DOB: 4/8/03
Age: 3 years
3rd Freshening: 151 days gestation, 1 buckling
Previous Freshenings:
1st Gestation 149 days; 1 buckling, 1 doeling
2nd Gestation 149 days; 2 doelings
I was away from home when Lightning went into labor. I had to run three errands on the way home, and my son asked me to stop by the store and get a few things, and I was supposed to go to the puppy training class, but since the wind was blowing so hard, the puppy training lady called and cancelled the class until next week. Thank goodness she cancelled!!!
I went out to check Lightning as soon as I got home and it was obvious to me that her bag of waters had broken (there were a couple of puddles of thick fluid on the ground, plus she had a long string hanging). I called my husband (called the home phone using my cell phone) and asked him to bring the towels and sheets out that I’d set aside for the birth. He came out, and our younger son came out with his camcorder. It took her a while (over 5 minutes of pushing), but finally she was able to get her single buckling kid out. Mom and kid are doing fine. WHEW.
Lightning is doing great… I still can’t believe she only had ONE kid in there. There is this “bumping” thing you can do, where you put your arms around their belly and bounce the dam’s belly up and down. You can only do it after they have had one kid since their belly muscles are relaxed. So I thought I would try it, after she had this one baby, because I was sure there were more inside. Nothing. Dh tried and he felt nothing either. She stopped having labor pains as soon as the kid was out. Nature demands if there is another kid in there (as long as the kid is positioned correctly, or not dead), that they will continue on with labor pains, because the uterus needs to shrink back down to normal size which is I would guess the size of a grapefruit, not big enough to hold kids. So, we felt pretty confident that she was done.
This little boy was born somewhat selenium-deficient. You can see his front legs are kind of bent funny. He was fine within a few days. I gave him a selenium-Vitamin E supplement that is given orally. Normally we use BOSE which is a prescription medication, and is given by shot SQ.
All in all, an uneventful birth.
