Is there some law that requires Beagle puppies to be born only in the middle of the night? Well there must be because that is when they all come when I am fostering the mommas.

It was ironic that earlier in the morning Jack called and I 'jokingly' asked him if he had any pregnant Beagles for me to foster. He laughed and we actually had a conversation about John & me fostering another dog. So when Jack called back late that same day he began the conversation with, "Well Sally you asked for it!" He went on to explain there was a small pregnant Beagle at a Central Florida kill shelter whose time was up and if we were to rescue her we would need to pull her within 48 hours. The shelter would simply kill this pregnant Beagle with all of her puppies still inside her if we did not rescue her. How could I say anything but "yes"? Information on this momma? Of course not. But the plan was to take the little Beagle direct to our veterinarian as soon as the transport arrived.   Since I was not able to take her immediately into my home, Sylvia agreed to hold her until I could.

I could hear the anger in Jack's voice as he explained how filthy the poor little Beagle was and covered in fleas and ticks. She had been sitting in the shelter for 5 days and they could not even bother to wash her or give her something to get rid of the fleas and ticks. I guess why waste the money if you are going to kill her? The good news was the x-ray showed 8 babies, all in proportion to her size and with no evident abnormalities. The bad news was she tested positive for heartworms and was anemic, probably due to being infested with fleas and ticks. Jack later told me how he and Dr. Corona sat on opposite sides of the examining table picking the ticks off her as they discussed the plan for her treatment.

Dr. Corona estimated the puppies to be about 40 days so we expected we had another 3 weeks or so to go before they would be born. Jack had named her Cuddles because he said she just cuddled in his arms when he was drying her off after her bath. Cuddles is a 13 inch Beagle and weighed in at just 21 pounds, which was amazing considering she was carrying eight puppies. She looked like she had a saddlebag on each side because of the number of puppies. Sylvia welcomed Cuddles and we began the waiting game.

Cuddles, while seeming uncomfortable, was acting as expected for the first few days. She was so "round" that she would lay on her back to be comfortable and even slept upside down. Suddenly she started to lose her appetite, became more agitated and her temperature was fluctuating. But it was way too early and if the puppies were born now they would never survive. Let me tell you we had several worrisome days as Cuddles acted fine one day and distressed the next.  We all decided she should be examined again by Dr. Corona before we got in over our heads with premature puppies.  The second x-ray showed the puppies well formed with no abnormalities and everything normal, which really calmed much of our anxiety. As we kept trying to calculate the due date for the puppies, Dr. Corona gave us some very wise advise when he reminded us that this was not a math problem but biology, and the puppies would be born when they were ready to be born!

That day Cuddles came to my home and, of course, showed no signs of being close to having her puppies.   Her appetite was good, she seemed relaxed and was only uncomfortable because she was sooooo big and pregnant. I did start a countdown hoping Cuddles could hang in there 14 more days, until August 24th, so the puppies could be full term and have the best chance to be born healthy.  Cuddles had good days and bad and there were nights we both slept and nights we did not, but we, or should I say she, made it another full week and I kept telling Cuddles to hang in there a little longer.   A few days into the second week Cuddles began to nest, lose her appetite, her temperature dropped and we knew the time was close.

Was it luck or divine intervention that caused Cuddles to start to give birth to her first puppy minutes before we were going to bed? John went to checked on Cuddles and found her in labor. Puppy #1 was born about 15 minutes later and, unfortunately, we found Cuddles not to be a good mom since she did not even attempt to remove the membrane from the puppy and just let it lie there. It was extremely fortunate we were present or that puppy, no doubt, would have died. Instead, I had to tear and extract the puppy from the membrane and then tie the cord off with floss and cut it. Meanwhile Cuddles, thinking she was done, proceeded to get out of the pool and head for the door.

We placed Cuddles back in the pool and gave her the puppy to clean and stimulate, but she showed no interest.   Puppy #2 came about 45 minutes later and seemed a normal birth. Our optimism was crushed when puppy #3 came 30 minutes later but upside down and backwards. This resulted in the cord preventing the puppy from being more than an inch or so away from Cuddles. When she stood up I had to hold the puppy in one hand, to keep from stretching out the cord, and use my other hand to tear and remove the membrane, clear out the puppy's nose and airway so it could breath, dry off the puppy and tie off the cord and cut it. Meanwhile Cuddles was trying to get out of the pool and had to be held still. It is amazing that we did not do any damage to the puppies or Cuddles during this procedure.

Puppy #4 arrived about 45 minutes later and also was upside down and backwards. Again we had to hold the puppy in one hand, clean it up, dry it, and tie off and cut the cord.   Considering this was also taking place in our small laundry room where we had to sit or kneel on the floor and where we were keeping the temperature at 86 deg, you can understand how hot and tired we were getting. Puppies #5, #6 and #7 each were born normally about 1 hour apart and you could see that poor Cuddles was just exhausted and having great difficulty pushing out the pups. Between each birth Cuddles would try to leave the room and we would have to place her back in the pool and allow the puppies to feed and try to get her to clean and stimulate them.

Cuddles had been in labor for well over 6 hours when we saw just the foot of puppy #8. This indicated that the sac had broken and the puppy was upside down and backwards which was very bad. After 30 minutes Puppy #8 was only about half way out and there was no further movement. We were on the phone with Dr. Corona and he recommended we try to "help" the puppy out. But it was difficult to grip the puppy without damaging its internal organs and without making Cuddles hemorrhage and possibly die. Cuddles was in a lot of pain with the puppy only half out and she was fighting us. She wanted to run. It was more than 45 minutes since the sac had broken and I could finally see about 1 inch of the cord. In a last ditch effort to save Cuddles and the puppy I cut the cord but that did not really help and we still could not even pull the puppy out. In about 15 minutes Cuddles had one last big contraction and both the puppy and placenta finally came out.

The little guy's face was dry and I suctioned out the nose and throat and rubbed his body to try and get him to breath, but it was too late. I'm sorry little guy, I tried. Now you will never get to roll in the green grass, bathe in the sunshine or run in the park. I am so sorry I was not able to save you. I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night apologizing to this innocent little puppy that did not get a fair chance at life.

It was almost 6 AM on August 22nd before Cuddles had finished giving birth. She was completely spent and could hardly move. It had been a very long night and after cleaning the puppies up a bit we all went to sleep.

Cuddles has not been the best teenage mother we've ever had and has too often been coaxed to stay and feed her puppies. I have also had to teach her how to clean and stimulate them to pee and poop. But the puppies are growing, gaining weight and all signs are they will grow into healthy Beagle pups.

The puppies will be with me for several more weeks until they can be spayed/neutered and go to their new homes.   Many people, including other SEBR members, cannot understand why I volunteer to take the pregnant mommas, help them whelp their litter and care for them and their puppies until they are adopted. The truth is that if we were not willing then SEBR could not rescue Cuddles and she and her puppies most certainly would not have survived alone and abandoned.

Sally

To see a video taken on Cuddles' puppies birthday cick on the picture below:: 

Cuddles and 7 newborn puppies

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