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Skye, Day 47 (pre-parturition)

Skye and puppies daddy Storm.

Sassy Skye continues to be as active as ever. She enjoys being in the air-conditioned house when it is so humid outdoors. The occasional bird or squirrel has her preoccupied outdoors, but she quickly realizes that it’s too hot outside and she’d rather just come inside to cool off and enjoy a bone. 

 Diet is so important at this stage as the puppies are beginning to grow rapidly now. Over the next few weeks as her abdomen expands, Skye will obviously begin to slow down.

 Skye has always had a voracious appetite and she certainly continues to eat her food in record time and is always looking for more. She is enjoying an unprocessed raw diet including all the natural vitamins and minerals required along with folic acid, prebiotics and probiotics daily.  As her waistline expands, she will have less room for food so we will increase the frequency and reduce the size of each meal. Skye’s abdomen now measures 76.2 cm or 30 inches. 

 At this point, the embryonic sacs are a little over 4 cm.  Although several sacs were detected during the ultrasound at day 25, it is still difficult to determine exactly how many babies Skye will have. This is when the puppies will head into a huge growth stage. Their heartbeats can be heard easily, and their canine features are becoming more pronounced. They are developing toes, eyelids, whiskers and claws and beginning to look more like puppies every day. The fetus is about 45 millimeters long and has developed skin pigment.

Fetus at approximately Day 39

The gestation period in dogs is approximately 63 days and that means approx.18 days to go. We are looking forward to the miracle of birth once again on approximately June 27th.

Stay tuned….

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