Molly is almost seven weeks pregnant.  Today we felt the puppies moving – which is always very exciting.  Last night, using a stethoscope I could hear some of the puppies heartbeats.  The heartbeat is very fast!

Molly is doing very well, her splint is still on, no obvious signs of problems.  The vet hopes to do a dressing change on Friday.  (fingerscrossed he actually does this time…so we can confirm that all is well).

The development of the puppies will now mean their coat colour is showing and the hair has started to grow.  They are approximately 100mm long!

Molly 48 days pregnant

Molly had her dressing looked at by the vet on Thursday and he is happy to leave it on until next Friday when he says he will change it.  This will be the half way mark.  The dressing has to be monitored regularly to ensure there are no problems going on being left unchecked.  (always keeping an eye out for Molly licking, chewing the dressing, or if it smells it must be removed, it also needs changing if it gets wets).

Here are some photos I took yesterday when Molly was 44 days pregnant.   (six weeks plus two days).  Please note her tummy was shaved by the vet and he wasnt very tidy with the clippers!  (this was for her scan!).

Molly relaxing, at 44 days pregnant

Molly is doing very well, a happy dog despite her splint.  She is due to have a dressing change tomorrow.  I have been keeping an eye on the dressing as it is important to monitor it.  I check the dressing remains intact, doesnt get wet and no evidence of any swelling.  (also checking it doesnt smell – which can be an obvious sign of a problem).

The Pups, will have almost doubled in size again!  Going from approximately 35mm to 60mm in just a week!  It will now be possible to determine what sex they are.  As the limbs develop it is at this stage that the little toes can be seen on the paws!  They are hairless at this stage.

Happy Birthday Pups!  I cant believe this time last year we were all recovering from what was a very long night indeed!  The safe arrival of 8 puppies gave us all enormous joy for the eight weeks the pups stayed with us.

I have enjoyed hearing from various owners of puppies letting me know how they are getting on.  Im very proud of Sam for learning to swim at 5months! (and his owners have taught him a trick too! SPEAK SAM!!  so very cute!).  Amber has turned into a lovely little  confident pup though very recently has been doing a few naughty things in retrieving things to her “mum” that were a little bit grim!  I have received lots of photos of Tess during the year, she is a gorgeous girl!  Summer is doing very well in her home too.  The owners of Rocky are chuffed to bits with him and Marley has settled into his home well.  Since putting this post on this morning…. I have seen some amazing photos of Rocky and Marley – made me feel very emotional to see how handsome they both are!  Bunty I see most days and is a very outgoing pup, she is quick to learn and has amazing “springy” capabilities though I will say they dont match Melvin’s bounceability! (who can leap so high I gasp every time – still).  Melvin is one of those dogs that I think may well get labelled our dog in a million.  He still thinks he is a little pup and sleeps on the corner of the sofa, with his legs hanging everywhere!

Happy Birthday PUPS!!

Stanley, Molly and Melvin

Stanley (half brother to pups) and Molly would like to wish the puppies a Happy FIRST Birthday!

Molly is over halfway through her pregnancy.  At five weeks the puppies have now almost doubled in size in only a week from 20mm (at 4 weeks) to 35mm.

The ear flap is developing and the eye lids can now be seen.

 Molly is doing very well, her tummy is growing nicely.  I cant wait until I can listen out for heartbeats and …more exciting when I can see them moving around.  Have a little while to go for that!  Molly had her splint checked today and the vet is very happy with her.  We saw our favourite vet “Sophie” who saved Charlies life 18months ago.  Sophie decided to keep the dressing on (and not replace it) as it was in such good shape.  (well done Molly!)

Tomorrow brings a special day for the “Booza and Molly” puppies from last year.  Happy FIRST Birthday to Sam, Marley, Bunty, Summer, Melvin, Amber, Rocky and Tess!  We hope you have had a great first year seeing new things and learning lots of skills.

Here is a picture of our little Molly girl with her splint.  The splint is due to be re-dressed on Wednesday when she will be five weeks pregnant.  So we have a little over four weeks until our puppies arrive.

Her tummy is slightly swollen.  Molly is very well in herself apart from the obvious problems with her leg, she is still a happy girl.   

I have just ordered all the supplies I need, for the “just in case” scenario.  I hopefully wont need most of it.  So preparations are well underway for our new arrivals.

The puppies development so far:

At 3 weeks.  The embryo’s will be approximately half a centimetre long.

We have just passed the 4 week stage.  At 4 weeks, buds representing the limbs to the pup will now be visible and the embryo will have grown four times its size at 3 weeks, so will now be 2cms long!  That is an amazing amount of growing in such a short amount of time!

We are now between 4 and 5 weeks – so I will post again to inform you of the developmental stage at 5 weeks!

Our poor Molly has a fractured metatarsal.  She is now wearing a splint.  This will have to stay on for approximately 6 weeks.  The vet hopes to give her a try without the splint at 5 weeks when the pups are due to arrive.

The good news is we have plenty of time to prepare for the extra hard work the splint will bring.  

Although far from ideal at least we now know what the problem is and the best way forward.

Im delighted to be posting, our sweet girl is in pup!  The scan was done today at four weeks plus 1 day.  Hopefully we will have the pitter patter of healthy paddy paws in five weeks time.

Molly is still very lame and will be xrayed tomorrow – so obviously it is of great importance that Molly’s health is regained as quickly as possible.

Please keep dipping into the diary as I will be updating with snippets of information on how the puppies develop in the womb and also photos of Molly’s tummy.

We are enormously worried about our beautiful Molly.  Molly has injured her paw, obviously the complication for her is in how to treat her in view of her unborn puppies.    She is on complete rest, sporting a dressing and on painkillers.  We can only hope that it is a strain and not a break.  Currently the vet has not xrayed Molly.

Thursdays scan will confirm if Molly is in pup.  I think she is in pup and had hoped the vet would have scanned Molly yesterday so we could have proceeded knowing she is or isnt in pup.

Molly is bright in herself and a perfect patient so we have to remain confident and hopeful that everything will work out.

My dear sweet girl, Molly is five years old today.  I have treated her to some pigs ears (which she very kindly shared with the other woofs!)  We had a lovely walk with the gang at Jennycliffe.  Molly loves nothing more than to chase after balls, her sense of timing is incredible and she will be 95% certain to be the dog who gets the ball first!  Molly is in good form and doesnt look like she is five years old.  Happy Birthday Molly my lovely.

I am hoping to confirm if Molly is in pup very soon!  She is being very loving and getting lots of cuddles so all the signs are hopeful.

We have had quite a week – Melvin has been poorly, resulting in a trip to the vets.  I am pleased to report he has now made a full recovery.  Melvin had run off on our walk in the morning, I found him munching something but had no idea what he had eaten.  Later on in the day we noticed he was trembling.  Thinking it would wear off we just kept an eye on him.  I took him for a little walk at the back of the house to try and get a urine sample from him.  I have urine dipsticks to try and gain a picture of what is going on, but he didnt manage to wee, Melvin seemed really down and quiet whilst we were outside.  After a couple of hours we decided he wasnt improving.  His entire body was shaking and he was unsteady on his feet.  We had already considered a few options of what the problem may be, wondering if we had missed witnessing a fit  (though he hadnt shown signs of weeing in the kitchen or any salivating and his eyes appeared normal) or whether the tremors were a prelude to a fit.  We did consider the fact he had took off to eat something on the walk and wondered if it could have been down to that, I was also worried that he may have been suffering from hypoglycaemia.  So in case this was the cause of the problem I gave him some honey, waiting 20 minutes to see if he improved at all.  Melvin hadnt improved or got worse at all during this time so we decided it was now time to get him to the vets.

While we were waiting at the vets for our appointment Melvin growled at a dog which is very out of character for him.  Once we were in the consulting room the vet was looking him over and took his temperature.  Melvin almost did cartwheels at the very idea of something being poked into his bottom.  Poor boy.  Melvin is usually a very placid and easy going laid back dog so to see him behaving differently was concerning.  The vet felt it was more likely to be a neurological problem which could lead to him having a fit.  Advising us he may need an MRI scan.  The vet felt it was more likely to be as a result of ingesting a toxin such as eating something like mouldy cheese or mouldy bread. 

The vets took a blood sample (which came back as clear) it was predominantly to check his blood glucose levels, liver and kidney function.  So hypoglycaemia was immediately ruled out.  Melvin was given diamorphine and put on a drip.  He did seem very spooked to be at the vets not making it very easy for the vet nurse and vet to take his blood.

We left Melvin at the vets walking back to the car only holding his collar.  We were told to ring back in an hour to see what the next step would be.   Luckily we were given the good news of the clear blood results and that he had stopped shaking because of the diamorphine.  So I was asked to call back again in two hours with a view to bringing him home (phew). 

When I collected Melvin he was very pleased to me.  The tigger was back!!  Bless him he was still a little bit dopey but his eyes were bright and he had a waggy tail.   He was a bit hungry so we gave him a meal which took a few seconds to wolf down!

So a rather worrying afternoon and evening but all is well with Melvin.  He is now asleep on the sofa with his head on a cushion!