Molly 6 weeks pregnant (43days)
Molly is now 6 weeks pregnant so only approximately 3 weeks to go! She has lost her waistline entirely and looking lovely and plump on her tummy. Being such a slender dog anyway it is hard to get the real idea of how big she is in this photo.
Molly at five and a half weeks (38days)
The photo above shows her tummy being lovely and squishy!
I cant believe the last two weeks have flown by. (when the initial four weeks were unbearably slow!)
Since my last entry we had noticed that Molly is drinking alot more in the past few days, I have tested her urine and everything is fine, so no concerns regarding infection (the urine checks for blood, ketones, glucose amongst other things). I have checked my notes from her previous litter and she went through a phase of drinking a lot just after the five week stage also.
The puppies will have already formed their limbs, head and organs by four weeks. The ear flaps which will be mere little bumps and the eyelids will be visible from five weeks. The pups will also have claws growing on their tiny paws. The eyes will have already developed at the four week stage but they will remain closed until after the puppies are born. At 6 weeks the digits are formed and you would also be able to tell if puppy is a boy or a girl!
At this stage it is hard to guess how big they are but they will be at least 6cm – 7cm.
At this point they still do not have any hair or pads on their paws.
Molly is still as fit as she always has been, on a walk she hasn’t slowed down at all, but we having to make sure she doesn’t leap for a ball.
I have increased her food – to three meals instead of two meals. Molly has definitely been hungry from about the three week point but feeding them extra food too early on just makes them put on unnecessary weight which could lead to problems for the whelping.
I have been giving Molly folic acid as a daily supplement in the days leading up to her having a season, this is to ensure when she did become pregnant that the puppies would have a very good chance of forming a strong skeleton whilst growing in the womb. I will be giving her the folic acid for another week only.
