Meet Spinney - AKA Spinach!!

Yes his second name is spinach!! Not my name for him but his family to be :O) I think that they somehow knew what was coming! I wish I had.



Miya went into labour at 8:30am on Friday 8th of January and at 8pm after a lot of huffing and puffing we finally had a waterbag. Last time it had come between pups 4 and 5 so I thought this was a good start!



At 9pm she started to push again. After an hour I could see a foot. On further investigation it turned out to be a back foot. Not ideal for the first puppy I thought. Well we only had that foot for a while so I started to panic. The book says its not good and that calling the vets a waste of time as the pup will be dead by the time he gets there and that the owner should do all they can to help. OMG did I try, nothing was working, at 10:20pm I decided drastic action was called for and did my best to find the other foot that was not quite out and started to pull with Miya's contractions.


Nothing seemed to be working, KY, pulling, but still no progress. I didn't want to pull too hard but decided I was going to have to.


At 10:30pm Spinney was born. Still and limp. I wasn't going to give up on him that easily. I rubbed and rubbed, Miya licked, we both worked hard. I swung him gently downwards in a towel to try to get the fluid out of his lungs. I thought I heard him take a breathe but couldn't be sure, my heart was willing it but my head was saying it was just me pushing the air out. I decided to blow down his nose to see if I could clear it. Instantly he coughed up a load of fluid and took a raspy breathe. I just kept rubbing and he took another one. Gradually they became stronger and at 11:50pm I was happy enough to put him in the ready box whilst I had a look at Miya to see if she was OK.


I couldn't feel any more pups and she wasn't bleeding so I was happy to reunite them. Well, when I pulled the blanket off him I couldn't believe my eyes. He pushed himself up into a sit and then tried to stand and fell flat on his chin!! There was no keeping him still. He was soon sucking on a teat and quite content. He is such a strong pup, I weighed him and to my horror he was 18oz, that's the weight of 2 good sized pups! I later measured his ribcage as this had been what was stopping him coming out. It was 8 inches around, poor Miya, I think we were very lucky to get him out. She is only a small girl after all.


Anyway we struggled through the snow to the vets this morning and they were both given a check up. Miya was a bit sore and has some antibiotics just in case! Spinney was looking great, very content to be handled and didn't make a fuss. He seems to have his dads calm nature. His lungs were fine so I was very pleased.


Both mum and baby are doing well, and here he is -