As usual these days I am behind on the updates. I went away for the bank holiday to an agility show camping in my new caravan. I carefully made sure I charged my camera battery and put the camera in the caravan so I could take lots of pictures, but unfortunately I realised when I came to use it I had left the memory card in my computer so no pictures : (
We had a very good weekend even though it rained all day on Saturday. Ruby did really well getting a 12th place in her agility class and 2 clear rounds in the jumping classes.
Sunday really lived up to its name as the rain stopped and the sun shone all day. The ground dried up and it was much more pleasant to run the courses. Once again Ruby excelled herself getting another 3 clear rounds and a 5th place in a jumping class.
Saffy did enjoy herself but just gets a bit carried away with the excitement of it all and makes silly mistakes so we have still not managed that elusive clear round. Still Ruby does make up for it.
The dogs seemed to like staying in the caravan. It was nice not to have to rush off home at the end of the show. At first they were a bit unsure about going in and out of the caravan but they soon got used to their strange new home.
Sunday
Tuesday
25 May 2010
Amazingly the puppies are 3 weeks old today I don't know where the time has gone. It has flown past. They are doing well with eating the solid food although still getting most food from Daisy who is eating a little more.
I have set the puppy pen up down stairs and yesterday they had their first trip down stairs . It was all a bit much for them and they fell asleep almost as soon as I put them in the pen
Today they managed to stay awake long enough to have some lunch
Splodge always seems to be first to the food. He has a very good appetite. In the picture above Splodge is the one in the food, then behind him is Italy, then Bob and Gordon on his own.
Daisy helped clean up the left overs and the puppies retired to the box to wait for their lift back upstairs.
Gordon seems to have found the whole experience a little overwhelming.
I have set the puppy pen up down stairs and yesterday they had their first trip down stairs . It was all a bit much for them and they fell asleep almost as soon as I put them in the pen
Today they managed to stay awake long enough to have some lunch
Splodge always seems to be first to the food. He has a very good appetite. In the picture above Splodge is the one in the food, then behind him is Italy, then Bob and Gordon on his own.
Daisy helped clean up the left overs and the puppies retired to the box to wait for their lift back upstairs.
Gordon seems to have found the whole experience a little overwhelming.
Friday
21 May 2010
I have started weaning the puppies now to make life a little easier for Daisy as it is a strain for her to feed so many puppies. All of the puppies got the idea very quickly that this was food and started to tuck in enthusiastically. Weaning is a very messy job as puppies are quite happy to go wading through the food. Table manners will take a week or two to arrive
Maggie and Italy
Italy
Gizmo
Gordon
Maggie and Italy
Italy
Gizmo
Gordon
Tuesday
18 May 2010
The puppies are 2 weeks old today so I have taken individual photos of them. They are getting very big now and are much more active. they are feeding well and have all put on lots of weight. they all weigh over a pound now.
Daisy has been much better although still not eating as much as I would like. She is on calcium tablets every day so with any luck she will be fine now.
Splodge
Gordon
Bob
Gizmo
Maggie
Italy
Daisy has been much better although still not eating as much as I would like. She is on calcium tablets every day so with any luck she will be fine now.
Splodge
Gordon
Bob
Gizmo
Maggie
Italy
Sunday
16 May 2010
We had rather a traumatic day yesterday. Daisy started staggering round, her legs went very weak and she could hardly stand up, then she collapsed and was almost unconscious. She had been fine at lunchtime but a couple of hours later was seriously ill. I immediately grabbed her and dashed off to the vets which is thankfully only 10 minutes away.
The vet took her in to do blood tests and put her on a drip. I had to leave her there to come home to look after the puppies. I already had substitute milk and a bottle just in case of emergencies, but I have never needed to use it. The puppies soon woke up wanting feeding but they were not too impressed to find me and a bottle instead of their mum. I did manage to get them to take some milk by dripping it into their mouths with a syringe, but they were really not keen on it at all.
The vet called about 2 hours later to say that Daisy had a calcium deficiency. she was making so much milk for the puppies who are getting so big now that her body just ran out. She is not a big eater and I am struggling to get her to eat enough food to feed the puppies as well as herself. The puppies are getting fatter and fatter while Daisy seems to be getting thinner by the day.
She was given calcium in a drip and miraculously in just a couple more hours she was bouncing about, ready to come home. You would never have known there had been anything wrong with her. The puppies were pleased to see her and imediately latched on for a good feed. Daisy has some calcium tablets to take each day. I will start trying to wean the puppies soon as I think Daisy will struggle to feed them all as they get bigger.
At the moment they are quite contented all snuggled up in a big pile.
And Daisy now fully recovered takes a few minutes off to play with some babies of a different kind.
The vet took her in to do blood tests and put her on a drip. I had to leave her there to come home to look after the puppies. I already had substitute milk and a bottle just in case of emergencies, but I have never needed to use it. The puppies soon woke up wanting feeding but they were not too impressed to find me and a bottle instead of their mum. I did manage to get them to take some milk by dripping it into their mouths with a syringe, but they were really not keen on it at all.
The vet called about 2 hours later to say that Daisy had a calcium deficiency. she was making so much milk for the puppies who are getting so big now that her body just ran out. She is not a big eater and I am struggling to get her to eat enough food to feed the puppies as well as herself. The puppies are getting fatter and fatter while Daisy seems to be getting thinner by the day.
She was given calcium in a drip and miraculously in just a couple more hours she was bouncing about, ready to come home. You would never have known there had been anything wrong with her. The puppies were pleased to see her and imediately latched on for a good feed. Daisy has some calcium tablets to take each day. I will start trying to wean the puppies soon as I think Daisy will struggle to feed them all as they get bigger.
At the moment they are quite contented all snuggled up in a big pile.
And Daisy now fully recovered takes a few minutes off to play with some babies of a different kind.
Friday
14 May 2010
we have eyes today. All the puppies have opened their eyes now. Splodge is the last one. His eyes are still only just opening. Gordon is looking very alert.
Gordon
Splodge
Daisy giving Gordon a bit of a clean while I change the bedding in the whelping box.
Everyone in their nice clean cage
Gordon
Splodge
Daisy giving Gordon a bit of a clean while I change the bedding in the whelping box.
Everyone in their nice clean cage
Wednesday
12 May 2010
the Boston puppies are 8 days old today. They have all doubled their birth weight. They still look a bit like little black and white moles and their eyes are still closed.
Daisy is still spending lots of time with them , feeding and cleaning them. We have given them all temporary names.
This is the bigger of the two girls. We have named her Italy
This is Maggie the first girl to be born.
This is the biggest boy his name is Gizmo at the moment.
This is the Second biggest boy, given the rather topical name Gordon
This is Splodge
And last but not least is Bob
Daisy is still spending lots of time with them , feeding and cleaning them. We have given them all temporary names.
This is the bigger of the two girls. We have named her Italy
This is Maggie the first girl to be born.
This is the biggest boy his name is Gizmo at the moment.
This is the Second biggest boy, given the rather topical name Gordon
This is Splodge
And last but not least is Bob
Sunday
09 May 2010
Daisy and the babies are doing very well. They are gaining weight every day. They are feeding well and Daisy keeps them spotlessley clean.
She has to be persuaded to leave them at all.
These are the 4 boys. The one in the front is the biggest baby, he is well on the way to doubling his birth weight.
Their noses were almost all pink when they were born but they are already turning black.
This morning so I took Saffy and Lily up to the golf course with their new frisbee. It is lovely there, lots of space to run around. Unfortunately the frisbee did not last long
It wasn't wasted though Lily and Milo found they could still play with it.
She has to be persuaded to leave them at all.
These are the 4 boys. The one in the front is the biggest baby, he is well on the way to doubling his birth weight.
Their noses were almost all pink when they were born but they are already turning black.
This morning so I took Saffy and Lily up to the golf course with their new frisbee. It is lovely there, lots of space to run around. Unfortunately the frisbee did not last long
It wasn't wasted though Lily and Milo found they could still play with it.
Friday
07 May 2010
Again, we have had a very hectic few weeks. Computer problems and the lovely dry weather have conspired to stop me updating my blog for a while. As I work on a computer all day I would much rather go out for a walk with the dogs or do some training than spend my spare time on the computer. Anyway a few updates.
Poor little Lily has been on the injured list as she damaged some tendons in her foot. I have absolutely no idea how she did it she just became very lame out of the blue crying if I so much as looked at her foot. Both myself and the vet thought she had broken something and she was booked in for xrays but luckily the orthopedic vet had a look and decided that it was just a tendon injury so rest and Metacam for a few days took care of it. the hardest thing was getting her to rest as Lily lives to play and would still have fetched the ball on three legs if I had let her.
Milo has missed his playmate as I had to keep them separate so Lily could rest. Thankfully she is better now and back to chasing Milo again much to his delight.
Saffy has been a very good girl. at the last agility show we went to Saffy got a clear round and a fourth place in her jumping class and she ran beautifully, turning exactly where I said and she finished only a couple of seconds behind the winner. We are looking forward to our next KC show to see if we can finally get a clear round there. Ruby also got a fourth place in her agility class. She has now got more than enough points to upgrade but I think I will wait and see if we can get that elusive win.
The next picture is Daisy a few days ago looking extremely fat and fed up. Although she is lying down there, she is another dog who has to be forced to rest. She would still be running after her tennis ball on walks if I let her but I have been extremely mean and stopped taking it with us on walks.
Thankfully daisy now has something else to occupy her time.
On Tuesday I came back from my walk with the Belgians to find Daisy cuddled up in her cage with a puppy. She wasn't due until Friday and had not showed any signs of being in labour so I thought she was safe to leave for an hour. Unfortunately after producing the first puppy so easily she then stopped and by 9:00 still had only one and there was no sign of any more so we went along to the vets where she had to have a cesarean. Thankfully all the puppies survived . we have 2 bitches and 4 dogs. Both mum and babies are doing really well.
Poor little Lily has been on the injured list as she damaged some tendons in her foot. I have absolutely no idea how she did it she just became very lame out of the blue crying if I so much as looked at her foot. Both myself and the vet thought she had broken something and she was booked in for xrays but luckily the orthopedic vet had a look and decided that it was just a tendon injury so rest and Metacam for a few days took care of it. the hardest thing was getting her to rest as Lily lives to play and would still have fetched the ball on three legs if I had let her.
Milo has missed his playmate as I had to keep them separate so Lily could rest. Thankfully she is better now and back to chasing Milo again much to his delight.
Saffy has been a very good girl. at the last agility show we went to Saffy got a clear round and a fourth place in her jumping class and she ran beautifully, turning exactly where I said and she finished only a couple of seconds behind the winner. We are looking forward to our next KC show to see if we can finally get a clear round there. Ruby also got a fourth place in her agility class. She has now got more than enough points to upgrade but I think I will wait and see if we can get that elusive win.
The next picture is Daisy a few days ago looking extremely fat and fed up. Although she is lying down there, she is another dog who has to be forced to rest. She would still be running after her tennis ball on walks if I let her but I have been extremely mean and stopped taking it with us on walks.
Thankfully daisy now has something else to occupy her time.
On Tuesday I came back from my walk with the Belgians to find Daisy cuddled up in her cage with a puppy. She wasn't due until Friday and had not showed any signs of being in labour so I thought she was safe to leave for an hour. Unfortunately after producing the first puppy so easily she then stopped and by 9:00 still had only one and there was no sign of any more so we went along to the vets where she had to have a cesarean. Thankfully all the puppies survived . we have 2 bitches and 4 dogs. Both mum and babies are doing really well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
