Puppies are Doing GREAT!

Cotton is a terrific mom! She even gets upset when the pups cry. (I've often wondered how/why mamas totally ignore their pups who can be yelling their heads off... Cotton is the FIRST bitch I've had who whines when her pups are noisy.) Going to get pictures this afternoon... Cotton is disturbed by my messing with the babies. She does the ol' laying her head on my hand so I can't pick one up trick which is actually a gentle warning that the pups are HERS and I'm allowed to touch ONLY if she says so. I don't want to upset her too much, so I'll probably do 3 groups... females, and then two groups of males... so I'm not taking too many away from her at one time.

Now, there is one pup with a problem. Haven't decided what I'm going to do about placing her... if she makes it that far... but there is PLENTY of time. I was in another room when Cotton had the first puppy... she had shown NONE of the signs of being in labor... no panting, nesting, restlessness, etc... so the first I knew about it was the other dogs in the room barking like crazy. When I got in there, the pup (poor thing!) was out of the sack, dripping wet and lying on the vinyl. Cotton was standing there, looking puzzled. She'd gotten it out of the sack and cut the umbilical and eaten the placenta, but that's as much as she knew to do. I picked the pup up and started rubbing her down with a towel and she immediately responded with the normal puppy gasps and squeaks. It wasn't until I turned her over to see if she was a boy or girl that I saw her leg. It looked like she had some fuzz or foam rubber caught in one paw. Considering my housekeeping skills, it didn't seem so unusual for a newborn puppy.... But it was actually her mangled paw and lower leg. I'm assuming when Cotton was cutting the cord, she got the paw as well and just kept on chomping. It wasn't bleeding... the jaw pressure took care of that problem... but obviously had to be removed. Of course, it was quarter to five and the vet closes at 6. I called, told the girl my problem and said I was sending my son over with the puppy. (I couldn't leave Cotton and certainly didn't want to load her into the car right then.) She put me on hold, talked to one of the docs and then said if I wanted to put the pup down, they could do that but if it needed any surgery, I'd have to go over to
the emergency vet because it was closing time. SO Andy made it to my house and then to the vet's in record time and by 5:15 they called and said they could take the leg off just above the trauma and stitch it up. She could grow up for a month or so and we'd watch how she used it, then it would most likely need to be amputated closer to the shoulder (to prevent further injury from falls, misuse, etc.) So Peg has already met more people in the first hour of her life than my pups usually do until they're going through their departure exams and grooming visits! She's on antibiotics and I have my fingers crossed that infection doesn't set it, because that will be it for
her, but she's eating and pushing herself around with the rest of the gang. Back to fingers crossed!