My Large breed girl is on day 59 , & i have everything ready thats needed , but i have a few questions if anyone can answer them for me that would be great .

As far as the scans say my girl is carrying 2 pups , so she is not huge but does have a neat bump & i can feel the pups moving so i know they are ok , but i just have a feeling she will not be a text book bitch . She is still eating , but not as much as before and is sleeping alot ( a deep sleep i can touch her & she does not wake straight away )she is also dreaming alot ..... she is fine in herself  and has not been digging or even going into the whelping box , she is weeing quite alot ( which is expected ) but has no clear discharge at all .

When she lays down i can feel the pups but they are right back , kind of past her ribs & tucked up under her back legs if you know what i mean ( not a great description sorry ) .

So i guess i'm asking if the litter size can make a difference to the way the bitch whelps ,also how long after her due date should i leave her as i have read that with only a small amout of pups ,it is sometimes not enough to start labour..... i just don't want to do anything wrong .

Just thought i would ask my as my girl so far does not seem to be following the book of the bitch ........ lol i am now going to go & read it to her  :0)

Thanks Tracey

Fewer puppies can mean larger puppies...
My Leo girl (years ago)had a litter of 4 pups and the pups were bigger than usually.
All were born naturally despite being heffa-lumps.
If she starts and it seems to be going on for a while I would not leave her trying for too long...but I'm sure you would have already thought about that possibility and are prepared.
Have you got lubricant in hand as well to ease out possibly big one?
I would not leave her going too over due either as you are right few pups can mean the process does not start quick enough...

I'm sure somebody with more experience will be around, I have been midwife to quite few puppy births but all but one were text book easy ones so I'm pretty inexperienced really...
I hope yours will be easy too :D!

One of my girls has had two litters of two, first litter was born on the due date and last litter 4 days late.  Both litters were fit and healthy and of normal birth size.

> All were born naturally despite being heffa-lumps.
>

:-)  :-)  :-)

In my experience its the large litters which can cause problems with over stretched uterine muscle and even sheer stamina issues in the poor bitch.
Two pups in a nice big healthy bitch should be easy. 

Thanks for answering :0)

I do believe that small litters are less likely to be early, as it is the pups that trigger whelping as they become stressed and crowded they release hormones, fewer pups less of this.

First litter - 14 pups - born on 'due' day
Second litter - 14 pups - born 1 day after 'due' day
Third litter - 14 pups - born 3 days before their 'due' date.

So make of that what you will!

Callie had her 2 pups last night both girls  1st weighed 1lb and the 2nd weighed 1lb 8 oz , i am so proud of her :0)

Congratulations Tracey!!!

Congratulations

Well done callie hoe all is going well x x

CONGRATULATIONS Tracet and of course Callie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,

Congratulations. :)

Congratulations :)

Wonderful news Tracey, are you going to keep one then??

That's good news! I'll close this now as your litter has safely arrived.