At last, our first pictures to publish! Forgive me to those who’ve been waiting patiently to see the babies! What we thought would be an easy process to upload from my phone has turned into a time consuming transfer to a laptop, then upload to the website, then post. There are so many since the day they were born it took over 24 hours to do the initial transfer, then all editing was lost. Sigh.
BUT! Here are our first pictures from their birthday! I’m still learning how to post here so as I get better at it this week, I’ll publish some each day.
Keira started her labor on February 3 at 10:39pm that evening. I had made our room ready and all through the night she would snuggle as close to me as possible, constantly licking my face, some panting preparing for the cleaning of her litter. Her temperature dropped to 98.5 then as well. I knew there would be another drop as well, so I settled in for a long, mostly sleepless night.
On 2/4/24 (how cool is THAT?) she began having contractions at 11:50am. Finally at 3:10pm, our first girl, Yellow girl Marcy arrived. She presented normally, but was a bit stuck, so sterile cotton gloves and a gently wiggle and slight turn aided her exit. She weighed 528 grams at birth and had a small white spot. After her in quick succession came Purple Girl Grace at 3:20 (515 grams) with a small white spot; Blue girl Esther at 3:27pm with no spot (431 grams); Green girl Cascade, breach but came out feet and tail first as if on a water slide at 3:58pm with a tiny white spot. Then Orange boy Colden presented head and one shoulder, but needed gloved assist to join me, weighing a whopping 558 grams with a white spot at 4:10pm. He was followed at 5:07pm by my tiny Red girl Panther, weighing 294 grams, with a white spot and she needed some assistance to take her first breath. Once I revived her, I gave her to Keira to continue and she did a wonderful job and was sucking before our next girl, Pink Skylight arrived, weighing 448 grams at 6:00pm on the spot (though she had not spot!). Baby blue boy Macomb was next at 6:10pm weighing 433 grams and our final boy Gray boy, Gray, joined us fashionably late at 7:45pm, weighing 440 grams.
Our count per the vet was 9-based on two ultrasounds and an x-ray, so I began cleaning up, monitoring the suckling of each puppy. I had counted each placenta and knew there was one yet to pass, and when I saw the contraction at 10:55pm and placenta, I was relieved and thought FINALLY! Much to my surprise it was a placenta, but there was another puppy inside! I hurriedly began to free her and clear her airway, suctioning her mouth when realizing she was not breathing. I provided CPR and tried every technique to try to revive her, then reached out to knowledgeable friends for any other things I might try for the next 45 minutes, but was sadly unsuccessful. I ended that evening at my kitchen island in tears. She was perfect, seemingly fully intact, with a lovely white spot in the shape of Lake Champlain. She only weighed 175 grams, but other than her size, she was perfect. I resigned myself finally that she had likely passed of hypoxia, a lack of oxygen from too much time in the womb. The next day I cried to my vet, “How did we miss her? Had I known to expect her I could have aided her coming sooner!” But some things are simply nature. making its choices. My little Angel baby will forever be known to me as Whiteface. Whiteface mountain in the Adirondacks is unique among the High Peaks, standing as a lone massif to the North of all others. I enjoy skiing there in winter and fly fishing at its feet in the West Branch of the Ausable River. I will visit there and think of her often.
So 10 babies delivered, 9 expected, one for the angels all delivered on 2/4/24.
Ravenrose Gordon Setters 