed down dinner, so I let her sleep in the crate in the van as usual. Next morning, three of the fattest puppies I've ever had! In the crate! And her bedding was hardly even wet. And she wolfed down breakfast too! You never know!

Rush is Hyspire's Adrenaline Rush, WD/BOW/BOB at the 2007 Labrador Nationals. A stunning boy!

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Replying to:

just wanted to know... who is rush. the whole name would be very appreciated!!!! thank-you

Congratulations on the litter, just curious here how come it was a planned c section?
Aloha,
jackie

I too wanted to ask about planned c-sections. I am expecting my first labrador litter in a couple of weeks. I have another breed so have whelping experience, and have had a couple of 'non-planned' c-sections! Just curious of the circumstances to plan one? Just trying to prepare for my upcoming litter.
Thanks.
Julia

Good questions. We are so far down the page though that now you might not see my answer but here goes anyway.
With this girl we did a c-section because she is five years old and the last litter and only other litter she has had was two years ago. With that litter she had them all naturally but she had twelve pups and lost five of them. She contracted so hard that many pups were coming without placentas and possibly were losing them quite prematurely- I don't know really why there were so many born dead- there just were. We decided with her age and the long lapse in pregnancy it would be the best to c-section her this time so we did. Usually though we make this decision based on the fact that they had real problems on a previous litter and had to have a c-section anyway or the litter consists of four or less pups, seen on x-ray. It usually seems when the litters are small in number they are large in size and hard for them to whelp. My guess is that if we had let her have these pups she would have had some alive and some not as they 16 to 19 ounces- not enormous but definitely big. So that was our reason. This will be Savannahs second and last litter. Just as an aside we also did a complete blood panel on Savannah within the last year. I think anytime they are older than three they should have bloodwork before breeding to confirm that liver and kidneys and all other organs are functioning well.
Just what we do.
Enough dog stuff- back to watch the PBR National Finals!!!!
Judy

Judy,
Thank you for your reply. I am new to the breed and admire your dogs as many do, but as equally appreciate your honesty and civility in your comments here. I have a wonderful breeder/mentor who I trust completely, but always nice to lurk here and learn from all of the knowledge and experience here.
Julia