o'cockaigne

Here I am, typing with one hand because Cearrean is lying on my other arm. Mother Cytaugh is walking in the forest for the first time after the birth of Cearrean with Simon, Chidish and Brandir. She has done a ’round of forest’ several times, but for her spiritual well-being a real forest is good again. Cearrean woke up and was bored, a lot of grumbling and squeaking came from the whelping box. Yes, and then you pick it up and you can’t do anything anymore.

If Cytaugh is not with him, Sleepsheep is with him and that goes fine. If you put down Cearrean and then beating Sleepsheep against him, he becomes calm and falls asleep. He is also regularly over or under Sleepsheep, they are real buddies!

Yesterday Cearrean was a week old and weighed 1430 grams at the end of the day. When I weighed him at 10.30 this morning, he weighed 1510! Well, I have to say that he was busy all night so I put him at Cytaugh a lot. He grows most of all at night anyway.

Cytaugh does it better every day. What she had learned very quickly is that if I say that she has to turn around, she will lie down on her other side. It is of course very important that all nipples are used evenly. She does this perfectly!

Yesterday at the end of the afternoon, Cytaugh wanted to sit in the kitchen with us. No problem, child and babysitter next to it so that Cearrean does not fall off the bed! Because falling out of bed, he has a patent on it! One of the first nights he had already fallen out of his box while it is 30 centimeters high! Now there is a grid over it so that he can not get out.

In the meantime Simon is back from the walk and Cearrean is enjoying a drink by Cytaugh. Usually she gives milk right away, sometimes I have to massage a few nipples. At least he gets enough because his belly is well filled. When he crawls through the whelpingbox, he looks like a walrus!

This afternoon he also stayed with Cytaugh in the office. This is Cytaugh’s favorite spot. But I have to stay by them otherwise he will disappear underneath the radiator or behind a cupboard where you can never get him again!

Cearrean Argyll is doing well! After the difficult start he gains every day very much; the first three days it was only 91 grams, on Sunday he gained 166 grams and yesterday 139 grams. He now weighs 1250 grams with 6 days! It is no longer a puppy but a pup. I can not hold him with one hand anymore!

Fortunately, Cytaugh is getting better, but I have to admit that I have her on the Strezz drops from Phytonics. In the beginning a high dose and several times a day, now only 10 drops 3 times a day. It clearly has a very positive effect on her. The last few days she stays happily longer in the whelping box, with the puppy on, over or against her. Very sporadically, she still growls against him, usually as he climbs up her stomach over her belly. Apparently that is still a bit sensitive. It aren’t his nails because they already have been clipped twice.

She cleans him much better now, especially his belly, but she don’t clean his bottom, I can still do that. I do have to turn on the milk factory every time, that means massaging at least 5 minutes per nipple before milk comes out. During the day when Cearrean regularly takes a sip in between, it is not too bad, but at night it is really necessary. And then a drink session will take a long time and the hours you sleep will be very short!

It is striking that Cearrean does not have much need for heat. Not even the first days. Over 27°C  he really felt too much, he always crawled to the farthest, least warm corner. After having been with his mother for a while, he usually looks for the edge of the whelping box so that he does not have the radiant heat of Cytaugh. Also in his box, he is often not under the lamp that keeps a part at 25°C but is stretched out in the cooler part. Now we keep the temperature in the house constantly around 20°C and that is fine for him. So I’m glad he was not born during those hot summer days, but it will be difficult for him if the weather gets hot again in the coming summer! Fortunately he has the chance to ‘grow’ with the temperature.

Today, the first day of Christmas, Cearrean already shows clear playful behavior. He snaps into your finger (no, not to suck on it), into Cytaugh’s beard and his own paws. If you tickle him it is as if he laughs and grabs with his paws in the air, he is already starting to react! And it looks like his eyes are opening up in the very near future, I am curious if he is also ahead of this.

And there he is, Cearrean Argyll O’Cockaigne, son of Argyll Bryan from the Market Garden and Cockaigne Cytaugh from the Meirse Weiden.

On Tuesday afternoon, December 18, the 62nd day of her pregnancy, Cytaugh’s temperature dropped to 37.4 but she gave no milk and lay in a deep sleep. On Wednesday morning the temperature had dropped to the 37.2 after a considerable increase at night, and then quickly increased again. Now Cytaugh had dug a few times but was still very quiet. We already had contact with the vet about the Caesarean section so when I called to report that I would like to see it happen today, we made a appointment for 13.30 hr. Upon entering we could go straight through and Cytaugh was prepared. Cytaugh was in the meantime already panicking because after the surgery on her foot she really does not have anything to do with veterinarians and she felt that this was not fun. The Caesarean would take place under local anesthesia, but because Cytaugh immediately made such a commotion, she received an amount of tranquilizer that she was totally gone. After the doctor had made a small incision and found the uterus with contents, he immediately noticed that it was a whopper of a pup. He was not only extremely large but also extremely lively and the doctor struggled to get him out of the membranes because of his enormous sprawling. As soon as the membranes were removed and he got air, he was also clearly heard!

Unfortunately it stayed with one but in terms of size and sound he counted for two! After he was dry rubbed and Cytaugh put back together and laid on the ground to recover, we gave him his first bottle of milk. He did not drink much yet and we also hoped that Cytaugh would quickly start her own factory so that he could take the important colostrum. Once at home and on the scale, Cearrean turned out to weigh no less than 745 grams and that two hours after his birth!
He was also very strong and soon crept over his mother to see if there was something to drink on the other side. Fortunately, after a few hours, under the influence of the administered oxytocin, the milk production started and Cearrean could drink the much needed colostrum. But Cytaugh was still a bit drowsy from the operation and had little interest in him. So I made a box for him in which he could sleep safely and so that Cytaugh got her rest.

In the course of the night it turned out that Cytaugh had nothing to do with Cearrean at all. At first she only turned her head away but later she started to growl and even occasionally snapped at him. We could not leave Cearrean with her without strict supervision. That meant the first sleepless night because he did not agree at all to sleep in his own box. On Thursday Cytaugh’s negative attitude only increased and I really had to be very careful that nothing happened, not half a second I dared to leave them together without supervision. Luckily Cearrean was allowed to drink with her, as long as he wasn’t too wild, but we had to watch it.

It was clear that Cytaugh’s muscles had got a considerable clout during the preparation of the C-section; while she was already tied to her back on the operating table, she had had a panic attack while administering the local anesthetic. Hereby she tried to get away naturally but if you are tied up the muscles are the victim. All her stomach and back muscles were extremely painful and every touch was actually too much. So her behaviour was explained. Unfortunately she could not get a painkiller because she is already on the antibiotics and all that stuff goes naturally into Cearrean.

Friday night around 2 o’clock Cytaugh suddenly got more interest in her son and sniffed at him extensively. He was also allowed to get closer to her head and crawl over her again. Hey, hey, would we have the leak up? But when Cearrean reported to me at five he wanted  to drink again and after I had shown him Cytaugh, she snapped at him and that was not good! Luckily I could not detect any damage and after  having reassured Cearrean and put on a collar by Cytaugh and wrapping her face with the line, Cearrean could drink something by her again. This event has damaged the trust quite a bit and from this moment we keep an argus-eye on her.

The milk production was very variable and actually only became less instead of more, Cearrean grew only 40 grams in two days. He did not want the bottle after he had tasted the real stuff, but he kept drinking at Cytaugh until he was saturated, but this sometimes took 45 minutes and that also takes a lot of energy. To be able to follow the growth a bit, I measure his beautiful long tail. Well, it grows about a half centimeter a day! On Thursday he was 12 centimeters and on Friday already 12.5!

Fortunately during the course of Friday, things went better with Cytaugh, she barely grumbled at Cearrean, showed more interest and began to lick gently his tummy. But as soon as Cearrean started peeing, she stopped! Bah, that’s dirty! Cleaning up the stool was also reserved for me, she thought. In the evening she suddenly had more milk and Cearrean had a nice round belly but that was short-lived. A few hours later there was hardly any food left for him.

In the meantime I had a sleeping sheep mate for Cearrean, a plush sheep with a beating heart. He found it a success and has spent the night on / with it.

From Friday to Saturday, he only woke twice, but it took an hour before his belly was round and I could put him back to sleep. We do not let him sleep with Cytaugh without supervision, our Million Dollar Baby is too precious for that!

Today everything goes happily even better, Cytaugh has almost completely accepted him, she licks his tummy as long as nothing comes out, and it seems that the milk production is slowly getting better. Sometimes he wants to drink something from the bottle, but that must have been made extra delicious with some Roosvicee. Cearrean’s tail is now 13 centimeters and he grew in 15 grams in 6 hours time.

Now, at 16:00 it looks like this and hopefully this style continues and we have a stress-free Christmas!

We will keep you informed.