A Star is Born

Because I've been alone for the birth of my previous two litters I was not able to get any pictures of the puppies being born. With Adine to help I finally have some photos of Halo giving birth.



This is White boy making his entrance into the world. He is not in his sac, it followed him out, and he was breathing before he hit the paper. He's what you want to see; a puppy coming out kicking and screaming.





I have a cloth ready to catch them as they come out mostly because they are slippery little suckers! Then you spend some time rubbing them and making sure they are breathing while the bitch tends to the rest of the discharge and the placenta.

Here he is safe and sound. You can see his sac and halo eating the placenta - she's quick ont he draw with that! I picked him up to stop Halo over-working the umbilical and started the vigorous rub to get him breathing and the blood flow going.

Here is the second puppy, pink ribbon girl, coming out still in her sac. Halo chews the sac to break it and I'm grabbing her to keep tabs on the progress. The fluid pours out of their lungs and the best sound ever is their first cry because you know they are getting enough air to complain.

When the vet removed Blue Boy from Halo she handed him off to the technician, they started to work on him and a few moments later he let out a big squeak. The vet said it was the best sound ever since she had only given him a 50/50 shot at being alive. I do think if we'd waited any longer, or just allowed Halo to struggle and give birth naturally he would not have come out alive. Another successful litter whelped from the most amazing brood-bitch ever.