We received the equipment from WhelpWise last week and began monitoring Lizzie once daily until Saturday, when we started monitoring her contractions twice daily.  Things seemed to be moving along a steady clip with 3 contractions per hour on Saturday during both sessions and then 4 contractions during the last Sunday session.

My wonderful husband woke up around 5am for a monitoring session before we need to leave for work – and there was a single contraction.  In the last three sessions we’ve progressed back up to 2 contractions per hour session.  Labor is defined as 5 contractions per hour, with actual puppies arriving within 8 to 12 hours.

Included as part of the WhelpWise service, is a fetal heart doppler, so we can be sure the puppies aren’t in any distress.  We’ve been having great fun finding the puppies and making sure we have an accurate count.  We’ve determined there are two on her left side and three on her right.   A few of the pups now have names based on their location:  Lumpy who’s easy to find because he’s right by a small sebaceous cyst, Ribby who hangs out right by Lizzie’s rib cage and Chicken Wing who hangs out right by the fold of skin where Lizzie’s leg attaches to her body.  They aren’t very elegant names, but they do help when we’re trying to track everybody and verify a good heart rate.

We’ll be doing another monitoring session tonight to see if we need to stay home from work tomorrow.

Here’s a great link with pictures of a Mastiff Whelping to tide you over until we have our own pictures to share.

But you’re not here to read about what we’re doing, you’re here for Lizzie and the puppies.  The puppies have been super busy:

Lizzie is feeling very pregnant these days and make sure we hear all her sighs and groans. Her tummy has swollen even larger and has gotten firmer. Any day now, we’ll start feeling the puppies move around – though Lizzie acts like they’re moving constantly. She also started producing milk/colostrum in abundance  – poor girl actually leaks a little at times.

How Many Puppies Are In There?

As her pregnancy has progressed nicely and she’s still in shape (except for the pregnant belly), we’re going forward with a natural whelping using the Whelp Wise Service.  Our other option is to perform a cesarean section.  You can see photos and get information from here:

C-Section in an English Mastiff

The next update will probably be in seven days – a few days before the due date.  You’ll see how well we’re working with Whelp Wise and hopefully have a count of puppies.

Day 39

Instead, we discovered that the puppies are too big to fit completely into the ultrasound image.   As the vet moved the probe, we saw a head here and there, a spine, some legs and some heartbeats. The coolest moment was when the vet stopped moving the probe and we watched one of the pups move his/her head.   Since we were unable to get a clear picture to share,  I hope you find the substitute below acceptable:

During this past week, the pups have developed pigment – with this breeding, we expect the pups to be fawn or apricot – and have continued to grow.  Lizzie’s nipples have gotten much larger and she’s developing breast tissue under some of them.  She’s eating like a pig and is having a hard time finding a comfy position to sleep in.

Do you think she looks pregnant?

Lizzie at the End of Week 6

Do You Think She's Pregnant

Inside Lizzie,  the fetuses are starting to look like tiny dogs at just over an inch in size.  They are becoming boy & girl puppies with toes, whiskers and claws.  Their eyes are closed and will remain shut until after birth.  The uterine horns have filled with fluid to protect the puppies, so detecting puppies by palpation is no longer possible.

Lizzie’s second ultrasound is next week.  We’re hoping to get another count of puppies and check for heartbeats.  It is still hard to believe that in four weeks Lizzie will be ready to whelp.

Any embryos that successfully implanted into the uterus last week have grown from 1 cm to 3 cm.  They now resemble little tadpoles, but instead of my talking about it, go watch this video:

Animals in the Womb:  Day 20 through Day 30

Last Saturday, Lizzie was at Day 25 and the embryos looked something like this:

Dog Embryo at 25 Days

Pretty incredible, no?

Lizzie went for her first ultrasound Thursday, June 17th – Day 30.  The vets were able to feel a couple of puppies doing palpation, but we wanted to “see” them for ourselves.  So,  Lizzie was coaxed onto her back and the vet began the ultrasound. We excepted to see something like this:

Dog Embryo at 30 Days

Instead we saw this:

Lizzie's Ultrasound

Do you see it?  I promise there’s a puppy in there.  Look closer (if you click on the picture, it’ll pop-up bigger).

The vet was able to identify five different puppies.  Three in one horn and two in another.  However, there might be more in there.    The ultrasound confirms the pregnancy but does not provide an accurate count.  It is possible to count a puppy more than once since you’re only seeing snippets of the uterus instead of the uterus as a whole.  We’re pretty sure about the five though because we saw two right next to each other.  The vet said that she saw fluttering – indicating a heartbeat – but I didn’t see anything, but then again this was my first ultrasound.

So, did you find the puppy?  No.  Does this help?

Can You See It Now?

We’ve been in touch with our reproductive vet, and she thinks that if Lizzie’s uterus is healthy enough for that many to implant that there’s a good chance that they’ll survive.  We’re completely thrilled and excited and nervous – time to get in gear and fix up the study to become a nursery.

Our next Ultrasound is scheduled for June 30th, when Lizzie will be at Day 43.   We’ll have another update before then – you don’t want to miss the excitement of Week 5.

At this point in the pregnancy, some dogs also experience behavior changes – more affectionate, more aloof – but these changes are different for each dog. Also, breast tissue is developing to nurse the puppies and on some dogs, their nipples get larger and a darker pink. Not to get too intimate but Lizzie’s nipples have always been on the larger size, so we haven’t noticed any differences there. Her behavior also hasn’t changed all that much.

Most importantly, all the blastocysts have migrated into the uterus and have found a place to begin implantation. At this point, the blastocysts can officially be considered embryos at approximately 1cm in size. A good, experienced vet can detect a pregnancy by palpating the dog’s abdomen and feeling for tiny marbles.

Since we are concerned about the ability of the embryos to implant, we’re not going to have Lizzie palpated. We could go for an ultrasound this weekend, but we’ve decided to wait until Thursday. This will make sure that all the embryos have had a chance to implant and any that were unable to implant to due uterine damage will have been reabsorbed. It is possible that the ultrasound won’t reveal any pups because they’re hiding around the ribcage. So, we’ll also run a Witness Relaxin test which detects a hormone that only exists when there are placentas in the uterus.

By waiting, we’ll have a good idea  if there’s even a chance of Lizzie whelping any pups.  Unfortunately, even if there is successful implantation, there is still the possibility that the uterus cannot sustain the placenta.  We’re keeping fingers, toes and paws crossed.

All This Waiting is Exhausting

17 days ago, both ovaries (in theory) dropped eggs and they were fertilized (hopefully) days after Lizzie was bred.  Next the splitting began -  4 to 8 to 16 celled embryos were hanging around in the oviducts.  This past week, those embryos continued to split from 16 to 32 cells and officially became blastocysts – which is a fancy way of saying an embryo that’s ready to implant into the uterus.  As of today, most if not all of the blastocysts should have traveled from the oviducts into the uterine horns, and found a spot for implantation.  (For those of you following along at home, I’ve added a “map”.)

Reproductive System of the Female Canine

Due to Lizzie’s uterine issues, the only thing we can do now is hope and pray.  The first big hurdle is for the blastocysts to find an undamanged area to try and implant.

In the past seven days since Lizzie has been bred, the sperm have been finding and fertilizing eggs.  Fertilized eggs are splitting and turning into 4-8 celled embryos.

I was hoping to find a clip of what was actually happening to add a visual element, but no luck.  I did however move this DVD to the top of my Netflix queue:

What A Day!

Bad News:
As I had feared, Dr. Sheller found a lot of cysts in Lizzie’s uterine horns.  Even worse, she believes that it is cystic endometrial hyperplasia, which could lead to pyometria.

What exactly does this mean for Lizzie having puppies?

Well,  everything done up to this point – surgical insemination with fresh semen two days after ovulation – gives the best chance for egg fertilization.   The problems arise when it comes time for attaching to the uterus.  Dr. Sheller did clean out the existing cysts, but there is still a question of whether the embryos can implant into the uterus and if the uterus can sustain the placenta.   So while our chances of having a litter are high because of the how Lizzie was bred, the chances of her whelping a litter have been reduce to a 1 in 4 chance.

1 in 4 is better than 1 in 100 or even 1 in 10 chance,  therefore, we are proceeding with cautious optimism.  I am going to continue my plan to blog about the pregnancy and let people know that Lizzie’s been bred.  I’m hoping that the more people who know, the more people will be sending positive puppy vibes our way and that can only help.  I know there’s a chance that we’re tempting the wrath of the whatever from high atop the thing, but I think the benefits outweigh the risks.