My bitch had her first pup at 10.15am, she's had 3 up to now, the last one was 5.5 hours ago, iv rang the out of hours vets and they have said to wait another 3 hours to see if anything happens, is this safe to do? Iv never had a bitch take this long to whelp before but this is my first litter in this breed, I think there is another 2 pups at least, no active signs of contractions and she's settled with her pups

I would normally not be happy with more than two hours between pups, but if bitch settled it is often a rest.  I have had a live pup surprise me after 8 hours, and as friend had a live pup delivered 24 hours after a C section.

What no-one can tell is if the placenta has detached (then pups will die) or if not then pups in there are still fine.

Hopefully looking at the time, all pups are safely delivered now.

Often with a large litter, a bitch will take a rest midway, but as a general rule, I didn't like to leave more than around 1 hour between deliveries.  It's confusing if she's settled with the litter and if you know she's not yet empty, maybe a trip to your vet is in order (rather than risk losing unborn puppies?).   Would your vet come out to examine her?

I'd have to agree - hopefully it's all happily resolved by now.

If she's not actually contracting, it's fine for there to be a whelping pause between puppies and it can be up to 4hrs.  However, if there are any visible contractions, you want to see a pup within 2hrs of the first visible contraction.

To get labour moving again, try taking mum for a walk round the garden on lead.  Or - put mum in the car and take her for a drive (for some reason this often gets things going).  When in the whelping box, keep the pups already born suckling as this will help stimulate contractions. 

As you approach 3hrs without more pups, start to make plans to take a trip to the vet or call the vet out.

One of my bitches was a very slow whelper. The vet told us to do an internal examination to check if a puppy could be felt, and that the very action of it would stimulate contractions. Disposable gloves, KY Jelly and sure enough it worked.

> If she's not actually contracting, it's fine for there to be a whelping pause between puppies and it can be up to 4hrs

Mine would go into secondary inertia, no contractions.   And when that happened my vets would give a shot to try to get things going again, or, failing that, opt for a 'Section.  Agreed re a car trip - how often have people set off for the vet, only to have to pull over to assist with another arrival.   I also agree re nursing helping stimulate contractions.

We ended up with a c section after 2 oxytocin injections, pup was stuck at the birth canal and unfortunately died but there was a live pup behind that one, unfortunately we lost another pup last night that was very tiny and weak, so we have 3 pups now, 2 big guys at around 200g and another tiny one at 103g

Sorry u lost two pups very sad but hope everything now goes well. Thank u for letting us know

> 2 big guys at around 200g and another tiny one at 103g

LOL. Shows how relative weights are between breeds.

I'd consider a pup big at 14oz + (400g+) and small at 8-9oz (225 - 250g)

> Mine would go into secondary inertia, no contractions.

Same with my breed.  I know that a 1 hour wait is too long for them.  40 minutes is about my limit before a vet trip.  So breed specific info is very important.  And I know my breed  inside out when it comes to breeding.

> I'd consider a pup big at 14oz + (400g+) and small at 8-9oz (225 - 250g)

Sorry Barbara I'm laughing!  I consider a pup huge at 4 oz and small at 2 oz.   

Our Basset puppies normally weighed in at anything from 16 to 18 oz.