ellz

Still off his front even then (and in front of the vertical through the hock).....I hope I'm wrong....good luck with it.

Koda's temp has been around the 37.5 mark for a couple of mornings. I'm not even going to think about puppies until it goes under 37. She's definitely feeling it more now though and she didn't eat all her dinner tonight. But then, there's probably not a lot of room for food at the moment.

To be brutally honest, whilst I do think it could be PARTLY a bum high stage of development, from the photos, I think he may be a tad straight in stifle as well which wouldn't help his topline much. Novice handling aside. If you look at his front, he is A-framing badly which is what normally happens if you try to extend a straight-stifled dog beyond the vertical. Could you get a photo of you stacking him with his front straight up and down underneath his withers? And also, you might find that stacking him in front of a mirror will help you with your stacking practice generally.

Thank you all. I really appreciate your good wishes and the hugs are pretty nice too.

You weren't here for a long time but you put your pawprints right where they'd hurt the most when you left. From our all-nighters where I'd feed you and then snuggle you into my bra to keep warm, to the day you managed to fight past your bossy big sister and find the milkbar all by yourself...I thought we'd won the fight. Sadly, your brave little body knew otherwise and today we made the decision to let you go to sleep forever. You'll never be forgotten little one.

As soon as we'd made the decision this morning BB, I thought of you and your angels and knew that Purple would be just fine with them. Alice is sleeping quietly by herself in the pen at the moment. She looks lonely. I'm resisting the urge to pick her up and squish her......she's sassy enough as it is without becoming a REALLY spoiled little princess. ;) Vanni is doing the bare minimum of mothering now....she wants to go outside and be a dog again. I can't believe how easily she has breezed through this. I'm wondering if I need my head read for thinking about putting her back in whelp next season (for a PLANNED breeding this time!!).

Thanks Aziah. My vet was great. He didn't charge me for the consult and he spent ages with us. We weighed both girls. Alice (Pink) was 1kg and Purple was only 400 grams so you can get an idea of the difference in size/weight. It was very obvious from comparing the two girls that Purple just wasn't doing it easy. She was essentially a 1.5 week old puppy in an almost 4 week old litter. Alice was growling and barking, and wagging her tail and poor little Purple was just trying hard to stay awake. ;) He feels that I am probably right about the retardation from lack of oxygen. Possibly coupled with either a porto-hepatic shunt and/or vascular hardening as a result of being so waterlogged at birth. He said that I had done all the right things, that I didn't prolong any discomfort by keeping her alive this long because he doesn't think she was in pain, quite the opposite, her nervous system was just not developing and that she would have no doubt improved dramatically until she hit a certain stage and then would have started going rapidly backwards. And that's what happened this week when they hit 3 weeks. It was just so obvious that she wasn't progressing.

Miss Purple has earned her wings. RIP little one. You fought hard but it wasn't fair to keep asking you to do so. ;)

Please doG, let it be fluid!!!

Looking down on her from above is like looking at a snake that has swallowed a basketball. She gets really peed off because she can't even frog-dog at the moment!

Here you go then Aziah....Koda @ 56 days and looking REALLY impressed!

Haven't had a chance yet. Will try and take one later and post it. Have to head out this afternoon and may not be home until late.

It's not hydrocephalus. I've actually seen that in my breed and it presents quite differently. Her head shape and eyeset are really very normal for a Yank puppy....but more like a Yank puppy of 2 weeks, not 3 weeks. It is like she is developmentally delayed but I'm still thinking it is more to do with a lack of oxygen than anything else and I still wonder if it is all stemming from her delayed birth and the length of time spent in the birth canal combined with the amount of fluid she had in her. I've made an appointment and will be taking her to the vet tomorrow.

Koda's 56 days today and only JUST starting to feel it now. She's getting even sookier and not wanting to let me out of her sight for long. Yesterday she started spending a lot of time just laying flat on the floor. I keep telling her she needs to hang on until Sunday at the earliest but she doesn't usually listen to me so I can't see her starting now!

Sometimes I really believe she IS struggling Aziah. Other times she just sleeps all the time. She's just not "right" IYKWIM. I'll be taking Koda to the vet over the weekend for a last check (can't believe she can go any time after Sunday) so I think I'll take Purple with me and see what he says. I don't think she's in pain, she's just not thriving.

Sad to say that I think I'm going to have to make a very hard decision about Purple soon. She is so far behind Pink in many respects that I am questioning myself as to whether it is fair to her to keep on battling. I keep telling myself that she had a very rough start so it is natural that she would need to do some catching up, but then when I look at Pink who is so big and fat AND incredibly sassy, there is really a very obvious difference in Purple and not just in size. Anyway, here they are with their first grown up haircuts.... Purple (you can even see the immaturity in her photo here when compared with Pink who LOOKS like a Yank puppy now). :D Stinky Pinky who is an absolute clone of her NORTY Daddy in more ways than I really want to admit!

When you say "hard at it" do you mean just nesting and/or panting or has she been visibly straining? If she has been straining, you shouldn't allow much more than an hour to go by from the first visible push before you intervene but if it is just nesting, that can potentially go on for days (and often does) but just watch for things like water breaking. Again, if the water breaks and there is no sign of a puppy she needs the vet within an hour or sooner if the liquid is discoloured anything but light straw.

She's due tomorrow isn't she? I bet she'll be glad when she has exploded! Koda has now taken up residence in the Puppy Palace and is NOT amused. And now, I'm REALLY stressing because my $)(@#$*()#@$@ car has died again. I only had it fixed in the first week of September and now I have a feeling it is either the same issue or one very close to it. Like I can REALLY be in a situation of being stuck out here with Koda due to whelp in the next week or so and NO CAR!!

Sounds like balantitis to me. Very common, nothing too sinister. Basically just a mild inflammation of the end of the penis. All male dogs are susceptible to it and many have it and their owners don't even notice. Try flushing with warm saline.

Would rather have a dozen sweet Yanks than a couple of terrorising Staffords ps still have a few snoods left over from the Bassets Leanne Sweet like this you mean? PS. What kinda snoods and how much d'you want for them?

You are getting off way to easy. There has to be a least 3 more hiding You're just jealous because it's now YOU who has the cast of millions!! Besides, I've still got my Yanklets to contend with and they're probably more work because of the grooming, snood training etc!

SIX! SIX! All that drama for SIX! SIX! :laugh: :rofl: What's she having - six dane babies ;) Hope it is only a couple more, and all goes well. Well they didn't LOOK like dane skeletons but who knows! Still, I'm happy with six, especially at this time of the year and with the forecast we've had for summer. Tassie houses aren't exactly designed to be cool in summer I'm afraid! AND given that I still have the two Yanklets as well and a little voice keeps whispering in the back of my head that both will possibly be staying here! :D

At 18 days, Purple is learning how to do "cute".... Whilst Pink is getting naughty down pat VERY quickly! She is more like her father than I could have imagined!!

Thanks. I'm somewhat relieved. Still a little concerned obviously because they were very LARGE areas of shadow/fluid etc and could be covering a multitude of "sins" (ie puppies) but at least I know to expect 6 and to watch her carefullly after that. And of course, even more relieved to have a concrete "game plan" set down for the whelping. Six is a very reasonable number of terrorists to deal with and will still give me plenty to choose from when it comes time to decide what is staying!

Well *I* think your girls will all beat Koda easily!! THANK GOODNESS!!!!! The first thing my vet said when he saw me after doing Koda's films yesterday was "you wouldn't think that getting decent xrays of a belly that big would be so damned difficult!" Turns out that although Koda was a very patient angel, she is carrying a lot of fluid and having a full bowel didn't help visibility much either. So........the count is a definite six but because of the clouding on the film, they said they wouldn't rule out the possibility of a couple more tucked away. We had a long chat about logistics and timing and have decided that after measuring her pelvis and looking at puppy size, we will monitor her and let her go into labour naturally. If I am at ALL concerned, I'm to ring immediately when I am leaving home and they will meet me at the surgery any time of the day or night. If there is any discolouration of fluid, we'll be heading off immediately due to the risk of placental detachment and meconium aspiration and if she strains for as little as 15 minutes with no puppy presenting, we're off to the surgery as well. Normally it would be an hour, but with the drive to get to the more local practice it would add up to a little over an hour anyway and either they'll have to go straight in when we get to the surgery OR the puppy will arrive on the way and then they'll monitor the rest of the whelping at the surgery themselves. So...one way or another, pretty much all contingencies are covered so I'm going to go and set up the second puppy palace and start taking temps on Monday (she'll be 53 days).