WOW! I love having a crazy, hectic, always on the go kind of life. It just makes things more interesting. I'm pretty sure my mom taught me to love it because that is just how it is for some people! I can't imagine what it would be like to go to my in-laws for Thanksgiving and, well, just have Thanksgiving. Ha ha ha, so here is our story...
We left Nampa on Wednesday afternoon, leaving in a hurry because I had told Merena that I would make potato soup and bread bowls for dinner for everyone since she was making the entire meal for the next day. We're driving on the freeway with Justin in the driver's seat, me in the passenger seat, Copper in his self-designated co-pilot stance (between Justin and me), and Sadie on the floor behind Justin's seat.
Luckily, Sadie didn't have another pup before we reached Justin's parents' place. Once at The Reed's home, we tried to set Sadie up in the laundry room where the lights were low and there were fewer people. (This is what MOST dogs would prefer) Does Sadie like her setup? No! Insead, Sadie takes of walking around the house checking every nook and cranny for the perfect birthing spot. She walks into the living room where the whole family, all ten of us, are sitting, plops down in the middle of the room and makes herself at home. Ha ha ha! We did finally convince her to at least go under the computer desk so she wouldn't be right in the walkway.
5 hours later, we have 3 more pups and 2 more to go! So we sit and wait...
and we wait....
and we wait...
since there still was no puppy #5 and we had already given Sadie her shots to induce labor once she was tired, we are forced to call our vet back in Nampa. It is now 5 am and it's been 2.5 hours since her last puppy. John Calhoun, our vet, suggested we start calling other vets because she is probably going to need to have this one pulled or have a C-Section.
Justin starts calling random vets out of the phone book. Several don't answer, one finally answers but refuses to get on the phone and just translates through his wife. FINALLY, we get ahold of a vet who says to meet him at his office in an hour. It has now been 7 hours since her last puppy was born - a very risky amount of time!
At 9am Thanksgiving morning, we took Sadie and all four puppies to the vet. After several blood tests, and an ultra sound, the vets determine that Sadie needs a C-Section. Based on the ultra sound, they were guessing that we had at least 2 puppies for sure left, 1 with a nice strong heart beat and 1 with a very weak 40 beats per minute heart.
We asked the vets to go ahead and fix Sadie while they were performing the surgery since we were already planning on getting this done once the pups were weaned. We decided we'd rather have her deal with one surgery instead of two.
At about 11am, the vet finally appears with our VERY sad looking, doped up Sadie. I should have taken a picture of her, it was so sad! She was completely out of it, but awake. Her tongue was hanging out of her mouth to one side and she really looked dead. Skinny, but dead.
We asked the vet how many puppies she had and what their statuses were. The vet looked at us with wide eyes and held up his entire hand...FIVE more puppies! Sadie had been pregnant with NINE puppies!!!!!!!! Her poor little body should really only be having four at most, six has been a very large litter. The seven she had last time was just nuts and now NINE!
One of the puppies was born still, not the one with the slow heart beat. So we ended up with eight healthy pups. We have to watch the little spotted boy because he is the one who was stuck and his poor little head was ramming up against Sadie's pelvis for 7 hours straight.
All in all, they are doing just fine. You should watch their pictures - we post them every week! http://reedpuggles.blogspot.com
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