What, no more food?

Day 47

More food please?

I'm attaching a photo of "Little Mama" who is enjoying all of the extra food and special attention. She says she could eat like this ALL THE TIME and be perfectly happy. I told her not to count on it. She gets filet mignon flavored canned food with all of her meals, and extra snacks in between meals, pretty much food anytime she wants it. She needs to keep her glucose level and she needs to keep bringing in calories because the babies are still developing.

We're on Day #47 out of approximately 59-63, so we're getting down to the finish line. Tonight my husband Derek is putting together the whelping box in the "whelping suite" (aka our former master bedroom) so we'll let Rini get used to that and little does she know she'll be spending a lot of time in there =) We'll set up the spare computer and webcam in there, to do a test and make sure everything is set up properly.

Right now we can easily feel the puppies, and according to the whelping calendar we should be able to feel them move by the 16th! If we can capture movement on video we'll post a video of the puppies kicking. With whippets, because they carry so little body fat, you can often SEE them moving under the mother's skin.

When we have one week to go we'll schedule a last prenatal visit with our vet and get her x-rayed to see approximately how many pups we are to expect. X-rays are more reliable than ultrasounds for counting the
number of babies. I'll post a photo of the x-ray for you all to see. It's neat in a geeky, scientific kind of way. =)

Mom (Sharyn Hutchens) is arriving on the 29th to help with final preparations and to be here for the birth and first few days. It's definitely a big relief for my mind to know I have someone with much more experience than I do helping with the litter! It will also really help with those first few sleepless nights to have three people on duty.

There's always room...

DAY 46

Rini with Daddy

There's always room for a cuddle whippet! Miss Rini may be getting awfully BIG but there is still room for her to cuddle with Dad ... he just has to sit forward a bit =)

We're settling in to a routine now. Derek gets up way earlier than I do, so he lets Rini outside first thing and then offers her some dry food to settle her stomach and keep her glucose level. The goal is to get her small amounts of nutrients constantly throughout the day. When I get up around 9 or 10am I feed everyone their breakfast, and Rini gets about 3/4 cup kibble with two tablespoons of canned food, omega 3 capsule, vitamin E capsule, and her folic acid tablet. Just like a human mommy she has to get her folic acid!

We keep a bowl of one cup of dry kibble in the kitchen and offer it to Rini several times a day. She's not too shy about letting us know when she wants some food!

She gets a small lunch of about 1/2 cup dry kibble and canned, soaked in hot water. Then dinner is later at night, around 9pm. It's a repeat of breakfast (minus the folic acid) plus a packet of Panacur. We give pregnant girls Panacur starting at 40 days to ensure the puppies are born worm-free. It also helps give us higher birth weights.

I'd say overall she's eating about 3 cups of food per day. She doesn't always eat all of the dry food, but some days she wants a bit more, so it evens out. She's feeling good, running in the yard with the other dogs and getting plenty of exercise. It's so darned hot here that I've been trying to keep her from running too much, but some exercise is good for keeping her fit and healthy so she'll have a smooth delivery.

Carsickness or morning sickness? Ugh either way...

Day 43

Supersized Rini! Day 43

I wish I could report that the drive home from Virginia was as carsickness-free as the drive up there, but alas... my poor girl's tummy didn't hold up past the first curve on Mom's mountain road. She puked three times BEFORE we got on the interstate, if that gives you an idea of how things went. Once you're on a straight road they usually settle down and sleep. She settled down, but then I made the mistake of stopping for gas ... yep, sick again. Poor baby mama dog. I probably should not have given her breakfast, but I didn't want her to miss a meal and nutrients for the babies.

I'm attaching a photo of Mama Rini curled up in her human daddy, Derek's spot on the couch. Yeah, when you're preggers, you get certain extra perks in our house.

It's sinking in...

Day 40
It's sinking in that in about three weeks I'm going to have little tiny miniature whippets in the house again and life will be turned upside down. I'm very excited, but also nervous. What if something goes wrong during the whelping? What if Rini needs a c-section? There are so many things to worry about ... but in the end everything works out and as long as mommy and babies are happy and healthy everything is fine.

Rini is happy as a clam getting anything she wants to eat. This week she decided she likes canned food and kibble separated and would rather they not be in the same bowl. She's so crazy ... but I'll do anything to make sure she eats a nutritious meal and she knows that =)  She's a little princess and a diva but she makes my world complete so I do whatever it takes to make her happy. She's such a little drama queen too, if she's rejecting dinner she'll either turn away disdainfully like, "how could you insult me so?" or she'll look at the food, look at me, look at the food, and let out a huge SIGHHH... crazy whippet!!

Traveling while pregnant...

Rini feeling a little carsick but ok!

DAY 39
Most whippets have a problem with carsickness until around the age of 2 or 3, but this is easily solved by giving a tablet or two of meclizine (Dramamine 2) at least an hour before getting in the car. This helps nausea and vomiting, and most whippets will get over their carsickness or fear of cars if they aren't getting sick every time they get in the car. Rini ALWAYS takes her meclizine and NEVER gets sick. I tried one trip without, and spent the next day washing blankets and towels. Yuck.

However. Meclizine is a "Class B" drug for pregnancy, and has been shown to cause cleft palates in lab rats at high dosage. You can bet your boots I'm not giving my Reeners any of that. So we toughed it out ... the road from SC to VA is not incredibly smooth, and not incredibly straight. She swayed and she drooled, she moved from the back to the front of the car, she tried riding in the seat next to me (no good), right behind my seat (nope) and the very back (ok for a while, but not for the whole trip). Eventually she settled down about halfway back, and slept. All the way to Virginia, and no carsickness! YAY!!

Rini's updated belly photo...

DAY 37

Rini on day #37

It's almost time to begin our Panacur Protocol. Starting on day 40, we give pregnant girls Panacur every day until two days after the puppies are born. This ensures that the puppies are born worm-free. Other breeders wait and just worm the puppies, but we have never had puppies born with worms by following this protocol, and our puppies are larger and healthier than some others. Our puppies average around 11-13 ounces at birth.

Rini says mashed potatoes are good for the babies...

Jo and Rini just chillin'

DAY 36
Rini has been using her "condition" to get special favors. She asks for yogurt, I give her yogurt. She asks for a bit of my dinner, and I give her a bit of meat or some rice or something. NOT AT THE TABLE mind you, but pretty much immediately. I don't allow any of the dogs to beg ... but somehow Rini gets anything she wants ... it's "for the babies" of course!

Tonight with dinner we are having Derek's special mashed potatoes, which include caramelized onions and garlic, fresh rosemary, milk, butter, and sour cream. I agree with Rini ... yum! But since they have onions and garlic included, she's not allowed to have any ... poor Reeners!!