Happier Days

Maggie is doing well and gaining weight. She is proving that her spirit is stronger then any evil captor, and that even though she is a poorly bred Dane she still genetically knows how to 'be' a Dane. Showing off her lean, zoomies and drool skills.
Although I'm sure that I can start backing off the goats milk and whipping cream mixture, she tells me with her eyes that she's not ready to give it up just yet....think of it as a Dane friendly milk shake! What's sad is when you try and feed her high quality food, she doesn't know what to do with it. I gave her 'Deli-Fresh' food (which Darcy almost ate himself - all human grade ingredients - smells great!) and she just stared at it, but 'Alpo' she'll scoff down by the pail!
You can see where Maggie is emotionally weak by her need to have a "blankie", which is her Duck-stuffie...she grooms it and can't seem to settle down without it.

She has a smile and wag for everyone she meets and never asks for a moment of pity, only love.

Quiet Day

Poor little Karma lost her battle today. There are no pups left.
I can only hope that their senseless deaths make it so that the person that had Maggie can never own animals again.
Maggie continues to improve on a daily basis and hopefully will be shortly placed in a long term foster home.

And now we are one...

Despite all his efforts and will, little Mukti crossed over today at noon in Darcy's hands.
Precious Karma is still with us, but a bit lonely.

Still Chugging Along

Sorry to have been so quiet, but both Darcy and I have been working so hard to keep these last two puppies alive, we haven't had a chance to do much else! Both Karma and Mukti are still soldiering on. Karma is, I believe over the worst of it. Mukti is fighting like I've never seen a creature fight before! He is still far from being out of danger, but I don't hold my breath, and fear the worst every time I open the door now.
I'll post pictures soon.

Dharma

Dharma just passed away after a lengthy battle. We are heating the remaining puppies up just incase they are battling herpes as well. If we lose anyone else tonight I think it will be Karma as she is just screaming right now and I can't settle her down. Poor Maggie-Moo is beside herself with worry.

Fate always plays a role...

I have named the 4 surviving pups:

I hope everyone thinks the names are as appropriate as I do. I have great hopes for these kids as they survived the night and are gaining weight rapidly.
Does anyone else think that Kismet doesn't like the paparazzi?

Battling Pneumonia

We lost another puppy (one of the harl boys), it seems that we are battling against pneumonia from all the fluid they aspirated during their birth. The remaining four are doing well, so far, but the little blue harl boy worries me because of his size. Keep them in your thoughts.

2:12pm

Our big brindle boy passed away today at 2:12pm. With no obvious issues, he was one of the strongest and largest pups....remember that both Mom and pups have already endured more then any one creature should go through.

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!