The good news is that my girl is 19 days away from her (and mine) first whelping, she is a medium sized gundog breed. The bad news is that due to personal circumstances my mentor is neither contactable or available :( which I hadn't banked on. My girl missed a very much wanted and planned litter back in March, so when I had her scanned this time I was almost expecting the same.  However she is very definately pregnant, very healthy and everything is going by the book so far. (famous last words lol). The waiting list is already full and Ive just got all my fingers and toes crossed I get what I want :D The stud dog and my bitch have practically every single health test done available to the breed and everything is being done to Assured Breeder standards paperwork and support/contract wise etc. So I just want to make sure that I have got everything else sorted properly.

I just wondered if it was possible that someone could check my list of 'things' to make sure that I had got everything I needed.

Wooden and yacht varnished Whelping box (48x48) raised 2 inches off the floor inside and a pig rail shelf rather than poles.
2 x newdog non ruck whelping mats which are vet bed type topped
Some vet bed for when the pups are bit older, my girl digs quite a bit in bedding anyway so will have to stick to the non ruck stuff for quite a while.
1 x petnap heatpad the metal non chew one and two covers
A heat lamp just for when the pups are newly born and a bit wet still as I dont feel the heatpad wont be warm enough for the first few hours.
Ive been collecting newspaper since she missed last time, I think I have a small forest worth!
Old Towels
Some terry nappies for drying pups, hands etc
Dopram V
Vetdrops and Puppystim, better to have both and not need either than be without.
Whelpi, some bottles
Some glucose for during labour to add to water
Dettox disinfectant
Hand gel
I bought the whelping kit from Petnap too so I can always add to or replace what I dont find useful this time, contents are in the pic here: http://www.petnap.co.uk/acatalog/info_29.html
Scales and large bowl to weigh pups in
Some dental floss should any cords not stop bleeding
Blue and pink nail varnish for marking them in different places
Obstetric gel
Nappy bucket for rubbish and any placentas etc
rubbish bags, kitchen roll
Some chicken and rice for after birth
Clear large plastic toybox type with snugglesafe heat pad for pups during labour

Ive also got a few puppy toys, some shallow dishes and a Big Foot puppy pen to go around whelping box which will also help keep my other two dogs from trying to get in with the pups.
Ive spoken to the vet and have a sheet on emergency situations and when to ring etc (they like to know when she has had her temp drop)
My well thumbed 'bibles' The book of the bitch' and 'The whelping and rearing of puppies'.
I will also have to get some drontal puppy and drontal tablets for mum so she can be done at the same time.  Mum is being wormed during pregnancy with panacur 10% but I really dont like the stuff but neither do encysted worms lol

Is there anything else I need?

Good grief ;-D

One point re worming ... Drontal Pup starts at 2 weeks of age. I don't want to be worming Mum again so soon after the Panacur. I usually worm mum next at about 4 weeks of age.

The obvious things you've not mentioned ... ensure enough supplies of tea, coffee, biscuits, chocolate or whatever else takes yer fancy :-)

With my last litter I bought a pack of absorbent bed liners (sort for kiddies), about £3-4 at asda. Found these really good as they soaked up body fluids really well so pups not being so wet. I've used towels in the past but they just go wet and horrible.

I think you'll probably find the heatpad is perfect for their first few hours. Just make sure lamp isn't too low and doesn't cover whole box, mum needs to be able to get away from it, but mum and pups will want to be together.

The item I never want to be without ever again ... a Dr Brown Preemie bottle. I needed to feed a pup in last litter, had baby bottles but pup wouldn't take. Got next day on preemie bottle and success. Doesn't look an obvious difference in teat size but there is. A few quid very well spent, just in case - I have a medium size breed too.

How exciting :-D Good luck!

Ive found 'Words with Friends' a word game you can play on line with doggy friends, whiles the time away...and time is what you often have a lot of! It has a chat facility which can be helpful.

Be prepared to take mum and pups to the vet in the middle of a whelping so decide how you will transport any pups warmly and safely. I find a laundry type basket or one of these handle garden buckets very useful as you can carry it one-handed and it closes over the pups ( without squashing them) away from prying eyes and chills.
This type are great, get size appropriate -----> http://www.amazon.co.uk/Faulks-Co-SP42R-Tub-Trug/dp/B000A63M0Y/ref=sr_1_9?s=outdoors&ie=UTF8&qid=1349857479&sr=1-9

Good luck!

Id get some lectade in just incase as dehydration kills pups v quickly.

Also this time we used a microfibre sports towel to dry off the pups and it gets them dry and fluffy instantly. Take off most of the amniotic fluid and goo with a normal towel and buff them (as you would shammy a car) with microfibre, dry clean and fluffy tada. Because its microfibre it was used on every pup for the litter of 7 and still had capacity to dry more instead of cold soaking hand towels. dries very quickly if you were to wash and need it again. We also have a hot water bottle snuggly crocodile that the puppies snuggled up to for the first 5 weeks of life as have 2 previous litters. I put this on the heat mat to get it working adding weight and the puppies all cuddle round.Hot water bottle in it is really obsolete but its starting to get cold now so you will probably need it. I didnt use my heat lamp in the end, heat mat was enough and having them dry instantly with microfibre we didnt have any crackly chests. Pet safe disinfectant, and 3 years supply of newspaper. I like panacur but dont do mum during pregnancy and have never seen worms in pups. Nail varnish has never worked for me i used this company and used the felt foam bands for first few weeks and collars from them on. but i know them all by face so its for my OH benefit and new owners. http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/dareibid/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_from=&_ipg= thats the company i use but cant find her website now, but they are great and very pretty

I always have Fomula H disinfectant as it kills everything like lepto & parvo etc.  You can get it from pets at home or any show. I also get odor kill too which is great as things can get a bit wiffy :-) Also a Bulb aspirator for clearing airways.
You might want to get some old blankets and paper etc for the whelping box as they usually like to dig around in the days leading up to whelping.
Good luck it's a very exciting time! My girl is on day 61 with her 2nd litter (last time they were born by now!!) so I'm sitting here biting my nails :-)

You mention using a pen to keep other dogs away, in my experience a bitch will not be happy with dogs being in the same room as here litter in the first two weeks.

I have never found nail varnish work for me in marking pups, I use a single strand of different colour wool on each pup as they are born, this is changed every few days in the first week and usually weekly after that.  I leave about two inches or so of tag beyond the tied bit.  See a photo of a tagged litter here: http://barbelka.awardspace.co.uk/_wp_generated/wpe710afbf.jpg

Oh yes i second the bulb aspirator, its saved one of the babies this time that had an awkward delivery and i wouldnt be without it. Also a crate as now my litter is this age i have taken a side off and put the crate there. they sleep in this and then poop on the paper. helps keep them and things cleaner in general and when im cleaning up and the weather isnt fit for them in the garden they can be shut in for a few mins which gives me the opportunity to do a proper job as the pups dive at my hand and make a bad job a nightmare

You mention using a pen to keep other dogs away, in my experience a bitch will not be happy with dogs being in the same room as here litter in the first two weeks.


I agree, although of course it can vary between individuals (I've had both bitches that wanted to be 100 % away from other dogs and one that would NOT be away and got stressed when she was -but that is rare!), but as a rule of thumb I'd say no other dogs near the bitch with pups for the first 2-3 weeks. As the bitch won't want to stay in the whelping box all the time after the first week or so, its not very practical to use a puppy pen around it as she may not accept the other dogs and may not want to be as confined as this. Fair enough if it's a toybreed and the puppy pen essentially makes a large run, that I have used myself, but for a larger breed they want to be able to get further away after the first few days.

So I'd confine the other two dogs to other rooms for at least 2 weeks.

I second a different room for the other dogs, my baby is 2 weeks old now and the mother is with the others in the sitting room a lot of the time BUT the slightest hint of one of them heading to the entrance to where the puppy is she blocks the gate and stares a lot, that is an improvement on a few days ago where there was definite disquiet.

Wouldn't use drontal on the pups, two of my adult dogs do not tolerate it, rather panacur

Wouldn't use drontal on the pups, two of my adult dogs do not tolerate it, rather panacur

It varies between individuals. I know somebody who lost an entire litter from using Panacur so I will never use that, only Drontal. :) But in your case I'd have done the same and worked on the assumption that if you have related adults that cannot tolerate one type, then chances are the pups won't either.

I agree, my bitch was wary of my neutered male being in the same room for the first week, we used a baby gate so he could still see and smell her in the living room but wasn't allowed in until the second week when she just ignored him, she's a very very tolerant bitch though and I wouldn't expect others to let a dog into the actual pool and lay down on the heat mat as she fed her pups like she did.

I buy Dunelm Mill white vinyl tablecloth material off the roll. Its only £2.99 a metre and very wide and I use it to cover the floor when pups are up and running around. Easy to clean and always looks good too. Lasts throughout until pups go home. The weight of the vinyl has been fine for my medium breed doggies.

If your bitch won't whelp in the whelping box and you need to protect soft furnishings ASDA value range shower curtains work wonders, I take my bitch to bed with me and protect the area where she is lying and then put vetbed on top, we are both relaxed and I am instantly aware if she moves.

I just wanted to thank you all for your replies, Ive ordered a Preemie bottle as a just in case, and some lectade sachets Ive got from the vet.  I have plenty of towels and my landing is full of bundles of newspaper as Ive been collecting it since March plus I work in a primary school so its quite easy to get hold of some more.  I have a bulb aspirator in my whelping kit, its still in its sterile packet at the moment.  Thank you for the advice re the nail varnish, I had a look for some soft felt collars but couldnt find any, just the ones with the clips on the ebay link.  When the little collars have a slide adjustment I just worry about the loop created by that being pulled or getting a leg stuck through.  If the nail varnish doesnt work (they will all be yellow pups so quite easy to see) then will have a look at the wool idea. I dont have a wool shop anywhere around here so that might be slightly trickier.

The sports towel is a good idea, is that a microfibre type one, that sort of feels suede-ish? or is it more like the microfibre kitchen cloths you can buy?

The whelping box and the Big Foot pen went up yesterday, she laid out in it and made all her normal blankets into a nest on top of the non ruck mats and fell fast asleep all stretched out.  When she is actually whelping she will have newspaper and towels to dig about in.

As for not letting the other dogs near her, the problem is the way my house is arranged.  You come in through the front door and go through the kitchen diner to get to the lounge and from the lounge through to the back garden via some french doors.  My girl has always slept in the corner of the kitchen diner, so we have taken down the table and the whelping box is exactly where her bed normally is, the pen is around it and takes up most of the rest of the room. The other dogs need to be able to go past her to be able to go out the front door for walks etc.  There is a door between the two rooms though so if she really doesnt tolerate them, then I can shut them out.  She is the sort of girl who would be more stressed away from the other dogs, which is one of the reasons why her whelping box isnt in my bedroom.  She would probably scratch the door down and would hate it.

13 days left now!

I think your girl may surprise you. When I had my last litter my two girls were inseparable but the minute the puppies came she would not allow my other girl in the room and would even grumble if she came to the door.  She has just had her second litter on Friday and is the same again and even her daughter from the last litter knows not to enter the puppy room.  Last time around 3 weeks she started wanting to come back in the living room for short spells leaving the puppies in their box in another room, it was around this time that she allowed our other girl to go in and look at the pups. 
Bitches can become very stressed if they feel at all threatened or there is to much activity going on around them.

I tend to have my bitches whelp in a bedroom, away from the comings and goings of the household. I stay in there with them. It also means that I get to "sleep" in a bed :) I'm lucky enough to have a supportive partner :) When the pups get to around 3 weeks, I move them whelping box to a busier place and put puppy pens around it and put lino on the flooring underneath them.

I would agree with the other posters and put the bitch in a quiet room to whelp. They do change once they become a mother. I had my whelping box in a spare bedroom next to the single bed, so that I could doze when mum and pups did, but wake as soon as I heard any noises. I had the computer, phone, the microwave a kettle and a TV in there so I did not need to move out of the room.
The set up you describe sounds perfect once the pups are a bit older and mum will by then be a bit more relaxed.
The last thing you want is for the bitch to become anxious everytime the other dogs and people come into the room where she is and for her to stop feeding the pups.
A relaxed mum will have more relaxed pups, she will need to just sleep and feed for the first food days, and you will need to feed her and offer drinks in the whelping box, which if it is surounded by a pen may be more awkward for you to get in and out, also you need to be able to get in quickly if she lies on a puppy.

I agree, I've heard so many problems about panacur that I'll only use drontal on pups... as for bitches tolerating others, the first litter we had everyone but the bitch and pups had to sleep outside the bedroom, which upset the old neutered boys so much that on the second night whilst the bitch was out having a wee one of them raced into the bedroom and dived under the bed... bitch only noticed when he got up in the morning and after that both boys were welcomed into the bedroom.... they fled at the first sight of bodily fluid but by the last litter - born on my bed, with him asleep also on the bed, he totally refused to move and insisted on sleeping through it... fortunately it was a smaller bitch than the first and she was fine with having him around... however the other bitches had to stay away... when I had a mother and daughter having pups at around the same time (not my idea!) the mother acted as midwife to her daughter, cleaned her and the pups, ate the afterbirth (her daughter looked at it and said 'eat that? you've got to be joking') and was generally supportive, so sweet... she had her own pups a week later and they stayed together...throughout...

Yep same here about having somewhere away from the other dogs to whelp. It would be the equivalent of you giving birth in a hospital corridor ... very stressful :-O

You don't have to move her to a quiet place immediately, which I'm assuming would be a bedroom from description of your house layout downstairs. Just get her used to it over the next couple of weeks, occasional visits even. See if she'll sleep away from the other dogs.

I recall my litter last year, just as puppy No 3 was emerging into the world, the bedroom door opened and this head peered round. It was one of my older girls, I am sure she was asking "would you like help? I'm experienced you know!" ... she didn't hang around long. I think the in whelp girl gave her a 'look'! Normally they're the very best of bed buddies :-)

Otherwise it sounds as though you're sorted. Exciting!

I have tons of wool of many colours. If you want to pm me I will be happy to send you some.

We tried nail varnish, marker, tyvech bands, wool and hair ties, but none worked. it was a nightmare! you could go out in the morning and find two lookalike black pups without marks. we used pup colors for our last litter. they were brilliant! they lasted from birth up to 6-7 weeks - our pups were very large breed and so they grew to big for the collars, but medium breeds it should last them until they leave. they are washable and easy to adjust, no chance of getting legs or paws stuck! here is the link:

http://www.pupcolors.com/

ps. we put leather collars on our puppies when they were 6 weeks old. nightmare! never again! they just chewed them of of each other and they didnt last long. we used the trixie breeders collars this time and they were great! here is a link for them:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Trixie-1557-Puppy-Collar-M-L/dp/B001RLVFHS/ref=sr_1_4?s=pet-supplies&ie=UTF8&qid=1350597434&sr=1-4