Another Story Miracle Litter

Nellie with her pups (17 days)
Elvis, Tracy, Ofelia, Rasmus

About the litter . . .
Our beautiful "Nellie", got 4 puppies on 2 May, 2002. ("Nellie" is the result of an insemination with frozen semen, imported from the U.S., by wellknown SBIS Eng Am Ch Hubbestad Double Magic, JC. "James" was born in England, just like "Nellie's" dam "Cilla" - SBIS S Ch Baldrey Fairy Story.)

The pedigree is an exciting combination of top quality English and American Greyhounds, with a touch of Scandinavian blood, through Int Swed Norw Ch Gulds Tawny Topstar.

The bitches in the third generation are something extraordinary; four stunning bitches born in England; Int Swed Norw Ch SW-93 Trecarne Amber of Solstrand (red), Eng Ch Singing The Blues at Solstrand (blue brindle), Eng Ch Shalfleet Sea Dancer (blue) and Eng Ch Baldrey Mystique (black).

To see
photos of the pups
click on thumbprints !

"Nellie" pregnant -
pups 2 days old

Grandmother "Cilla" with pups
4 - 6 days old

"Nellie's" whelping - a nightmare with a happy ending
"Nellie's" whelping, that I had been looking forward to for such a long time, nearly ended with a disaster. "Nellie" started getting into labour on May 1:st - a big holiday here in Sweden, and we experienced real difficulties in finding veterinarian help, even though I rushed her to an emergency animal hospital in the middle of the night. They sent us back home again, even though I knew in my heart something was wrong. "Nellie" had been in labour pains too long and I hadn't been able to feel any foetal movements for several hours. "Nellie" was in real pain and I was absolutely certain something was really, really wrong.

We had to go home and wait until morning - another 8 hours of panic and desperation - when I could contact my ordinary veterinarian. "Nellie's" problems turned out to be caused by a dead puppy that was stuck in a wrong position and it stopped the whole whelping procedure. The vet pulled the dead pup out. "Nellie" then gave birth to another puppy that was almost dead. She had an ultra sound examination - everything went really fast - there was absolutely no sign of any foetal movement whatsoever and she was then rushed into the operating theatre for a Caesarean section, trying to at least save some of the pups. "Nellie" finally had eight pups, but unfortunately only four survived, the vet having to revive the apparently dead pups.

"Nellie" was extremely weak, after the ordeal she had been through, and when 48 hours had passed, I understood I had to separate her from her pups, in order to give her and the pups a chance to survive. "Nellie" had no milk whatsoever and since she had been awake for more than 4 days without a wink of sleep and with a high temperature, we really had no option. The pups' grandmother "Cilla" (Swed Ch Baldrey Fairy Story), 9 years old, was brought into the whelping-box instead. She managed to produce some milk and she took care of those pups in an amazing way. We had to bottle feed the pups as well and we tried all we could to find someone in Sweden, who had a litter who could help us by taking at least a few of the pups, but in spite of all those wonderful people who helped us phone, we had no luck. At least the pups had a warm and tender bitch that nursed and tended them. "Cilla" has always been a terrific mother - I knew I could trust in her to do her best. Without her, I would have lost the remaining four pups.

When the pups were a week old, "Nellie" was strong enough to go back to them. She had started to produce milk when she grew stronger, but we still had to bottle feed them as well in the beginning. Then, we faced the next big problem. "Nellie" was taken severely ill with mastitis - a very heavy infection of one of the mammary glands and she was really bad with a very high temperature. Thanks to my vet, who could prescribe what proved to be the right antibiotics, we survived an another holiday of 3 days. Then we had to operate on her, since she was really in a bad state. The pups had to be stopped from sucking the milk from the infected teat, since it was full of staphylococci bacteria.

24 hours of constant supervision from day 1 to day 21, left me more than tired.
THANKS to my wonderful mother who was there for me all the time.
THANKS to my husband Peter, who did what he could the rare moments he was at home. He had to bring our other dogs with him to his work in northern Sweden.
THANKS to my two amazing friends - Gisela Balz (Rhetsgis Greyhounds) - I couldn't have managed without her - and Marie Brandén (Badavie Salukis) who helped me a lot.
THANKS to my wonderful veterinarian Stig Hagengård, who was there for me, almost around the clock - without him I would have lost both "Nellie" and the pups.
THANKS to my friends who supported me on the phone (especially Kimmo Saarinen, Lena Robertsson, Iris Carlsson, Anna-Carin Falk and Inger Johansson.).
THANKS to all the known and unknown people, who tried helping by phoning all over Sweden trying to find a foster-mother for the pups. I am grateful to all of you - especially the "Saluki-people", who I don't even know!

I am extremely happy we managed to save four wonderful puppies. "Nellie" was a very good mother - she had been through such an ordeal, but still took very good care of her pups.

"Zacke" &"Nellie"

"Nellie" & "Zacke"

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