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WillowRidge Breeding History
and Health Issues, Cont.
Fun Photos
WillowRidge Puppies, Progeny of Our First Generation
More litter histories are documented below:
Fourth litter born 10-11-05, 4 females and one male. Wispa was acting like she was going to whelp all the previous night. The next morning there was nothing yet so I went to work but returned during lunch to check on her. When I arrived, she had the bubble of the first placental sac bulging out and so I quickly let her outside for a bathroom break and she proceeded to deliver all five puppies within about 3 hours. A record for her! No whelping issues, all pups born with minimal assistance from me. All pups vigorous and healthy at birth with no visible birth defects. No kinked tails and no hernias. There was a black and cream girl and the rest were cream. At 6 weeks, I checked bites and three of the five puppies had overbites. The male and two cream females with overbites were all placed in pet homes on spay/neuter contracts. The male did have both testicles descend. We retained the black and cream female and the other cream female with good bites (Mischief and Maggie). They have developed beautifully.
Sire: Sniff N Tel's Lamplighter (Graff)
Dam: Devoncream Wispa N Breeze
Litter at 2 days of age:
Litter at 48 days of age:
Litter at 56 days of age:
Kona at 77 days of age with Wispa:
Pedigree for Wispa/Graff Litter
Fifth litter born 5-08-06, 1 female and 2 males. This litter is the one I most hate to write about. Not only did it claim the life of all the puppies but also we lost our beloved pet, Wispa on what was to be her retirement litter. We knew Friday evening that Wispa was soon to go into labor. She was nesting and surely, I thought, by morning we would have puppies. All through the night she paced and whined but no contractions and nothing in the birth canal. This continued into Saturday and through the night. On Sunday morning she finally began to contract but nothing no puppy could be felt. Finally I could feel what appeared to be a front leg and a shoulder. Bad news for sure as this meant the pup's head was bent back and was basically trying to present sideways. I called the vet and took her in right away. We decided that since this was to be her last litter, we would just do a c-section and spay her. This would get the discomfort over with and spare her any further discomfort. The vet said she would be ready in 45 minutes and so I rushed home to clean up the whelping box and get ready for the new litter. I called 20 minutes later to check on things and was told there had been complications. When given the anesthesia, Wispa's heart had slowed dangerously and so they gave her a reversal to try and speed the heart rate back up. This never fully worked however and before any other measure could be employed, she went into cardiac arrest and died. They tried to do an emergency section but all of the pups suffocated before they could be delivered. They were buried all together on our farm in a section we have dedicated as pet memorial/cemetery. Needless to say it was a severe and tragic loss for our family and also a reminder to those that breeding is not for those who have not seriously considered the consequences. In fact, I seriously considered ending our breeding program, so great was my guilt for having bred Wispa this last time. We did continue the program as you will read below but the 6th litter was quite the anxious event for me. Read below to see how that litter is turning out.
Sixth litter born 10-19-06, 2 females and 1 male. Tupelo began nesting on a Wednesday evening. At 6 AM Thursday morning, she had a puppy in the birth canal coming breech. Tupelo is a small girl at only 9 pounds and I was becoming concerned that she had a small litter that may have just a couple of very large pups. She didn't know what was going on with the contractions and clearly didn't like them much either. Coming off a disaster delivery in May in which we lost our foundation bitch and her entire litter, I was increasingly nervous as Tupelo just did not seem willing to allow the contractions to come regularly. I decided to help by pulling the pup which was wriggling and about halfway delivered. Unfortunately, the contractions just would not come regularly and at some point with the head stuck in the birth canal, the puppy suffocated before I could get her out. She was a lovely chocolate tan female but I could not revive her. The second puppy was more of the same with irregular contractions but at least the pup was headfirst in the sac still so with some help, we were able to get the little chocolate/tan male out healthy and alive. By the third, puppy, Tupelo had resigned herself to the contractions and the last puppy, a chocolate dapple female was born quickly and with no issues. Both living pups are doing well at this point and mom delivered all placentas and is also doing well and seems to be a great mom. No hernias or kinked tails at birth.
Sire: Intangible Cottonwood Dreams (JJ)
Dam: Dragon's Tupelo Ridge
Litter at 2 days of age:
Litter at 7 weeks of age:
Seventh litter born 12-18-06, 6 males. I had to travel to NJ the week Java was due but I was due back mid week and 63 days wasn't until the weekend so I thought (hoped) she'd wait until 63 days were up! Well of course the morning that I was to fly home I got a call at 5 AM saying that she was in labor and what to do - Oh my! I said just be calm and give her some space. She was having contractions but no pup so I said leave her be for 20 minutes and then check her again and call me back....Well an hour later I got the call that she was on her third pup and things were going smoothly. By afternoon she had finished with 6 pups. I got home around 6:30 PM and immediately checked them to find that she had pulled so hard on the umbilical cord of one pup that she had herniated him and some intestinal material was exposed. I rushed him to the vet where we re-hydrated him, cleaned him and sewed him up. We started him on antibiotics and hoped for the best. Unfortunately, the trauma was too much and he passed away the following afternoon. All five of the other boys have developed beautifully and at 9 weeks they checked out free of hernias and none had kinked tails. All their bites are good and all have 2 testicles down. They are a truly beautiful group!
Sire: Intangible Cottonwood Dreams (JJ)
Dam: Golden Isles Willowridge Java ML (Java)
Litter at 9 weeks:
Last Updated: February 19, 2007
Wispa Cream Team
2005
Tupelo Chocolate Team
2006