A new generation of canine deer trackers is born

It all started with breeding our "Tuesday" (FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek) to "Kunox (FC Kunox von der Dohlmühle), which took place on January 4 and 6. All went well. This is going to be a second litter for Tuesday, and she has very good instincts and mates easily.  Kunox, even though inexperienced, finally figured out how to use his equipment.

Tuesday's pregnancy went smoothly. She had a good appetite for the first few weeks and towards the end she ate mainly home made food. She never got overly large and we did not bother to do an ultrasound or X-rays. We knew she was pregnant, probably with 5, tops 6 pups. Last year she whelped 5 pups, when she was bred to Tommy.

We have had a very cold and snowy winter so she did not get almost any exercise in January and February. But her spirits remained high. I love this dog, who has an excellent on/off switch - off in the house and on the field.

On Sunday night, March 8, I stayed up with Tuesday all night, and then in the morning was relieved by John.

 

We knew that the whelping would start soon. On Monday morning she started to pant heavily, shiver and she felt like she needed to go to bathroom every couple of hours. Finally her water bag emerged at 12:30 PM and the first puppy arrived at 1:40 PM. This was a female pup, dark in color and weighing 9.6 oz. We call her Willette (she has a pink collar).

Then we had a long break, which was quite nerve wracking. Just about when I was going to call our vet, the second pup was born at 4:14 PM. It was another female, Wiki (yellow) weighing 8.6 oz. Three more pups followed:
4:37 PM a female weighing 9.4 oz, whom we named Willow (lime collar)
5:37 PM an 8.8 oz male Woody (blue)
6:30 PM an 8.8 oz male Waldi (purple)
I can't believe that the whelping actually took place during the day! John had his first litter in 1965 and I had mine in 1991 so we have assisted our bitches to whelp over many decades, yet one never knows in advance how things are going to go. We were lucky this time as everything went smoothly without complications.

From left: Willette, Wiki, Woody, Waldi and Willow.

Today (Saturday, March 14) puppies are five days old and continue to do very well. Tuesday has a good appetite and pups have put already a lot of weight. Waldi put on 6 ounces!

Ten Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound puppies born by a C-section: pictorial report

Gary Huber is a passionate tracker and dog handler, who co-founded Deer Search of Western New York. He has been tracking for decades and it is hard to find anybody more dedicated to blood tracking with dogs and hunter education. He is also a member of the United Blood Trackers. These days he tracks with two dogs, a Bavarian Mountain Bloodhound "Beya" and wirehaired Dachshund "Kita".

At the age of 6 years Beya had her first litter just four weeks ago. Because of the number of puppies (10!) and her age, whelping was performed by a C-section. Beya and her pups are doing really well, and if you are interested in an excellent prospect for tracking, give Gary a call at 716-648-7417 or e-mail him tracker10253@verizon.net. Pups are available to working homes only!

A big thank you to Gary for excellent pictures showing how a C-section is performed.

Tuesday and Tommy's puppies: a new litter of wirehaired dachshund trackers

We bred our FC Tuesday von Moosbach-Zuzelek, Sfk, V, to FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst, SchwhK (Prize I/100), Deer Search cert., V, twice, on February 6 and 8. Her pregnancy went smoothly; she had a good appetite and was active. She looked actually full of puppies as this below picture shows. We chose not to X-ray her as we knew she was pregnant, and a question "how many pups" would have its answer soon enough.

A whelping box for Tuesday was set up few days in advance and she stayed in it almost constantly. She really liked it. This was a relief as with first time mothers you never know how things are going to go.

I started to take her temperature twice a day, and on April 9 it went below 99 F and stayed there. Around midnight of April 10, Tuesday started to nest and scratch the bedding in the whelping box. We knew that the whelping was coming closer. But things were not progressing, and at 4 PM I called our vet for advice. We decided to give her more time since her water still did not break.

The water bag finally appeared at 8:15 PM (April 11), and first puppy arrived 45 minutes later.

This little (7.8 oz) boy was born without any difficulties and appeared very dark.

We named him Volt (he latched to a nipple right away), and we are still not sure whether he is a very dark wild boar or black and tan. We will just wait and see.

Puppies arrived in this order:
9:05 PM Volt (lime collar), 7.8 oz
11:50 PM Viola (pink) 7.4 oz
12:04 AM Vonnie (yellow) 7.6 oz
2:45 AM Vincent (blue) 8.2 oz
3:10 AM Vivica (red) 8.8 oz

We gave Tuesday a shot of oxytocin, and as it turned out she carried only 5 puppies. At this number they should not be difficult to raise.

Tuesday is taking a great care of the pups, but she suffers from excessive milk production, a painful condition called galactostasis. According to the Merck Manual: "The affected glands are warm, swollen, and painful to the touch, but the animal is alert and healthy. Warm compresses should be applied to the affected glands 4–6 times daily, and the young should be encouraged to nurse from these glands." So for the last 24 hours I have been doing warm compresses and expressing some of the milk excess. Tuesday had a slightly elevated temperature, and to avoid mastitis, I put her on Clavamox. She is doing very well, and has a good appetite. Puppies have already put some weight.

By the way, all the puppies are spoken for. 

We do not want to monopolize this blog with reports on Tuesday's litter, so from now on we will be posting them on our puppy journal at http://borntotrackpuppies.blogspot.com/

Mielikki and Sky's puppies are finally here

Finally Mielikki has delivered her puppies but it did not go as smoothly as we wished. Let's go back to Thursday night... We did not know how many pups to expect as we did not want to subject her to unnecessary stress caused by a trip to a vet. We knew that she was huge and anticipated at least 7 pups.

She started to have contractions on Thursday evening. This was the 63rd day from the first breeding. First puppy was whelped at 9:20 PM. Then there was a very long break. Mielikki was having contractions, though not very hard, but no puppy emerged. Around midnight I called our vet at Cobleskill Veterinary Clinic, and Dr. Kevin Baldwin agreed to meet us there around 1 AM. So we packed Mielikki and her first puppy and made a 35-minute trip. Twenty minutes into the trip Mielikki delivered another puppy. It was a relief as we really wanted to avoid a C-section. She got hydrated at the clinic, and we drove back home.

The rest of the night was pretty stressful. She would whelp a puppy every two hours or so, but things were proceeding quite slowly. Two pups did not survive delivery as they spent too much time in the birth canal. By 9 AM we had 7 puppies (5 alive and 2 dead), and not much was happening any more. We knew that she still had some pups inside her. After I checked her temperature, which rose to 103, we started to be concerned and placed another call to the vets. We were advised to bring her in.

Mielikki was x-rayed, and as it turned out she was carrying two additional puppies. According to Dr. Montario if there were only one puppy, maybe we could have brought it out by giving her oxytocin and calcium. But with two pups still there, and one of them placed very far from the birth canal, he advised C-section. We agreed to do it. It was a good decision as the two pups were still OK. One of them was stuck very far in the uterine horn, and apparently Mielikki would not have been able to push it out.

So the final outcome is 7 puppies, 5 females and 2 males, ranging at birth from 7.6 oz (215 gr) to 10 oz (283 gr). They all are in a good shape. Mielikki bounced back really quickly, and on Friday afternoon was drinking, eating and cleaning the pups' bottoms. Friday night was completely uneventful, and today (Saturday) things continue to go well. All the puppies put on some weight. We will continue to report about the pups at our puppy journal. This is our U-litter, which means that registered names of the pups will be starting with the letter U. All the pups are spoken for.

A big thank you to everybody at Cobleskill Veterinary Clinic, who helped with Mielikki's litter!

Update on Mielikki and Keena as their whelping dates get closer

In the last 24 hours we have  had several e-mails asking about status of Mielikki and Keena. Mielikki was bred to Sky on March 8, 10 and 12, and she is very much pregnant. She gets regular exercise by chasing her favorite blue ball. As I said on Facebook - she lost her waistline and correct topline but she has not lost her love of ball game. We don't know how many pups she carries, probably at least seven. We will check her out when it comes closer to her due date, which should be between May 10 and 14.
 

Mielikki and her favorite blue ball.

Keena is doing well too, but she does not carry as many pups as Mielikki does. She should be whelping between May 18 and 20 so we will know more when it comes closer to the due date. She was bred to Tommy.

In case you missed it

On Thursday, August 4, 2011 our Paika (FC Paika von Moosbach-Zuzelek) whelped five puppies - four males and one female. The proud sire of this litter is Moose (FC Nurmi v Moosbach-Zuzelek) owned by Chuck Collier.

Picture taken on the day of breeding when John traveled to Michigan to breed Paika to Moose. On the left - Chcuk with Moose, on the right John with Paika

Paika during whelping - first pup came out at 10:30 AM, last at 3:40 PM

Pups are identified by the color of ribbon around their next. The pink one is the only girl in the litter.

We will be reporting on the pups at our puppy journal http://borntotrackpuppies.blogspot.com/.