A clean bill of health for all!

Waiting, sorta patiently, for the doctor

 
Well, everyone got their shots and their worming medicine and their clean bill of health. We left Molly at home and I was really glad about that. Five puppies is enough to handle without Molly trying to climb out of the basket, then in, then back out, and so forth. The pups did really well without their mommy around. They were a little whiny in the car but that's probably because I was driving a little.....erratically. It took me TWO HOURS to get my shopping done at Wal-Mart which then put me behind schedule.. Let me tell you, tis-the-season for shoving and "survival of the fittest" style holiday shopping. Sheesh. Anyway, so the pups were a little whiny in the car and then as soon as we walked in the door of the vet's office it was all "ooohs" and "awes" as usual. lol. One lady practically interrogated me about the mom and the dad and the breed and whatever else came to her mind. I really don't mind questions....but if you're not going to buy, quit torturing the sales person! :-)

I mentioned how Purple always has her tongue hanging out a little bit. They said it's not a big deal and she may grow right out of it. When we looked at her jaw though, when she closes her mouth, her teeth don't touch in the middle. Meaning, her jaw doesn't close completely when at rest and thus, there is a gap for her tongue to slip out of. The teeth/gums/jaw doesn't keep the tongue tucked away like it usually does. Again, it's not big deal. She can eat, breath, bark, lick, pant, etc all normally. It's just her cute little quirk. And again, she could grow out of it once all her teeth come in and the gingiva in the back isn't bulging with forming teeth anymore. We'll see. In the mean time, she's just a cute little goof ball. I really love her personality these days. Such a cuddle bug but she definitely has a playful streak in her.

Like I said, everyone got their health certificate and is ready to go next week. I totally feel like we had a thorough exam too because we were there for almost 2 hours. Basically, nothing happened in a hurry today.

The pups don't act a bit sore. White and Blue were the only ones that even seemed to notice the shot. It's a bunch of brave pups I tell ya! They were all playing and pestering Becks and Molly as usual tonight. I hope we don't have any complications tomorrow.

Speaking of being brave.....ya know, it's interesting how anxious I feel when I'm at the vet's office. It's really ridiculous. Here I am a nurse, and I've even worked in a doctor's office before, yet....I get all antsy and sweaty. It's totally irrational but I really can't help it. It happens every time! I'm sure that energy isn't very reassuring to the pups either. Sorry pups.

I finished my sales contract and also a puppy info. sheet with lots of information that will be useful when you take home your new pup. Feel free to check them out in the Puppy Links section. I'm in bed watching Elf- see ya later!

No milk, no pool, no time before they're gone!

New puppy habitat

Last week, I moved the puppies from their whelping pool into the guest bathroom. They are doing great in their bigger habitat. They have much more room to run around and potty. The room is 2/3 potty area and 1/3 play/sleep area. They had it 50/50 but it was too much room and they were going potty on the end of the play area. I didn't want them to get used to doing that so I decreased the play area and increased the potty area. Pink and purple are doing super great with paper training! The others are doing well but are more apt to going pee in non-paper areas. It's better now with the smaller sleep area though. We lock them in the bathroom with a baby gate which is good because Molly can't be in there all the time like she was before. Yet another step towards getting the puppies ready for leaving mommy and me. Both Molly and the pups seem to do really well with it. However, the pups are starting to be really vocal about what they want. And when they want out of the bathroom, they start the whining and the crying. It's so sad but I'm trying really hard not to cave in. I let them out usually when they are calm and quiet to reinforce those good behaviors. Getting them ready for crate training really is what it's doing.

OOPS!

This past week they've also been spending lots of time running around in the upstairs . They love it (hence the crying to come out of the bathroom)! They come out to play about 3 times a day and they just run and wrestle and chew on anything that looks interesting. Purple was climbing all the way inside Will's boot last night. It was pretty cute. She would get all the way in and then get nervous and pop back out, stare at the boot for a minute, and bark. lol. Green was keeping busying chewing on the fringe of the laces. She loves fringe/string/tassels!

Green chewing, Purple in the boot

Becks is still terrified of the pups although last night for a second he was barking at them and it ALMOST seemed like he wanted to play. Blue is completely fascinated by Becks and follows him around everywhere he goes. It's pretty cute but Becks still thinks he's poison to touch or even give eye contact too. He's a crazy mutt.

So, other than the big move, Not too much going on these days. We've all settled into a nice routine. They are all completely weaned and Molly is not producing anymore milk. That was an interesting process. We didn't feed for her about 36 hours and let her nurse only twice in 48 hours. That was all it took. She shut down production and now she's dry as a bone. Pretty cool really. We felt bad about not feeding her but according to the reading I've been doing, it's the best was to avoid acute mastitis (clogged milk duct) or causing damage due to distention of her mammary glands. That was really a concern since she had such a large litter and was having to produce so much milk to keep them all fed. By cutting off her resources, she didn't have anything to draw from to produce milk and thus, she stopped. We didn't feed Becks during that time either :-) So, at least she wasn't alone in her suffering. I'm not sure why that makes it any better.... but it does in my mind. lol.

Tomorrow the pups go for their first shots, another worming, and get a certificate of health. I get to juggle all 5 pups once again in the blistering cold. It's always crappy weather when we have to go to the vet, it never fails. Oh well. Still deciding if I'm going to take Molly with us. I'm thinking not because everyone needs to start getting used to the idea of being apart from mommy.

More updates to come after the big day at the doctor!

Green playing on the steps