Days 3-11

Everything fell into a normal routine.  KB stayed with her puppies and nursed and cleaned them regularly.  Wife fed her about 3.5 pounds of mixed red meat and dry meal with a milk solution each day.  A pet tab and four calcium tablets supplemented KB's daily diet.  KB was given an amoxicillian tablet twice each day. Wife also cleaned and changed rugs in the whelping box twice each day.

On Day 4 wife took all eight puppies back to the vet and had their dew claws removed.  The vet removed the dew claws with a hemostat.  He them placed a dab of super-glue on each spot to keep it from bleeding.  Obviously KB went along to oversee the entire proceedure.

It is interesting to watch and study newborn puppies with their mother.  When not nursing they tend to huddle up in a pile- legs, heads, bodies, and tails are intertwined every which way.  They will struggle, fall, roll, and crawl from their mother to the huddled pile.  They will then sleep.  When they start waking, they reverse the process and struggle, fall, roll, and crawl back to their mother.  They manage to find a faucet.  Every now and then KB will take her nose, roll one over, and lick the puppy to get it to do it's business, and then clean after it.  Sometimes a stray puppy will go off in the wrong direction. Or one will end up on the back side of it's mother. One can't help but get a little concerned.  Sometimes KB will reach out with her nose and nudge the puppy back to the fold.  Even when she doesn't, the puppy makes it back to it's mother's loving care.

Its amusing to watch a litter of eight newborn puppies line up when nursing.  We always watch for the smallest puppy and can't help but place it on the fullest spout.  Some puppies act like a bulldozer and just plow through the rest until they find an open faucet.  Some will tunnel down under the others and all of a sudden will pop up in place.  Others will root another puppy off it's faucet- some real struggles take place.  A  mother greyhound will periodically release her milk.  Nursing puppies tend to spread their front paws on the side of their mother with their heads straight into the faucet.  Puppies will arch their back with their little butts sticking straight back and up in the air.  When getting milk their little tails wag 90 miles per hour.  It is fun to see eight black puppies lined up and their little tails wagging like crazy.

When we are out and return to the whelping area, the first thing we do is count the puppies.  This is not easy when all eight are solid black.  Many times we count two or three times before looking for a missing pup behind or under its mother, or under the corner of the rug, or under a pile of three or four other puppies, or behind the water bucket.

 Days 12-14

Everything was normal.  Wife noticed a tiny slit, or opening in one puppy's eyelid.  Two others had a slight opening.  For the next couple of days all the puppies began to open their eyes.  This is a gradual process.  One day the eyelids will just barely be open. The next they open a little more.  This may go on for three or four days.

As mentioned in our introduction of KB's eight black puppies (4 males, 4 females), they seem longer than most greyhound puppies we have raised.  We continue to believe they have longer bodies, longer legs, longer noses, and longer tails than normal.  They also appear to have longer toenails that need clipped earlier than usual (to keep from scratching KB while nursing and to keep from scratching other puppies' eyes).  They have tried to walk.  They will stand up, take about two or three steps and then fall over, only to get up and try again.  We anticipate they will be climbing out of the whelping box before 4 weeks old.  We have already started thinking of names such as Longbow, Longshot, Longarrow, Longleg, etc.  Of course they will not be named for a month or two.

Week 4 was a big week for KB's 8 new puppies. They received their first vaccination shot, got their first worming, and were moved from the whelping box in our mixing room to a stall that leads outside to a short run.

At the beginning of the week we gave each puppy it's first vaccination shot consisting of measles and distemper. This was their first introduction to human inflected pain. Most did good, they only flinched a little. Two or three puppies jerked a little but no squalling.  Husband and wife work together.  Husband holds puppy on his chest facing to husband's right.  Husband rubs puppy's ear or head and trys to sooth it.  This allows right handed wife to pull up the skin on puppy's neck and give the shot under the skin. With 8 solid black puppies, we couldn't easily keep track of which ones had been shot.  So we placed the ones that had been shot on a rug outside the whelping box. Oh boy, did they have a time. They explored all around the mixing room. Of course most did their business off the rug.  It's fun to watch a male puppy when he starts urinating.  He spreads his rear feet real wide apart. His tail points straight up in the air and he gets real still.  His head is pointed straight ahead and there is a look of intense concentration. It takes several seconds for him to relax and release.  One wants to freeze and keep quiet until he gets started.

We also wormed each puppy with 1cc of Strongid-T. They seemed to like the taste of the bannana flavored wormer. We put each puppy on our lap, raised its head, and squirted the wormer into its mouth.  With its head raised, we rubbed the pup's neck until it swallowed. We always wait until the puppies are sleeping before worming or giving vaccination shots. They squirm less when first awakened.

Later in the week we moved the puppies to an inside stall that leads outside to a shortrun. The inside stall is 8'x8'. It has a whelping box similar to the one in the mixing room. Leading up into the 12" high sideboards are a small set of puppy steps. This whelping box has a two sided wooden enclosure over it (in the winter we put on the other two sides) with an overhead light. Everything went pretty good. It will be a week before the puppies adventure to the outside.

The puppies are up and walking around.  Some are real big puppies for their age, others are normal size. They still stagger and wobble a little, and they still walk straight into another pup, however they are progressing fine. Every now and then one pup will try to run, only to take three or four

running steps and fall flat. They are getting to where they are biting each other pretty hard, and yelping pretty loud.  One will open its mouth as wide as possible and completely put another pup's head inside its mouth.  The other pup will lower its head and turn to one side to escape.  Then the second pup turns around and does the same to the first. Have you ever noticed how a dog shakes its head? We have noticed some of these puppies learning to shake their head. Sometimes they start shaking their head and tumble right over on their sides, it's funny. Sometimes two puppies will sit down and paw at each other- this turns into a wrestling match which usually turns into a biting match.  Sometimes one pup will yelp and jump away. Other times there is a real growling and biting match.

Wife is feeding the puppies a solution of goat's milk and grated dry meal. KB is being fed in the same enclosure as the puppies. Some puppies venture over to KB's pan and have been nibbling at her food. Of course they are still nursing.

KB is doing fine.  She is eating 4 pounds of mixed food each day, this is twice her normal feed (her feed is 1 part red meat, 1 part tripe, 2 parts dry meal, 1 part milk solution made from powdered lamb's milk, and a pinch of bonemeal). Wife still gives her a pet tab and four calcium tablets each day. KB regulates when she allows the pups to nurse.  She is staying outside the whelping box more and roaming around the building. She also lays in the short run.  When it is time to nurse she goes inside the whelping box and lays down. She is real careful not to lay on a puppy.  KB is a sweet greyhound.  Whenever we leave our living quarters, she always comes walking to us with  tail wagging.  She will walk with us to wherever we go, just like she is our sidekick. She looks up with a happy look that says come on, pet me. KB is solid black with premature gray eyebrows and is seven years old. She is a medium size female and has a broad back. This is her second litter. She can be real frisky at times. She would make an excellent house pet, but we have three already.

We are a little puzzled why none of the puppies have climbed out of the whelping box.  They are big enough and healthy enough to easily get out. Most puppies at this stage are climbing over the side and tumbling to the floor. These pups seem perfectly content to stay inside the whelping box. We do not know if this is a good sign or a bad sign. We  wish the pups would be a little more adventuresome.