Puppy pics

Here are the kids, I know they aren't the best pictures but my battery on the camera needs charging so this is what you get! Also I make no promises as to the colour of "blue harl boy" is correct, I don't see any merling to his coat but their colours change so much after they are born that I wouldn't place a bet on it either way.

Pictures

Here she is before starting to have her puppies, if you scroll to the bottom you will see the picture once she was done whelping. Compare for yourself.

Maggie-Moo resting after whelping puppies.

Here are the surviving 6 puppies (there is a black girl hiding in between the harls and merlequins, the other is a brindle).

After whelping all 16 puppies.

Maggie Moo

Here is Maggie-Moo, I haven't been able to just call her 'Moo', she is so sweet that she needs a proper name. As you can see there isn't anything to her, you can count all her vertebrae, ribs and hip bones.
Laying outside enjoying the grass!

That is not a weird optical illusion, she spine really looks like it's bent.

Maggie in her whelping box, looking down her spine.
Check in for updates on this poor girl and her path to becoming a couch princess!!

Sad Day

It is with the heaviest of hearts that I let you all know that Envy is not pregnant...or at least will not be having live puppies. The vet is still confused about the movement that we spotted, but says that it looked like she absorbed the few pups she had.
I can't even begin to explain how disappointed I am, not for my breeding program and the sudden stop it has taken, but for you guys....so faithful to be rewarded with nothing.
I am so sorry.
Depending on when she comes into heat again we will most likely be driving to Colorado for a live coverage, not that it is any consolation to you....just trying to keep everyone in the loop so that you can start to make plans. For people who don't want to wait any more which I TOTALLY understand, I will be more then happy to help you find other breeders as well as recommendations to help you along.
Contact me privately with any questions you might have.

I made a funny!

So I don't know how many of you picked up the 'sound track' that went with the 'Movement' Video...we were watching 'Armageddon' on TV while filming Envy. What I didn't take into account was that I never have my volume on my laptop, so when I edited the footage it never crossed my mind. When Darcy went to check the blog to make sure I had done everything right on his computer, we were sent into fits of laughing. Between the dramatic music and voices that make it sound like the puppies were on a mission! I hope you guys got as much of a giggle as we did!

Tomorrow Envy and I are going to have the x-ray done
so hopefully we will have more pictures by dinner!

We Have Movement!!!!

Click the title of this post "We Have Movement!!!!" above and it will send you to "YouTube" to watch my movie of Envy's tummy....of course we all know about the plans of mice and men!! lol

So if you get a link and it is to the little movie I made then enjoy
watching her tummy roll and squirm!

Deli Fresh Saves the Day!

Praise be for small miracles!! I got Envy to eat 1.5 kg of Deli-Fresh Chicken and Veggie food...if I had of had more I think she would have eaten it too. Of course tomorrow I will go out and buy a bunch of it and she won't touch it again, but any amount I can get in her is cause for cheering in our household.
My new thing that I need to figure out is how to post video clips....so much learning so little time. I think that I will have to post on youtube and then post a link here.

Week #7

Not much change since the eating thing is still the tricky part! It looks like I can't fool her and mix canned dog food in with the canned cat food. Probably after Wednesday I will get an xray done to confirm numbers for whelping. By my calendar she should have them on August 1st (...hey Jack is that close enough for your birthday?? Careful, you might just get socks instead!)

Week #6.5

I am posting this picture a bit early because I think we will start to see a change for the better. I finally have been able to get Envy to eat after 2.5 weeks of barely eating. Here she is with 2 big cans of wet dog food in her gut....hopefully now that I've found something that she will ingest we will see this belly grow! You can actually see the muscle wasting in her shoulder if you look closely. I will start posting more pictures.

Week #6

Here is the weekly picture taken today (above), but on her bed...it was so hot that I didn't have the heart to make her move.

I took a picture yesterday of Envy in the usual spot but Nava started feeling very left out and decided that she needed to be in the picture....I didn't edit her out so that you can see just how needy Danes are! Worse then Raven for needing to be in pictures. Now everyone can see why I keep saying that my non-pregnant bitches look more pregnant then the pregnant one!

Friday 13th proved not to be the best day for me, I ended up getting bitten by a clients dog - a 120 +lbs Malamute X (that she insists is a wolf hybrid) - owner wouldn't even apologize...what a hag! We're waiting to hear back on the x-rays to see if it's broken, which I doubt but a green-stick fracture wouldn't surprise me. Fun-fun, can't be that bad though, still went to work today - downfall of owning your own business, you don't get to pansy out and stay home!! lol

Week #5
I know that you guys are thinking to yourselves, why does she keep showing us the same picture over and over again?? But trust me that it isn't, I take a different one each week and then pout when there isn't a big difference, take comfort in the fact with Envy not eating or eating very little for the last week but she is slightly getting bigger by next week there should be a noticeable change (at least that is what I am telling myself, and Jack learned his lesson about not to bursting my bubble!)

Ultrasound

It's not the best picture, but it's the best we could get with the illusive puppies. At one point we thought there might be five, but Envy sneezed and we couldn't find them again through all the poo! So the next step is to take an xray after day 54, so anytime after July 25/26th,
but at that point 6 days later she would be whelping them!

Week #4

Here is the pregnant belly picture, my guess is 3 puppies, but maybe we will get a surprise on Tuesday and there will be 5....that would make me happy.....and as some of you have learned, keeping me happy is the way to go!! *Insert pity for poor Jack here*

I thought everyone would like to see how she passes here days playing in the fields, the photo of her sun tanning unfortunately didn't turn out but was rather funny!
Envy has decided that eating is too nauseating for the last several days, but Nava has stepped up to her plate to help finish everything off.

Bets, place your bets...

So I couldn't wait until tomorrow and took her in for an ultrasound today...of course she was completely 'full of it', and wouldn't go potty so we could only see one baby. So she is pregnant, but we have no ideas about numbers, other then seeing the one, but will go back on Tuesday after the long weekend so that I might be able to get a better U/S.

I have my puppy, so the rest of you will have to keep your fingers crossed! LOL

Nay-sayer

I'm starting to have my doubts. Darcy said that I was feeding the girls way more then he has been feeding and so they all look pregnant except Envy! I think if maybe I could somehow stop staring at her it would be better, but that's really not an option! LOL

I have palpated her myself with no luck, her abdomen is just too tight and it's just been too long since I last did it....can't wait much longer....mind will explode....starting to feel head swelling...*POP goes Michele*

So here I go to sit in the corner and pout until 2:20 on Friday.

Week #3

6 more days to put us all out of our misery and find out one way or the other!

For all of you that are local, don't forget that the Dane Specialty (a dog show only for Great Danes) is on July 28 2007. More information can be found on either:
www.classicshowservices.com
or
www.westerngreatdaneclubofbc.com

Week #2

Here is Envy's belly at 2 weeks post insemination, I haven't increased her food yet but she seems to be really getting thicker, I realize that it's hard to tell in a photo when you don't get to actually see her.....I hate to admit it but I'm starting to get my hopes up - which is never a good thing until we have confirmation of an ultrasound. I'm so superstitious as to not even let people know they can have a puppy from a litter until they are over 2 weeks of age.

Dane theme song!!

I love this song!!!! All Dane people should have it playing while driving down the road!

http://www.smytheandtaylor.com/blacksamplegreatdane.mp3

Week #1

One week has past so far, here is Envy's picture...Here is another picture which, in my mind sums it all up - she's laughing at us silly humans for staring at her tummy every week!!

...patience Grasshopper...

Am I the only one who feels like there are ants on my pants about this whole thing?? I know that it is TOTALLY ridiculous to think that I can see a difference in Envy already but there is something.....
....look past the razor burn, caused by the bad shave job...all the pictures I take are after dinner time for the dogs, usually about an hour or so after - this one about 2 hours after her dinner. Maybe it's just a swollen dinner tummy?

Being an only child really doesn't give me the ability to wait well (I have discovered), so forgive my ramblings!!

Canine Pregnancy Calendar

Pregnancy Calendar for Dogs
Date:	Mon 4 Jun 107
Sire:	Ch MiHi's A Starz' Born
Dam:	Ch Diamond Danes Heavenly Sin
Breeder:	Michele Grenkow
Sat 2 Jun 107	First day of mating. 48 hours after the first mating the bitch should be mated again. Subsequent matings occurring over a period of time enhance the chances of fertilaziton taking place. The spermatozoa migrate up through the cervix.
Sun 3 Jun 107	Sperm travel searching for a mature ripened eggs.
Sun 3 Jun 107 - Mon 4 Jun 107	Spermatozoa reach the eggs in the oviducts.
Mon 4 Jun 107 - Tue 5 Jun 107	Fertilisation occurs in the oviducts which lead from the ovaries to the uterus.
Tue 5 Jun 107 - Thu 7 Jun 107	Fertilised eggs migrate down the oviducts and into the uterine horns. The migration continue to enable even spacing of the embryos. During this migration the eggs will grow into a blastocystes.
Wed 13 Jun 107 - Fri 15 Jun 107	The blastocystes implant in the wall of the uterus.
Wed 13 Jun 107 - Wed 27 Jun 107	The blastocystes will grow into an embryos. During the next two weeks the important organs will develop.
Sat 16 Jun 107 - Sat 23 Jun 107	Dams nipples begin to pink enlarge. The fur on the dams belly and around the nipples may become thinner.
Fri 22 Jun 107 - Fri 29 Jun 107	Morning sickness might occur due to hormonal changes or stretching and distension of the uterus. Dam may appear a bit apathetic. She may be off her feed for a while and vomit from time to time. Feeding the dam several meals spaced throughout the day might help. Your veterinarian may want to prescribe a drug to relax the uterus.
Wed 27 Jun 107 - Sun 1 Jul 107	An experienced person (a breeder or a veterinarian) can tell by careful palpation whether the dam is pregnant. It's now the best time to do this because the embryos are walnut-sized now and easy to count.
Sat 30 Jun 107	Start to increase the dams food ration. Don't overfeed, excessive weight gain should be avoided. The foetuses are now and are fully developed miniature dogs.
Fri 6 Jul 107	The Dams abdomen starts to get larger.
Mon 16 Jul 107	It's very easy now to feel the puppies, counting them might be a bit more difficult.
Thu 19 Jul 107 - Fri 27 Jul 107	Dam begins to spend a lot more time in self-grooming. Her breasts become even more swollen. She may become a bit restlessness and begin to search for a suitable place to have her puppies.
Sat 21 Jul 107	The dam might lose her appetite during this period. Her abdomen can be crowded with puppies. It is better to feed several smaller meals spaced throughout the day. You can easily detect abdominal movement now.
Sat 21 Jul 107 - Sun 5 Aug 107	Nipples and vulva should be gently cleaned with warm water, you might want to trim the hairs surrounding the nipples, to allow easier access for the puppies to suck.
Tue 31 Jul 107 - Fri 3 Aug 107	Milky fluid may be expressed from the nipples.
Wed 1 Aug 107	You might want to start taking the dams rectal temperature each morning and evening.
Sat 4 Aug 107	Bitches bred via surgical insemination with Frozen Semen traditionally will always whelp on day 60...Puppies!

Wishes

Here are the pictures now that Envy is home and resting in a sun spot. Everyone at the hospital seemed to be happy with everything and they were doing the fertility dances too!

It also seemed to both Shannon (Duke's Co-Mommy - sire of this litter) and myself that it needs to be a star or constellation theme litter....once you see the parents registered names you'll understand! Envy is "Diamond Danes Heavenly Sin" and Duke is "MiHi's A Starz' Born". With that explained you will understand why this is the saying for this breeding:

Star Light,

Star Bright

First star I see tonight.

I wish I may,

I wish I might

Have the wish I wish tonight.

Tomorrow is the day

Got the 3rd progesterone back this evening it reads 13.8 ng/ml, she will be surgically inseminated tomorrow around noon - so think happy thoughts!

Hopefully I will get a chance to post pictures tomorrow...I'm not sure if I will be able to get pictures of the surgery but at the very least you will have post-op pictures.

Progesterone Testing

After a phone call from the Veterinarian today's progesterone is 5.6 ng/ml drawn at 9:30am. The one before drawn on May 28th was 3.1ng/ml......so at this point Saturday is the day for the surgical insemination, but we will continue to progesterone test to make sure.

The current school of thought is that 5 ng/ml = day of ovulation, eggs mature 2 days after ovulation and live for 2-3 days. The trick is that frozen semen only stays alive for 12-24 hours once thawed. One company states that the progesterone needs to be 9.5-10 ng/ml to breed...but who the heck really knows!!

All I am sure of is that the Ultrasound happens 28 days after the surgical implant, so circle the June 29-30th on your calendar for when we should know along with checking back regularly for pictures of tummy progress.

The Fates are smiling!!

Day #1 - Envy's in heat!!! *doing happy dance* After talking to a few Vet friends, we've decided to progesterone test Envy right through her cycle not just to the day we breed her....the thought process behind this, is that we are wondering if she stalled out in her rising progesterone levels with the last breeding....and since she feels the need to only come into heat every 9 months, I'd rather not second guess myself again!!

Update on life

I thought I would let everyone know where we are in the grand scheme of things...

Envy is staying with a friend who has several girls in heat, so hopefully this will bring Envy in sooner.

I apologize to everyone for not being as chatty as normal. After Mom passed away from cancer her estate was burglarized and we had a long battle with some very ignorant people. I also just had a bilateral radical mastectomy so that my girls never had to go through what I went through with Mom.

Hopefully everyone is doing well on this 2007 Valentine's day and eaggerly thinking of puppies!!

New plans

Well we contemplated a lot of different paths and came up with the following plan of action:

Envy is due to come into heat the beginning of February. She will be bred to our Duke (cousin to Travis). This will be a frozen semen breeding.

Everyone who is on "the list" will remain in their postions, but can choose to be moved if they want due to the change in Sire.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me!

And the answer is....

Well with a very heavy heart I am posting that the ultrasound says we have no puppies. The vet searched for over 45 minutes, because she was convinced there should be puppies.

As soon as we have figured out what is the best path to follow is we will let you know!

Week 2

Here is Envy week 2, (post floors!! The grout, I'm told, will follow shortly). Two more weeks and we can go for the ultrasound.

Day # 8 (Week 1)

I know, I know...no real change, but I would be remiss if I didn't post it. Keep in mind that this picture was taken post dinner one hour.

Day #1 Photo August 28th 2006

So I figured that we could all be on preg-watch together. Here is a picture of Envy hanging out in the kitchen (pre-tile, for those that follow that drama!) the day of her surgical insemination, if you look closely enough you can see the sutures. I'm hoping if I take a picture every Monday then we can all look for changes.

The time is now!

Envy goes in for the surgical A.I. tomorrow early afternoon. Then we wait, and wait some more! I figure we will go for a palpation and ultrasound during the last week of September to see if we have puppies.

Happy thoughts everyone!

Stuttering Blood Work

Well in typical fashion Envy who can't make anything easy. Her progesterone tests started at 2.1, rose to 2.3, then dropped to 1.7....for those who don't know, it's not helping! LOL We will do more blood work tomorrow and hopefully it will be between 4.8 and 5.5, then we're off to the races!

More PWD Puppy Pictures

Silver Curly Parti Boy Light Wavy Girl
Parti Wavy Boy

PWD Puppy Pictures

Wavy BoyMini Me and Silver Parti (Both boys)
Dark Wavy Girl
Mini Me Wavy Boy
Curly Boy

We have lift-off!!

Well maybe lift off isn't the best analogy, but at least Envy's progesterone tests are saying that she is going to play nicely with us! Envy will go back in for another progesterone tomorrow (Thursday Aug 17th) and if all goes well we will be back in for the surgical AI on either Sunday or Monday. Everyone keep their fingers (...toes, and any other crossable bits) crossed!

If anyone wants the science lesson of progesterone tests keep reading....

When we do progesterone tests to the Lab, it is a blood sample that is collected, spun down to separate serum and red cells and then sent on for testing. Once the Lab gets a hold of the sample they will produce a number measuring the level of progesterone in the bitches system to tell us what stage of estrus she is in.

The results that we got back stated that Envy has 2.1 ng/nmol in her system which tells us that her progesterone is on the rise and needs to be tested further until it rises over 5ng. At 5ng Envy will have ovulated. With frozen semen it can only stay alive in the uterus for 12 hours which is a very small window of opportunity! So if we know that she ovulates at 5 ng, and that it takes 72 hours for the eggs to mature to be fertilized we bump up our chances and odds for a successful litter.

Make sense? LOL :)

My Precious

Have you ever found that when you know too much about things you tend to worry more? All happy with the thought that Envy was coming into heat and we could start dreaming of a Dane litter, when those nasty little thoughts came creaping forward from the back of my mind.

You know those thoughts of self doubt and worry...maybe she's not in heat but an open pyometra, do you really want puppies ready to be going to their new homes around Christmas?, winter puppies are harder.

So here we wait for the vet to come back from vacation to settle my mind, but until then, I'll go sit in my corner and mimic Smeagol (Gollum), muttering insanities for "my precious".

Are the Fates playing nicely??

Envy might be starting to think about getting with the program and going into heat!! We would be on day one or two today (I believe Day 2), I will take her into the vet shortly to start our progesterone testing to 'see' where we are in the cycle due to the wait we've had.

Everyone think happy thoughts!!

Self Imposed Quarantine Lifted

After the tragic loss of Luke in a matter of hours from him not feeling well, we placed all the girls in a self imposed quarantine until we heard from the necropsy (animal autopsy). We just recently got the results and it seems that Lucas had passed away from a rare type of pneumonia caused by gulping food (at least that was the translation from the vet).
I just wanted everyone to know that the girls are all doing great and will be happy to go out for walks and adventures again!

Envy's Health Certifications!!

I just got Envy's OFA Hips in the mail....it was EXCELLENT!! Yeah!

I'm not all happy because of the health of the bitch (...that's why I got her), but I think the reason it makes me so happy is that I took the xrays myself (vet was too busy with an emergency c-section)!

I scanned everything and posted it so you can see what the reports look like.

Introducing the Gang...

In no particular order...The Gang:

Gold Collar Girl

Large Parti Boy

Teal Boy

Small Parti Boy

Silver Boy

No Collar Girl

No Collar Boy

Gold Collar Boy

Blue Boy

and the number is 9!

So last night 07/07/2006, Tuesday had 9 puppies (7 boys and 2 girls).

Here is the crew: Now if only the Dane would co-operate and come into heat!