Puppy Live web cam (and Momma Dog)

I moved the feed to our live puppy web cam... it didn't seem to work well through the blogger- so see it here where there are also related links - live dog/puppy webcam feed

Cool whelping box/pen alternative

One good thing recently- the campout-sorta 'pup tent' doggie house we bought for Sera before we even knew about the pregnancy has turned out to be a great whelping box.

First off, it's made of material that's easily washable and waterproof. Second it provides more of a cave environment, but it has hole-y mesh sides that let air in and even let Sera see in if she's left the pups to sleep in a pile for a while.

Not only that- when I take Sera out for walks, if Lynda's not home, I can zip up the tent and not worry about the cats getting in there. I don't think they would, but they don't know what the puppies are, I don't know if they would freak one of the cats out, and the puppies' eyes aren't even open, so I don't want them together.


And there was even a day when Sera was so obsessed with the dogs next door in the backyard and any little sound out front that I zipped her in there with the puppies. When she's in there, the puppies can sleep or get milk as they want... but obviously if she's not, they can only sleep or squeal/whine.

I first made a whelping box out of cardboard etc., and I like this much better. We'll see how it turns out in the end... but no matter how many piddle pads and towels you use, the cardboard is still going to get soiled, then you need new cardboard. This tent-like material might be better because it's more washable and reusable. Plus it looks cool.

Momma Dog is Overprotective

We only had Sera for about a month before we had reason to think she was pregnant. We adopted her from a private shelter who sets up adoptions at the front of the local PetSmart. They said she was 6 months old... not sure about that- her teeth, said our crazy friend Lianne, looked more like 3 years. The shelter peeps said she was found in Baja Mexico. So she's a Baja Surf Mutt.

Point of all this is that she has some history- probably hit by a car (broken leg healed without vet care, dislocated hip joint), and probably attacked by some dogs (doesn't like other dogs). That plus having 8 puppies to take care of produces an overprotective mommy dog.

It wasn't really planned - everything was crazy for the first 3-4 days after the puppies were born - but our cleaning lady showed up on day 3 and Sera was definitely not comfortable with that. After a while, it was ok if Patricia was near the back of the house cleaning without making much noise, but if she came in the kitchen where the pups are, it was mad barking.

That was the day from hell.

And since then, it really is hard to tell when Sera is going off to take the time she needs, having giving the puppies enough, or if she's neglecting them. It's my first time, so I don't know. One website said puppies at this stage sleep 90% of the time and feed 10%- but it seemed like the other way around the first few days.

She does get obsessed with the dogs next door- they're beyond a fence, but she doesn't seem to realize that's a protection for her and the puppies. She also freaks out when anyone comes to the door... so I'm not sure yet when to bring in other people like my friend Don who will be adopting one- probably at least day 10... if not 14. It's 12 hours now til they're a week old.

Dog Cars?

An idea someone came up with- you can vote for or against it on another website

Cars for Dogs

These are cars that dogs can drive. There is a sensor that notices which way their head is pointed for steering. Also, there is a sensor for whether they are looking straight ahead or at the ground, for acceleration. This assumes that they are always driving toward something on the ground that they want to smell.

Whelping Puppies- Personality?

A friend said he'd heard runts were the best- best in what way? They're usually not the strongest, but they might be calmer... or they might be more needy- hard to say-

puppy personality after only 3 days?

too early to tell- we just have physical characteristics, etc.

• 
  The "jerks" who jerk their heads back repeatedly when they nurse
• The "cow", a little spotted one Lynda and I like
• The black screamer, with a bit of white on his head
• Big white porky, almost always eating, pink nose like cow and the other white one
• the brown ones... one of which likes to sleep by sera's neck.
• Two are definitely smaller, sleep more, eat less than others- one of these is brown/black and one I think is the cow.
• One of the brown ones has really cool markings on his forehead that make it look like he's scrunched up thinking
• at least one of them squeaks crazily while nursing- sometimes they sound like a balloon that someone's slowly letting the air out of by pinching the neck of the balloon

When they're sleeping, they sleep in piles as you saw above... usually with their face against another one- sometimes slumping over one another-

a couple of times remarkably cute things:

two brown ones face to face sleeping mirror images,

one brown one nose to nose with sera- got the latter on photo to the left

Dog Giving Birth IV: Eat, Sleep, Cry

Eat sleep and cry- that's all these 8 puppies can do- and their eyes aren't open. When they cry it sounds like a human baby, kinda weird. You can hear it in the birthing and whelping videos.

Here's a video of 5 puppies feeding in the midst of the birthing process- you can see Sera doing the licking and also panting between contractions.

I'll have to put up another post on how we made the whelping box and total birthing environment...

Some websites and people talk about how not all puppies "make it". Much like the military, I have a 'no puppy left behind' attitude. This means I've been working a lot today with the pups. I'm keeping my eye out for the ones that don't get enough nipple time, and/or don't seem to care. If you move them to the good nipples, mom licks them, they cry, and get more active and there's a better chance they'll grab the nipple and feed.

For some reason, though Sera has 9 nipples, some of them are not producing milk. Others are underneath her and she only seems to want to lay on her left side. That's leaving her with about 5 accessible good nipples... and some of these pups aren't as nipple-savvy as the others- you can put their face right up to it and they don't grab it- others do.

And of course, sometimes 5 of them are napping, so there are open nipples, and other times all 8 of them want to feed and there's not enough nipples to go around, like musical chairs, and there's a lot of crying.

Mom licks their butts a lot and I'm told that stimulates their digestive tracts. It makes them cry. I had to get the idea that crying is often good- I had to get that idea real quick when the puppies were being born- crying means they can breathe. But now sometimes, it means they're confused or hungry.

Dog Giving Birth Part III: Photos, videos, complications

I had read various things about the umbilical cord- what I wish I had read, what I learned the hard way, and what went for most things about this puppy birth, is don't intervene unless something goes wrong.

The mommy dog not only will in many cases tear through the sac so the puppy can begin to breathe, lick it to stimulate its breathing, eat the afterbirth, lick up her discharge and any blood, but also will chew through the umbilical cord and then lick it until it stops bleeding.

The only times we intervened were when she couldn't get the sac off the newborn within about 30 seconds, and if she seemed too concerned with licking up blood and discharge to get the umbilical cord or stimulate the baby's breathing.

Sometimes the cord was too short as well, it seemed, for her to get at it- we had to cut it then with some little sewing scissors. I had read some things about using thread or dental floss on other sites, but in practice that proved ludicrous... too much blood, mom and puppy too freaked out, not to mention the pressure on us, and trying to get the dang floss tied? Forget about it.

And Lynda supported Sera to reach back there- sort of pushing her hips and shoulders toward one another so she was in the U shape she needed to get at the puppy, etc.

All our pictures and videos of the dog giving birth are here, but the main dog giving birth video, if you want to see the sac rupture, the puppy emerge, etc., is here.

Dog giving birth part II: through the night and into the morning

Then last night she got antsy and started panting- later I saw that the pattern was: panting, contractions, delivery.

But she wasn't ready to deliver- Lynda had a long work day today and also has to teach this wknd so I slept on the air mattress next to Sera in the kitchen. But she insisted on sleeping at my feet on top of the covers- covers we didn't care too much about, fortunately...

...because I woke up at 10am with her sitting in her broken water, panting, and out was coming the shiny purple sac inside of which clawed a little pup.

Our dog was giving birth!

I had read that puppies could come as far apart as an hour or two, but maybe they just talk about that because it's the edge where you should think about the veterinarian...

Sera's pups came out quickly- after the first one, I called my wife and she began to rush home (she was going about 100mph at one point, she was so excited) -



I thought I had at least a half hour so I went to put my contacts in and by the time I returned from that, the second puppy was out!

Dog Giving Birth Part I: She's Pregnant?

We thought we adopted a 6 month old puppy. That's what the shelter people said. We named her Sera, short for seratonin, since we're such neuromedicine freaks.



But then Sera's belly got bigger and bigger. Someone looked at her teeth and said, no she's probably 3 years old.

My wife and I had the talk. I thought killing them off was tantamount to human abortion, and I think that's murder, so I was for supporting Sera through it and perhaps keeping one or two. Lynda knew I would bear a lot of the burden of house training etc since I work from home, so she was concerned.

I reassured her that I thought it would be ok, the chaos even might be fun. We don't have kids- we have to adopt anyway- and San Diego is expensive so we've been working on our careers and earning potentials anyway.

Sera got bigger and bigger... then she got big nipples and the milk supply was obviously there... we were ready and then it seemed she would never have the puppies.

Acupuncture declines in China

Thousands of foreign students are swarming into Chinese universities of traditional Chinese medicine each year to learn acupuncture. More than 100,000 acupuncturists are providing alternative treatment worldwide nowadays.

However, contrary to the flourishing development abroad, acupuncture has been declining in its motherland during the past two decades.

As acupuncture cannot generate as much economic gains as TCM drugs do, it is commonly neglected both in hospitals and research departments.

For most Chinese patients, acupuncture is also not their first option. Acupuncture doctors earn much less than other doctors, because each treatment would only allow them to charge a few yuan, similar to the cost of redressing a wound. A lot of them try their luck abroad to practise acupuncture.

As a result, Chinese acupuncture is facing a serious brain drain.
On the other hand, in order to obtain international recognition, most acupuncture research has focused on the theory study, but has been divorced from clinical practice. The efficacy of acupuncture is declining.

Acupuncture experts worry that China may lose its advantage in acupuncture practice one day if the present dilemma cannot be changed.
Source: China Daily

Comment-

I noticed during acupuncture school that there were a lot of white people studying asian medicine, and a lot of asians at UCSD studying Western medicine.

It is too bad that acupuncture in its homeland is declining. But it is not declining here. In fact, not only are more and more acupuncturists getting licensed and practicing and treating patients in the US and UK (at least, not to mention NZ, perhaps Europe- I don't know)- but there is also a lot of private grant money available to acupuncturists who can get a quality grant proposal together.

Many acupuncturists have more of the altruistic spirit MD students used to have, and few of either group are business savvy- thus, grant writers, former administrators, and altruistic acupuncturists make another great combo for the future of acupuncture.

The crux of the problem is the perception of acupuncture's value. Even what good studies exist (more than most press and conventional docs know of or acknowledge) demonstrate more than anything the inertia of bias against acupuncture acceptance- that is, many people are slow to believe in it, even in the presence of proof. They look for any reason to dsipute the evidence. They exemplify the idea "don't confuse me with the facts, my mind is already made up".

But those who have been helped by acupuncture believe. They know it works, and then when they hear the scientific info, they know why. It works in reverse. Though we're taught to trust scienctific evidence above opinion, experience, and emotion, our real lives much more often are governed by our emotions and experience and then rationalized with pieces of logic and evidence.

Beer Pie, Beer by the Slice

You really can get it that way. At least that's what this awning would have you believe...



Ok, maybe you guessed - this is a pizza place that didn't think too clearly ahead about the view from this side... It's in San Francisco on Bush St- don't remember what its name is and can't figure it out from google maps... alas.