After 24 hours of intense labour, a two-year-old Alapaha blue blood bulldog named Cali gave birth to 20 puppies, despite being predicted to bear just six.
The grueling 24 hours of labour started on Wednesday (18 March) evening and ended on Thursday evening after her 20-year-old owner, Amber, rushed the dog to the vet after seeing that she had already given birth to 12 puppies unassisted but was still feeling uncomfortable.
20-year-old Amber, from Swindon, Wilshire, stayed up with Cali during the birth.
‘It’s been chaotic and crazy but quite fun,’ said Cali’s owner, Amber to Metro UK
‘Seeing all those puppies together has been really heartwarming and sweet – but it does test your patience sometimes.” ‘When we first took her for a scan the vet told us to expect six or at most eight puppies. ‘That was how many I expected in my head.
I said: “Cali looks like she’s panting a bit”. ‘I was staring at her – and then she just started to push! ‘Within two minutes there was a puppy – and they just kept on coming. It got to the eighth one and it didn’t look like she was sIowing down. ‘I was shocked but delighted.
‘She calmed down a bit after the first 12 so we rushed her to the vet. ”They gave her an injection to help give her contractions and push the last six out.’ Amber continued..
‘It was a bit of a traumatic birth and Cali’s water broke before some of them were ready to come out. ‘The others are happy and healthy, fortunately, and we’ve stocked up on beds and dog food for them.’
‘We are so proud of Cali, she’s done so well, all things considered,’ said Amber. ‘This was her first litter and it was tough to see her go through so much effort but she’s been such a good mother. ‘She was very tired for a few days but she’s started wagging her tail again and is back to her funny, ditzy old self. ‘I’m running on empty now, but it was so worth it. Even though they are only a week old they have grown so much.’
Sadly nine of the puppies died but Amber still has eleven puppies.
Amber works as a payroll and tax consultant as well as running Blue Blood Empire, a company specialising rare breeds. Although sad about the deaths, she said they weren’t unexpected.
