Help - a Lovely but heavily pregnant Lurcher turned up at my door today

[HoundoftheBaskervilles]

I know it's late & I know there's a thread for pointy hound lovers, but I seem to have acquired a heavily pregnant Lurcher, she was lurking round my house all day - very rural no near neighbours, every time I looked out the door she was there, very underfed but sweet & extremely sociable, after about three hours I crumbled & fed her, at which point I noticed she was HEAVILY pregnant & rather skinny.

I've taken her to the Vets', no chip, no report, so she's come back here, she had a show of mucus at the vets' and has been intermittently been panting very heavily, I've phoned the vet again (who luckily are personal friends) who told me how to do an internal, couldn't feel anything yet, so I guess it's just a waiting game.

I've had dogs in the past, but DOGS, never bitches & I've never whelped a pup in me life.

Help & hand-holds would be lovely.

Hi. My dog had puppies in June. I'd bought a 'deluxe whelping kit' but didn't need any of it so don't worry about being unprepared. At one point I had a little panic and opened the Welpi substitute milk (just unscrewed the lid, didn't pierce the cover inside) so if you want it I can post it to you. My dog wouldn't have the puppies anywhere near the £50 whelping box we'd bought, she just wanted them in our other dog's bed!

You won't need to do anything much for the first 3 weeks - just weigh each pup every day to check they're all putting on weight. After that it becomes more interesting but so much fun. We absolutely loved the experience.

Good luck! Wish it was me ...

What a beautiful girl!! Can't wait for puppy pictures

If you can get it in time this book is one that's often referred to as the bible for anyone breeding or looking after a pregnant bitch during pregnancy and birth.

There's also a lot of good information (though more for after the birth) on this website.

I'd definitely have a look and see if there are any breeders local to you who would be willing to help you out, especially during the birth.

I'm blantently place marking but this is such a fantastic story and I'm hoping for happy news of Mabli and pups soon!

You're amazing OP

Best of luck, can't wait for updates!

Also shamelessly place marking!! My dd is at the thought of a pregnant dog turning up

Just a quick note (and shameless place marking) watch mabli after they are born to make sure she encourages all the puppies to poo/wee every 2 hours/after a feed... She may need help doing this if she's a first time mum!

Here's how to help!
dogcare.dailypuppy.com/should-newborn-puppies-defecate-2865.html

Also try and make sure she doesn't lay on the pups, we had a couple of new mums do that and crush the entire litter :(

Good luck mabli! Fingers crossed for a swift and uneventful delivery

Hope you get a full nights sleep, Hound, and that Mabli gives birth at a civilised hour. Oh, and just the one puppy so you can keep it .

Another one offering moral support. DS is teething, so I am not expecting much sleep tonight. May have to persuade DH we really, really want a puppy....

Shameless place marking.

Utterly blatant place marking here, too

Hope it all goes well for lovely Mabli, and for you OP.

Another place marking - lots of good luck to you all

How lovely. Hope you have some puppies soon

Hi all, thanks for the encouragement and VERY helpful tips, nothing to report as yet, which is good news for two reasons 1) it gives me time to get a bit better prepared & 2) DH kindly gave me his sickness bug from the weekend and I've spent the last few hours with my head down the loo, at one point, the DCs were having supper, I was heaving my gut up in downstairs loo and madame decided that she needed to go outside NOW, which resulted in a bit of an accident on the kitchen floor, I weakly got to the phone and suggested to DH that it might be a good idea for him to come home, which to his credit, he did. (I let her off though as I've been a heavily pregnant women & sometimes you just gotta go!).

She seems quite relaxed, snoozing a lot, so I'd be very surprised if anthing happened tonight. Another lovely poster has put me in touch with a woman at a local lurcher rescue so I'll speak to her tomorrow, hopefully she'll be able to offer some help.

Another thing I wanted to ask was what's the best beddibg materual to use in the pen, I've read various different things, presumably I'll have to change it fairly regularly so I'm guessing towels etc are not the best idea. Alsodoes the mother deal with the waste initially or is that down to me? Feel like I'm on a very steep learning curve here...

Yuck, sorry for all the typos, hateful tablet/fat finger scenario!

Gawd, sorry you're ill. Not what you need. I hope you get a peaceful, uneventful night and she holds on a bit longer. And I'm going to say 7

Oh and I think we'll be doing some training when the pup crisis has passed as, despite being incredibly good natured and genial she doesn't seem to recognise any basic commands and is constantly trying her luck when it comes to human food, which I guess would be consistent with her previous owners not being exactly dilligent with her wellbeing.

Do NOT say seven, four would be a polite number I think (grasps at straws).

Sorry to hear you are ill, get well soon - and I'm glad that it was the dog that had the accident on the kitchen floor as I thought it was you
Looking forward to updates on pups tomorrow!

I reckon 5 pups for Mabli! I really hope you feel better soon, Hound.

Not sure what you mean by waste so I'll try and cover what I can think of;

Afterbirth - let her burst the bags, or help her if she doesn't seem inclined to do it, let her eat it if she wants to, it contains nutrients that she needs to replenish.

Waste from pups (poo/wee) if she encourages the pups to do this she will lick them and clean up any mess.. If you are doing it, you will need to dispose of it (aren't you glad we have baby wipes and nappies for our babies?)

Make sure to clean up any blood or wee/poo that escapes her notice and try to keep the bedding clean. Avoid anything that can cause choking hazards (shredded paper, etc) we used to use vet beds, but at a push any towels will do as long as you keep on top of the cleanliness.

If any pups are born not breathing, hold them in one hand head angled slightly down and gently but vigorously rub their backs.. We brought many a pup back to life with this.

Also keep an eye on any weaker looking pups in case they struggle to get to a teat.. The strongest pups will always get the pick of the best teats (near the back legs, you can't miss them they will be huge!) and the weakest get left with the not so good ones (at the chest, and visibly a lot smaller) Try and help the weaker pups get to the bigger teats every so often, it will help them catch up.

Brilliant, thanks Nanny, have looked the the vet beds so will order some, do I need to change it daily and deal with any mess as it happens then? Should I get a couple so I can put a clean one out each day then? (Sorry for all the questions).

Good tip thanks, and yes, those back teats are HUGE.

Yes try and keep it as clean as possible, pups, like human babies, are susceptible to infections and germs and nothing harbours that more than blood or wee/poo.

Vet beds are easily washed in a washing machine so get a couple so you can wash one while one's in use.