Having bred litters previously with our Lhasa Apso’s, we decided to have a litter with our lovely pet Basset Ruby. After all, we knew what we were doing . . . .

Puppies were due on Saturday, so why was I checking Ruby from the Monday, convinced she was going to have them early. Not satisfied with Monday, I was studying closely on Tuesday and Wednesday too.

By Thursday I was convinced it was a bad case of wind!

6 am Friday morning, and the first signs are showing. Out in the garden, under the trees, moving the leaves around and generally nesting. By 10 a.m., she’s still showing the first signs.

1 p.m., and yes, you’ve guessed it, still showing the first signs! Unbelievably, nothing had changed by 6 p.m.

It was going to be a long night!

Convinced our midwifery duties will be called upon during the night, we took it in turns to sit up with her and when nothing had changed by 11 a.m. the next morning, I decided a quick call to the breeder might be reassuring. It was. He told me not to worry unless there was a green discharge.

2 p.m. and contractions have started.

By 4 p.m., contractions were still coming but no puppies and I was getting concerned.

By 5 p.m. we were at the emergency vets who, following an examination, felt the only option available to us was an emergency caesarean. To say we were disappointed was an understatement, and we came home feeling a little sad.

Two hours later, and the vet called to say that Ruby was fine, and she had two large puppies that she would never have been able to pass. Two! Really? But I’d got a 6’ x 4’ whelping pen, a bag full of blankets, and enough newspapers to start my own chain of newsagents!

We went back to the vets at 10 p.m. and collected mum and babies, and they were beautiful. The disappointment immediately dispersed and we were just relieved and grateful that all was well with mum and pups.

Or so we thought! Having reverted to our twenty-four hour watch, we soon realized that Ruby wasn’t eating or drinking anything. No matter how hard we tried, she wasn’t interested. The puppies were feeding ok, but mum wasn’t.

Were the puppies just very content, or were they fading? They were moving around and sleeping happily on their heat pad, so was I just panicking? However, when we picked them up, their reactions seemed slow, so deciding not to take a chance, Monday evening saw us back at the vet hospital.

The vet confirmed their temperatures were too low and they were indeed fading so he would keep them in for the night and if either died he would call me, otherwise he’d give him a call in the morning.

He wasn’t too concerned about Ruby but gave her an antacid to settle her stomach and said if she didn’t start eating or drinking overnight, to take her to our own vets in the morning.

She didn’t, and we did! So, we now had two puppies twenty-five minutes drive away at one vets, and mum on a drip and having blood tests in the local vets.

The tests proved that Ruby was healthy and the drip rehydrated her, and the vet felt that Ruby was in shock and the antibiotics had made her feel sick.

The puppies made it through the night but were vulnerable.

Home we all came, but now we had to hand feed the puppies every two hours and continue to encourage Ruby to eat. Easier said than done!

One puppy took to the feeding easily, the other was not happy! He threw himself around, wriggled, squealed, wouldn’t keep still and certainly wasn’t prepared to have anything put into his mouth!

By now the stress was starting to show! We were worried, weary and skint!

Very slowly Ruby started to eat and drink and the puppies were more active and sucking well, but they weren’t gaining weight.

Another trip to the vets for a check-up and she confirmed that the puppies were not getting a good enough quality milk, so we had to keep hand feeding them with Welpi and give it to Ruby as well. Anything to get her back in shape and give the puppies the best chance possible.

Day 8, and Ruby is still not eating properly. She doesn’t eat regularly and nothing seems to tempt her. We’ve tried everything but she doesn’t even want her treats, although very occasionally she will surprise us and eat a whole bowl of mince or sausages. We are therefore continuing to top up the puppies with Welpi and every time we make it up for them, we make up double for Ruby. It’s the only thing we can guarantee she will take and has probably been our saving grace.

Day 10 and Ruby has stopped eating and drinking again. By now we’re getting very tired and frankly weary with the whole situation. A visit to the vet to have Ruby’s stitches out and a check of the pups.

They are healthy but underweight so it is agreed that the vet will have the puppies during the day to hand feed them and we will have them at night. This is a great help, especially as we have to return to work, and at a cost of £8 per day is well worth it.

Another anti-sickness injection for Ruby and an hour later she’s back to eating a full meal again.

During all this, Ruby has been an excellent mum in every other way. She has cared for the puppies, cleaned them, kept them warm and missed them when they are apart.

After a week at the vets being hand fed during the day and being fed by us in the evenings, with top ups from mum, we have turned a corner.

The puppies were weaned at three weeks and we never looked back.

The rest was plain sailing and we were able to enjoy the puppies as we had hoped we would.

Would we do it again? During the first three weeks we were definitely never going to do it again. When things started to get better, we started to reconsider. By the time the puppies went to their new homes, we were enjoying the experience and decided we would try again. Now they’ve gone and we are back to normal, we’re not so sure if we could put Ruby through it again.

So, it’s very much a case of ‘watch this space’.