ASD Pinto Surprise

The Ilik X Duman litter was born today! We are sooooo excited. This is the first litter from a puppy (Ilik) that was bred by us here at Shepherds Rest Anatolians. Not only is this litter sired by an import, but Ilik's sire was also an import. We were hoping for dark rough-coat puppies, but little did we know that we would have two surprise pintos! With imports, that can happen! There are 3 females and 2 males. The pinto on the far left is a male, largest pup born. The pinto in the middle is a female, the smallest puppy born. Weights ranged from 18.6 ounces to 11.4 ounces.

This litter was a natural birth. But we had a bit of a time with it! Ilik didn't seem to progress to hard labor, so off to the vet we went. When we got there, finally a water sac appeared. So we waited at the vets for an hour to see if Ilik would progress further in her whelping. An hour later, no progress, so she was given a shot of oxytocin and we went home. An hour later still no progress, so I gave her a second shot of oxytocin, as prescribed by our vet. We were told to return for a C-section if no puppies were born an hour after the last oxytocin shot. So exactly 59 minutes later, the first pup was born (whew!), but unfortunately it was not alive and although we worked on it for 30 minutes, it could not be resuscitated. It was a gorgeous dark female, the darkest one of the litter. Perhaps that is what slowed the show. Or perhaps the whelping took too long and if we had done a C-section earlier, she might have lived. Hard to tell. Anyway, two and a half hours later, 5 healthy puppies had been born. It was a bit of an adventure, though, because the last female was spouting blood from her umbilical cord, so I had to squeeze it shut quickly, tie it, and put 7% iodine on it. So we started off with a challenge, had 2 surprise pintos, and ended with a challenge. Life is always interesting on the farm! And it may be difficult to sleep tonight since the mother of a 2 week old litter in the next barn stall can hear the puppies and is howling off and on, probably thinking they should be hers but she can't get to them! I may have to turn off the barn monitor I have beside my bed to get any rest at all!