An aquaintance has a 15mths old ESS, working type, so she's fairly small. She also owns a male Akita & has just discovered the ESS is in whelp, probably to the Akita. The bitch is probably about 8wks now & I'm very worried about her welfare. Does any one have any experience of big dog/small bitch whelpings? Can she possibly whelp naturally? I don't want any moralising, it's not my bitch, the owner is a caring intelligent person - just had little experience of dogs & bitches together. BTW, she did take her the vet a couple of weeks ago & was told she wasn't in whelp, but now it's obvious that she is.

When you say it's obvious she is in whelp what do you mean?
is it not possible it could be a phantom?
I hope either way all goes well for your freind and her bitch.
Kind regards.
Jenny.

Pretty sure she said (I've only spoken to her on the phone) you can see the puppies moving - so it's not likely to be a phantom. If only!

Best thing is to have all whelping supplies on hand and a vet who is aware of the situation. Your friend's girl should be sleeping in her whelping box now (or somewhere safe and warm for her and the pups). If your friend has not had a litter before be at the end of a phone or there if you can. Make them aware of the various stages of labour (especially the time that the first stage before pushing can take). Advise them of the danger signs that they should consult the vet with i.e active pushing for for over an hour with no pup, discoloured discharge BEFORE a pup etc.
Make them aware of possible nesting signs, drop in temp, digging, loss of appetite, soft and often stools, possible vomitting. Then confuse them by telling them that they she may show only some of them.
Alert her to the fact that a young maiden may be unsure of her new pups so she may have to deal with removing the sacs etc.
Hope all goes well for your friend and her girl.
may be a good idea to print off some of the recent whelping questions from the board.
Eavie

Thanks for all that. I'm experienced in breeding my own breed - but not something like this!! Just have to hope that I'm not in work when she starts. Will hve to tell her to get a whelping box ready. What's more difficult, she doesn't know when the mating took place & therefore doesn't really know when she'd be due to whelp. The one good thing is that she's only about 2 miles from our vet.

anwen, Email me (Email address in profile). I know of a "breeder" who had an accidental little breed X Akita too. However don't want to publicise the "breeders" details etc.
Kind Rgs

Hiya

Theres no way in this world i would have let this pregnancy go ahead, it sounds very dangerous to your friends Springer, its more than likely to end in a c-section i would think.
But i hope everything turns out okay.
Dean

This is a statement that will probably upset many people :-( but your friend should carefully consider how many of the pups to rear, as that is not a good breed combination...as a person who has owned both breeds I do know what I am talking about, and suitable homes will be few and far between