Twelve Goldendoodles!!

On Dec. 15th around 9:00 am, Maggie began to labor.  She was pretty calm and stayed in her whelping box sleeping most of the time.  At this point I knew she was getting close to having her puppies, but it is still a guessing game.  Its definitely a lot harder when your dog can't tell you how she is feeling.  

The night before she went into labor I took her to vet to be examined because she had been feeling sick.  She wasn't eating her food, which could have been because she was so big.  But I also suspected that there was something wrong with her eyes and ears as-well.  After several tests, including an ultrasound, the conclusion was that she had two ear infections, two eye infections, she was anemic, and she was probably going to have about 6-7 pups (which we all know wasn't true).  

 Right before the first puppy was born at about 2:30pm, Maggie became restless and even cried a little bit.  I glanced over at here and sure enough a puppy was beginning to come out.  It was so exciting to see and something I will never forget.  Little did we know it was just the start of a four hour process that would result in TWELVE beautiful golden doodle pups!  We were shocked and amazed how many different colors came out of her litter, red, white, blonde, and greyish.  There were about four puppies that were very tiny, no one stood out as a runt, just very small.  I was so pleased that the whole birthing process went so well.  Little did I know that the next couple of weeks were going to be the real test.

 Shortly after giving birth, Maggie still wasn't eating like she should.  Not even close to what she should be eating for a dog who needs to nurse twelve pups.  We had to switch her to wet  food because she refused the kibble.  I thought maybe her runny stools were from the switch, but when the diarrhea became worse and worse I knew we had a problem.  I spent numerous nights up with her letting her out to the bathroom about every 15 minute....it was exhausting. Because she was so nervous around the pups I had to help her in and out of the whelping box as-well.  After a few trips to the vet, they put her on amoxicillin and we began to see her get better.  After spoon feeding her for about two weeks, she finally began to eat on her own and we never had to supplement the puppies.  It was a miracle in my book.  I listed the puppies on a local classified listing when they were about 2 days old and we already began to receive calls.

Because Bry was in Canada missing out on all this action, we wrote a song and sent it to him.  Here are the words to the tune of a Partridge in a Pear tree:

Eight little girls
Four chubby boys
One tired mommy
Five crazy kids
Mema cooking dinner
Lots of squealing puppies (five golden rings)
Twelve golden doodles.....Holy Cow, Rex is concerned
And a puppy just pooped on me.