When my wife and I decided to breed Caramel, I began searching the Internet for a suitable stud. Since she is an F1b, produced from breeding an F1 Cockapoo female back to a Toy Poodle, she is 75% Poodle. After doing a bit of research, we decided breeding her to an F1 Cockapoo stud was the way to go because it would make a litter that is 62.5% Poodle, whereas back-breeding her to a Poodle would give us a litter of 82.5% Poodle pups. They would probably by high strung and not have much of the lovely Cocker Spaniel temperament. I was interested in having a litter with some variety in their coat colours and my search led me to Danny and Chevonne at Cuckoo K9 of Eastleigh and their F1 Cockapoo stud, Rudy. He has a red sable coat and he throws beautiful puppies. Based on his and Caramel's coat colour DNA test results, I was confident that we would get some interesting puppies and that none would be solid black. I have friends that own black Cockapoos and they have difficulty getting good photos of their dogs. These pupies will be in a lot of photographs, so this was an important consideration in choosing the stud. When her season started, I ordered some ovulation test pads ad began testing her twice daily. These strips detect the surge of Luteinising hormone that triggers ovulation. Unfortunately, I didn't have the test strips until day 4 of her season. On Day 9 of season (Saturday 12th August) , I saw a slight change in the test pad, but after sending a photo to an expert, I was advised this was the first surge, not the second one that triggers ovulation. It was quite critical to us to have a successful mating due to timing in our son's final year of Sixth Form College. We wanted him to be here for the experience, but not locked in his room cramming for exams. So I made an appointment to have her serum progesterone level tested on Monday 14th August at Vets4Pets. The test showed her serum progesterone level at 63nmol/Litre, which equates to 19ng/ml. A surge in the range of 4-8ng/ml triggers ovulation and a bitch reaches peak fertility by the time it hits 20ng/ml. I quickly called Chevonne and scheduled an appointment for Caramel with Rudy the next day. Danny and Chevonne, the owners of Cuckoo K9 have been very helpful from the start. They are efficient and knowledgeable. They include an ultrasound and microchips in the stud fee. We had two standings for Caramel with Rudy on 15th and 17th August. Then came the long wait until her ultrasound on 18th September.
In the meantime, we began researching what we would need for whelping and placing orders. I had already decided to give Caramel folic acid and had Cobalaplex on hand before mating, with the first dose on 14th August. Cobalaplex contains Vitamin B-12 (Cobalamine) and Folic Acid. The B-12 helps the body absorb and metabolise the FA.
Folic Acid is metabolised into Dihydroxyfolate reductase. If you think this compound's name sounds a bit like Deoxyribonucleic acid, you are right, because it is a precursor building block for DNA and Caramel had six puppies to build. Giving a dog (or a human or other mammal) folic acid during pregnancy is the best way to prevent a range of congenital birth defects, such as cleft palate and spinal cord and neurological abnormalities. The package had 60 tablets, which made a handy countdown for gestation.
The ultrasound confirmed she was pregnant. Chevonne estimated her due date to be 16th October, which is 62 days from the first mating. Canine gestation is 63 days, but Cockapoos average 62. I was sort of hoping they would be born on 17th October, which was Caramel's 3rd Birthday.
The ultrasound showed six puppies, though you can never be 100% sure of the number from an ultrasound. A dog uterus has two tubes and it looked like there were five puppies in one tube and one in the other tube.
We returned home and waited. There weren't any outward signs of pregnancy for another two weeks. Then our somewhat picky and sporadic eater developed a voracious appetite, exactly as all the guidance states she would. Then she began to swell.
About two weeks before her due date, I built a whelping box out of scrap material left over from building a bike shed. I emptied our storage room and set up the box in there and placed an electric heating pad, puppy pads and Vet Fleece in the box and an additional electric oil-filled radiator next to the box.
We were checking Caramel's temperature daily because a dog's temperature drops one degree within 24 hours of labour. The first thermometer I ordered appeared to be inaacurate, so I returned it and got a different brand. It had the same problem. I decided that accuracy was less important than consistency and kept using it. Later, out Vet informed us that when using a rectal thermometer, one must push it to the side and hold it against the bowel to get an accurate temperature.
On 11th October, Caramel's temperature appearred to have dropped by about .4 degrees C. It wasn't the 1 degree drop we were looking for, but we were getting excited the big day might be near. The next morning, she woke us at 4:30AM with heavy panting and digging up the blankets in her crate. This was day 58 and fortunately, puppies are considered fully ready on day 58. Over the course of the day, we began to see more odd behavious from her, but no visible signs of contractions. She was furiously licking her stuffed lamb cuddly toy, a precursor to how she would like the puppies as each was born. We thought she might make her own way to the whelping box, but she had other plans. My wife finally moved her from our sofa to the whelping room and set her in the box. Within a few minutes, I noticed a large bulge just below her tail (see videos below), which she was holding up out of the way. I felt the bump and could tell it was a puppy's head. Within a few minutes, Pup 1 was born.
Caramel was a natural. She immediately began licking the puppy, which broke the gestational sac. I noted in our litter notebook that the time was 4:20PM. The puppy began squirming and Susan and I breathed a sigh of relief. We saw the ribs expanding as it took breath after breath. After about 10 minutes, I saw a placeta begin to emerge, which Caramel promptly ate. I know, TMI again, but that's what Mama Dawgs do. Once the cord was detached by Caramel, I checked the puppy and confirmed it was a male.
Over the next 3 hours and 42 minutes, more puppies arrived. The shortest interval was aboyt 20 minutes. The first four puppies were all males. The last two were females. The interval between Pups 5 and 6 was about an hour and a half. When we weighed the puppies, we discovered why; she was the biggest of all and despite stretching five times already, Mama Dawg had to stretch and push even more.
We were tired but excited and delighted and totally smitten by six gorgeous little squirmy Cockapoos. We took it in turns to stay up watching them all night night to make both Caramel and the puppies were doing well and to see that she didn't accidentally smother any of them. The next night, I set up an airbed in the whelping room and we took turns sleeping there. I set a 30 minute timer and checked them each time it went off. It may seem like overkill, but at 3:30AM, about 36 hours after the last puppy was born, she passed a retained placenta, which is a Veterinary Urgency. I'll save the rest of the story for a later post.
Mike aka Hoodad
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