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Well that was fun!! After a night of nesting and panting and grunting and groaning, Koda finally started contracting in the wee small hours. Unfortunately, by about 6-ish I really wasn't happy with her progress. She wasn't settling into any kind of pattern and I really felt she should have been further along. I left it until around 6.30 and then rang the vet who told me to come in and he'd meet me at the surgery. When we got there, there hadn't been ANY contractions whatsoever in the car and when he examined her, her cervix was open but not thinning and although he could feel the puppies lined up, there was nothing presenting so we decided to go in and take them. Because it wasn't an emergency as such, we had time to set up properly and he called a nurse in early so the three of us were on hand when he went in. He said it was a VERY good thing that I trusted my instincts because had I left it a day, I probably wouldn't have had any puppies at all. Placentas had separated and a couple of them were just starting to show meconium staining in their sacs. They were well and truly ready to be born. So.......with the exception of one tiddler at 198gr, the others are all between 204 and 263gr. 2 brindle dogs 2 black dogs 2 brindle girls 3 black girls Yep.........Koda's little secret was NINE puppies!!!

Heading off to the vet, will check in when we get home!

Definitely have whelping action going on. Unless she shows a little more progress in the next 15 - 20 minutes, it'll be off to the vets for us!

We have some panting and nesting going on now.

Koda is VERY quiet. Has just refused her third meal today. Doing a fair bit of heavy breathing, although not quite "panting" as yet. Had a gooey, gluey, sticky, thick mucuous discharge this afternoon. I'm inclined to think it was the mucuous plug starting to break down. She's resting comfortably at the moment so I'm going to head off to bed soon just in case she has me up in the middle of the night.

Hmmmmmmmmmm.......36.7

How exciting magicmine! Good luck!!! Koda has just gone to a great deal of trouble and buried her breakfast (untouched) in the newspaper in the pen. She has changed shape in the last 24 hours....the belly isn't drooping underneath as much, it is now back further between her back legs so she has FINALLY started to develop a real waddle. We were cuddling on my bed watching a DVD last night and she heard the Yank puppy squeak and she sat up....all ears and wrinkles (and Stafford people can relate to that expression) and went rigid. I had to grab her or she would have gone flying off the bed to investigate. Her puppy noise instincts are obviously starting to be tuned in...she couldn't have cared less about the Yank pups until now!

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!!