Well you can see from the subject that my beautiful girl has taken to motherhood. My partner, my dad and I held her down and put pup by pup on her and by the 3rd pup she was licking them and being a wonderful mum. I am sooooo glad that I did not give up and just keep bottle feeding them. She looks so content and happy..I will update again soon

Great news, I am so pleased for you all.

I am so proud of this girl. In a space of a few hours she has become very protective and maternal. The pups look so content. They are feeding the now, their little tails are up in the air. We are keeping a pup from this litter and it is so hard to choose, we have plenty of time of course and in the coming weeks we will see their personalities come out.
anyway I am going to have a little shut eye. I am absolutely exhausted.
Thank you all so very very much for your patience and support. I would have gone crazy without you all
Jodi   xoxoxoxo

I'm ecstatic for you Jodi  :P  What a relief for you ;)  You probably realise that you'll still have to remain vigilant with her as even the best mums can roll on them, or whatever but sounds very good news.

Great, Good luck Teri :)

I am so pleased for you - what a relief!

Good luck for the future!

Margot

What wonderful news! You have shown enormous committment and dedication, you certainly deserve for all to go well from here onwards! Once again, shows vets can be wrong and the collective experience on here is worth its weight in gold! Sincere good wishes to you and your family both human and canine.

hi jodi
im rearly pleased for you and kirra of  course! :) im sure shele be a great mum its weired the way they can go from 1 extreem to another,you never would of thought .i bet there so cute wen you have some pics let me know and ill send you my email addy,ide love to see them.you must be so proud of her now! :) make sure you look after yourself also as you must be exhausted.
take care sarah x

When it comes to breeding and maternal behaviour Vets are not usually that knowledeable unless they breed themselves, the people to take advice on this are expereinced breeders.

When you said how anxious she was at wanting to get to them I knew it couldn't be wanting just to hurt them, of course she just was frantic and didn't know what to do. 

Sounds like your vet used too much anasthetic (did they weigh her before the section, as if estimating may have given ehr too much), she had a bad reaction (some types are more suited to Northern breeds than others).

I am so pleased that they are now feeding from her and she is taking care of them.

I would still watch her carefully regarding low calcium levels.  If she shows restless behaviour and staring eyes now that they are feeding she needs liquid calcium suplementation right through heer lactation.  Have her blood calcium levels checked.

Thank you for all your warm wishes.. I am giving Kirra calcium supplements at the moment, just to be sure. I am not sure if they weighed her before the op, I cannot remember now..So much has happened. I am amazed at the transformation in her. She is especially loving to the  2 pups she bit. They both have a little sore where she bit them and she is licking it and giving it special attention. I am still in shock over the change. You could see when they started suckling on her for the first time today that she felt relief and I am wondering if that was part of her acceptance as well. The puppies are absolutely beautiful, there bellies are so full. A friend said to me the yesterday, my god Jodi, I cant believe the effort you are going through with this..you spent all that money on a ceasar and she doesnt even want the pups..Is it worth it? And this is coming from a woman with 2 dogs. Kirra is a part of my family and we love her to bits. I would spend any amount to make sure she was safe. Some people amaze me. You have to sit for a drivers licence but any person can have pets and children. The mind boggles
I am taking off now..I am buggered.
Jodi

I have been reading all the posts on you Krankpuss & Kirra & her pup's well done to you all, pleased that she has taken to them at last. Well done you have had a very upsetting time. ( hugs)))) Maria

Great news Jodi.  I am really pleased.  Keep the calcium going never the less :-) especially has she has a few pups.  Please please do not leave them unattended ( you probably are not ) but it is best to watch over them for about 2 weeks. 

I did think she would come round her later behaviour suggested she was wanting with them but it is a scary thing to give the wrong advice.

A lesson about Vets for sure they seem to know everyhing about a subject they actually have rarely ever done :-)

I too had a section on one of mine and the bitch was out of it for most of 2 days.  I to changed vets as was unhappy with it all.

Welcomed news today.  A post anyone wanting to have an easy litter should read :-)

It is such hard work to breed. Most people think that it is as easy as mating the dogs, whelping and then the money rolls in. Well, I am sure most of us in here could explain that it is a lot more involved than that. Kirra's operation with medication and visits has so far cost me 1000 australian dollars. Some people I am sure have a lot more costs involved than that. Not to mention that heartaches and worry and stress. I am in a way relieved that Kirra had to be spayed. I wouldnt want to put her through that again for any money. So it is retirement for Kirra after her first litter. 

Even if the did weigh her, wouldn't they have needed to subtract the approximate weight of the puppies, uterus and fluid, or they'd have given the amount for a much bigger dog?

I would imagine dogs, like people, vary enormously in their reactions to anaesthetic there are so many factors involved other than weight, for instance state of hydration, stress levels etc.

I have been told that Northern breeds can be sensitive to anasthetic.  Luckily my vet always uses the reversible ones with which we have had no problems, even if it is more expensive.

I think they are all reversable Brainless :)  I suspect you mean Propofol which is an induction drug (the one that makes them lose conciousness) it is metabolised out of the body very quickly (20 mins in a human and therefore often used for minor day surgery) so the drowsiness does not linger as long.  Yes I would always ask for that and pay the extra too :)

So pleased that kirra is now feeding her pups, well done jodi iam so pleased that there is a light at end of tunnel well good luck debbie.        Give kirra lots of love and kisss .

SO happy for you!! :) :)

Marianne

That's brilliant news :D 

Perhaps the relevant topics should be stuck at the top of the page as suggested, for all the people who come on here with pounds in their eyes!

Not a lot to report. The pups are thriving. My god they are huge. There is no way that had she gone into labour that she would have passed them. A friend of mine has 2 week old pups and mine are twice their size at 3 days old. It is amazing. Kirra is a beautiful mum, she is very protective and loves them to bits now. It is great. I am sure all our troubles are behind us now..
Jodi

Glad to hear that things are going so well - keep us posted!

Margot

Lovely news, Jodi.  Give them all a hug....:)

I am so pleased for you and your puppies (and Mum)

Fiona

Since Kirra has been caring for her pups I have backed right off. I have given all my attention to Kirra and lavished her with heaps of praise and cuddles. I have barely touched the pups. I want her to know that I am proud of her and that we love her. My vet tells me this is not neccasary. Honestly some of these vets need to actually breed a dog I think. I am sure that Kirra seeing me feed her pups and picking them up and cleaning after them would have got jealous. I still cuddled and talked to her heaps, but our pets still get jealous. I look at her with her babies and I get choked up, we have been through a lot am I am so happy for things to be smoothing out. She is such a good mum now, it brings tears to my eyes. She has had to endure a lot.The sleepless nights, worry, stress, costs..it is all worth it to see her happy and well. I am gonna go now, I am too emotional for my own good i think...or maybe it is pregnancy hormones???
Jodi

Hi Jody,  have been reading your post with tears in my eyes and I had to register (long time lurker) to say well done to you and of course kirra.
You obviously think the world of her and that is the reason that you have come through this with healthy pups.
I,too am thinking of having a litter in the future and I know where I will come for advice, I have learnt so much already from reading these forums.
Wishing you all the best with your family

Jodi, I've been away for 2 days and the first thing I've done on getting home is to check for your post!!!! 
Sooooooo relieved that it's all working out for you all!

Feeling a bit choked here too Jodi :D  Remembering how I felt with my last litter (well my Bitches last litter ;) ) 

You have done so well with her despite the vets advice :)  Just goes to show really, you need to have bred litters before you can 'know' enough about it to advise.  I've always maintained that a midwife should have had at least one normal birth before being fully qualified (and I know quite a few midwives who agree with this :D ) and a vet should have bred a few litters before being able to advise on breeding matters ;) ;)

Hope you're managing to catch up on some sleep.

{{{HUGS}}} to you all
Dill

Actually there's no way I would ever have practised as a midwife again after having my own children - 'cos you just can't guarantee being able to leave on time - people don't give birth to order! I know it's not "pc" to say so, but midwifery to me meant being sold out to the job, and I personally couldn't have done it if "divided" by my own family committments. You don't have to have experienced everything to be able to help people in a particular situaion - empathy and time are of the essence.....:-) :-)

Interesting that when I had my first child the midwife did leave on time and I was minutes away from the birth, but then I'd been on my own for hours, they wouldn't even phone my husband!! and he was supposed to be there!  but thats a whole other story.

:-( :-(

Over the past 10 years, I have had 4 bitches and 2 males. I havent breed in 5 years but all the litters from my other bitches went basically smoothly..a few hiccups but nothing spectacular. I had seen problems with friends breeding and had assisted in some ways, but never experienced it with my own animals. And I think you can all agree a lot went wrong with this one. It could have turned out a lot worse than it did and for that I am grateful. I send credit to the members of this board who never having met me, gave advice and support when I needed it. You are all wonderful people and without the combined knowledge of you all a lot of people could end up listening to the advice of less experience people who really have had no experience with anything other than owning a dog...or treating one.

WOW!!! That is fantastic news :) Iam very proud of you for not giving up on ur bitch, its always nice when the bitch takes over and the relief you finally feel that everything should now be ok...

Personally just my opinion I would still handle the pups this way she doesn't become to over protective with them and they are use to being handled.... I handled all mine from birth on every day only for a lil bit tho. As they got older then my children handled them and they were so use to being picked up and loved the attention. Plus I started clipping their nails at a lil over a week old cause they were scrathing her belly.

Best of luck and glad to hear all is well :)

I agree with you Dollface about the handling. I just wanted to make sure she knew that I cared for her and not that I was going in just to see pups. My kids are I were in there before and we all had a hold of them briefly and she was absolutely fine with it. My kids are all very close with Kirra and they adore each other.
I have told the kids we are keeping a male, purely as a pet and they were flat out giving their opinions on what one we should keep. After the the struggle we went through I would love to keep them all.
I am sure the local council would object to that one though..lol
Jodi

I am new to this site and i was just reading about your dog kira and her pups hope everything goes very well from now on. I have a alsatian and she is nearly 5 weeks pregnant and i hope everything goes well with her too. her name is kara

Hi Nan2be58..The best if luck with your girl Kara..Let us know how it all goes. You will find so many knowledgable people on this site, they will support you through the bad days and laugh with you on the good.
Jodi

hi jodie thanks for your support i will let you know how it all goes. We only found out yesterday 13th as i took her to the vet and he told me she was and he also told me that she could have up to seven or eight pups, me and my boys are looking forward to it.