Whelping a Labrador

Roe came into our home a year and a half ago. That's our first picture together, she was so tiny and sweet.

On April 2010, we tried breeding Roe and Ram.

Now we have 9 labradors in our home. Roe, Ram and their 7 puppies.

A little after midnight of June 29, Roe started nesting seriously. She scratched almost every part of the floor. I decided to put her inside the whelping box we built for her. She got a bit scared inside the box but once she realized that we mean business when we put her in, she lay down and went to sleep.

Around 4am she showed signs of restlessness as if she needs to poop. I took her outside and she passed extremely watery poop. I knew then that she’s in labor. One hour later she pooped 3x times. I woke up Ronald to tell him that she’ll give birth soon.

I haven’t got the time to sleep as I was watching her all night so I told Ronald that I’ll take a nap. Mama woke me up around 10:30am and she excitedly said that Roe gave birth ! I hurriedly went downstairs and found Ronald inside the whelping box with Roe. I took the first puppy from him and wiped it before giving it to Roe.

We all thought that it will take 30minutes before the next puppy will be born. But after a few minutes, Roe twitched painfully and the next puppy came! This happened for a couple more times before Roe took a break and we finally had the chance to eat our late lunch around 1pm.

We tried giving Roe lunch but she just drank water. Roe started pushing again and she gave birth to three more puppies. Ronald felt her tummy and there is one bump left so we waited for her to twitch and give birth to her last puppy.

She never did.

Ronald touched the skin near her vulva and the watery sack slid out, along with a non-responsive yellow puppy. We did everything the vet told us to do to help the puppy breathe. Roe even licked him over and over but we were too late. We could’ve had 8 puppies :(. Still, everyone is so happy to see 7 healthy little Roes and Rams.

Roe fell into a deep sleep after all the puppies were born. She was so tired to the the extent that Ronald needs to carry her out of the box for us to clean the floor and back in the box so she could nurse her pups.

During the whelp we used the following:

• 1 whelping box, this was built without a floor so it’s easier to mop the bloody tiled floor
• 2 large thick blankets, one served as Roe’s bed and the other was cut into pieces used to wipe the pups
• 1 roll of thick kitchen paper towel
• 1 roll of regular bathroom tissue
• 1 scissor to cut the remainder of the navel not fully torn by Roe
• Half a bottle of alcohol to disinfect our hands
• Water mixed with vinegar to disinfect the floor were Roe and the pups lay
• Few trash bags to put all the used rags & tissues

All the puppies was worth all the effort.

Blessed Be.

)O(