10/11/2008
This photo shows Beattie with 5 days remaining until her
puppies are born.
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15/11/2008
Beattie went into labour on Friday evening, and due to her
large size, needed a helping hand to get going. Therefore
we put her in the car at 04:00, after sitting with her all
night, and took her to the vets for an Oxytocin shot to
stimulate her uterus to contract more strongly. The injection
takes about 20 minutes to have an effect and we live 20
minutes from the Vet's premises, so it is always a race
against time to get home before the contractions start!
The injection had the desired effect and within a few minutes
of arriving home, Beattie was having strong contractions.
The first puppy took a long time to arrive, it was a big
puppy and as it was the first one out, had to blaze a trail
for the others to follow! The subsequent puppies arrived
at regular intervals; the first was born at 05:00 hrs and
the last at 07:10 hrs. We then returned to the Vet for another
Oxytocin shot, as we knew that there was at least one more
puppy in Beattie and she was exhausted by this time and
needed the help of the Oxytocin to expel the puppy. Unfortunately
this puppy, a bitch, was still-born and stood no chance
of revival. This was very sad but happens once in a while.
All the other puppies and Beattie are thriving.
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15/11/2008
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Beattie with her first born....
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15/11/2008
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....the first three puppies born....
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15/11/2008
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....all eight puppies....
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15/11/2008
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....a very adventurous 4-hour old puppy!.....
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15/11/2008
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...the proud mum with all her babies.
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15/11/2008
Puppy having a cuddle with Mum.
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16/11/2008
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Our Girls always enjoy breakfast in bed for the first few
days. Beattie is just about to be given some of her favourite
scrambled eggs on toast!
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16/11/2008
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The puppies have all been 'colour-coded' for identification.
We use wax crayon melted on to the puppies fur, it lasts
for several days before it wears off.....
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16/11/2008
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...the girls are coloured red and purple, the boys are black,
turquoise, green, orange, yellow & blue...
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16/11/2008
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....the reason for colour-coding is to help us keep a track
of the puppies weights. These three are the smallest and
are given a turn at the 'milk-bar' before their larger siblings.
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16/11/2008
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Beattie is shown having a shower to clean her up. It's surprising
how much 'green gunk' there is for several weeks after having
a litter. The Girls like to be kept clean.
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18/11/2008
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The puppies are all thriving, the biggest male increased
his weight by 4.5 ounces (125 grammes) in one day!
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18/11/2008
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Eat and sleep, sleep & eat...it's a hard life!
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20/11/2008
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You can see the difference is size in 5 days, it's hard
to imagine less than a week ago these puppies were all carried
inside Beattie.
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20/11/2008
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The pigment on the puppies feet and on their noses has soon
changed from pink to black.
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