Happy Mother’s Day

Sunday, May 9, 2010

This was to be posted yesterday! Sorry! Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers out there. And to the horsey mothers! None of my mares are having babies this year, but I plan on breeding 2 mares for next year. And to the Doggie mothers. Especially Beagles.

Hubby and I went away for a few days. But we shouldn’t have gone. Our son’s beagle was suppose to have pups earlier in the week, and she waited until the day we left. Our beagles usually have a lot of puppies, and a few larger ones, and always seem to have trouble. My son, Micah, came up to stay at the house and be with her all day. In the afternoon, she was straining, so off to the vet at about 3 pm. They pulled a puppy that didn’t make it and gave her a shot of oxytocin. He came home and she had another puppy that didn’t make it. Micah was to give her another shot of oxytocin later that evening, which he did. After another hour, she started straining, but no pups.

So now, on the phone on a Saturday night, at 8 pm looking for a vet who would do a C-section. The one that finally answered a message, said he wasn’t on call and it wasn’t his night. His suggestion to Micah was to keep trying to call the clinic and the partner. That vet wouldn’t even help to get hold of his partner. I understand that these vets probably get calls all the time, especially on the weekends, but I would have thought he could have found out who was on call at the clinic and where he was. Maybe the other vet was in an emergency already, but it would have been nice to find that out! I think how this vet handled the situation stinks!

Luckily, about this time, our friend, Traci, came to help Micah. She knew of a vet about 45 minutes away. And that vet was willing to open up the clinic. Now, it’s 10 pm, and Micah is driving Daisy to the vet. (Sounds like the movie, Driving Miss Daisy!)

On the way, Daisy had a pup that is healthy. With the C-section, we made the decision to spay also, as this would be Daisy’s last litter. She delivered 5 more healthy pups! That would have been 8 pups! Beagles are to only have 4-6 pups. Our litters are usually this large. We are glad to have 6 healthy pups!

Micah got home about 1, stayed awake to make sure all pups were nursing. The anesthesia keeps them a little sluggish for awhile. He had to pamper one puppy, who wanted to nurse, but the more active puppies were pushing it away from the teats. Luckily, Daisy’s milk came in before the surgery, and we didn’t have to wait for her milk to let down.

Later yesterday, Micah took Daisy and the pups back out to the barn. He had a little area lined with hay bales and a soft straw bed for Daisy and the pups. All is fine!

Can’t wait to get home tomorrow to see them. I’ll post pics later tomorrow night!