Note on Whelping Box

Last year, Observant Regular Reader may recall, we lined the whelping box with newspaper through Elsie's entire labor and delivery.

This year we decided we'd try clean white (bleachable) towels in the whelping box for Stage 1, then switch to paper (plain, unprinted packing paper, NOT newspaper) for whelping and messy stuff, then after delivery and cleanup are done, go back to fleece bedding.

Using towels for Stage 1 is SO much nicer for Elsie and us (no shredded paper to deal with through all these hours).

Newspaper was just a mess.

So, yes, I have literally dozens of freshly bleached, washed, double-rinsed white towels here (including the gazillion microfiber towels I have for the puppy drying and rubbing) all ready to go. And I have a big stack of packing paper just waiting to line the box when Elsie starts contracting in earnest.

Oh, and I'll be using a stack of those white, fabric, washable mattress security pads (like they use in nursing homes) for her actual whelping underneath the paper. That should make clean-up a bit more manageable (and the whelping box more comfortable and warmer) than shredded, sopping newspaper.

We'll see how this works, but I think I'm already liking this system better than last year's.

Elsie is digging and panting and circling in the whelping box again now (with great intensity). And Don has left for work. DFS is sleeping. It's just me and Elsie for now.

Better run.

'Til next time,
Joan