Now that I have finally gotten a little sleep and Holly is out of danger, I can tell my story.   Holly went into labor Sunday evening around 5:30 p.m.  At 9:00 p.m the vet who lives across the street came over and checked to see how much she was dilated.  Holly was all the way dilated and would be ready to have pups soon.

At 1:00 a.m, no puppies.  I took her in to the emergency clinic since it was a weekend, where they did x-rays and found the pups not even to the birth canal yet. The vet said to take her home and wait some more.  At 5:00 a.m, NO PUPPIES.  Took her in to the emergency clinic again.  The vet said one pup was just entering the birth canal and they could do a C-section, but thought it best to wait another couple of hours.  According to the x-rays, Holly had plenty of room (no big puppies) so should be able to deliver them on her own. At 7:00 a.m. the vet across the street checked Holly out and said a puppy was stuck and Holly needed a C-section.  The vet also thought that the puppy that was stuck may be dead since it wasn't moving. The surgeon did a C-section and called to say Holly was doing fine and that all 5 Siberian puppies were alive.  Two hours later, a call from the vet said that Holly was bleeding very bad and needed a blood transfusion and the surgeon would need to open Holly back up and try to fix the problem with a possibility that they may need to spay her.  We told them to do what they needed to do. The surgeon did end up spaying her.

Since the vet closes at night and no one stays at night to monitor it was decided to bring Holly and the pups home on Monday night and the vet across the street would come over every couple of hours to check on her.  She continually bled and it was seeping through her incision terribly.  The vet came over around 9:00 p.m. to change her I.V. and when the vet took out the I.V., Holly bled all over the place.  It was then we figured she was a bleeder and may bleed to death.  At midnight the vet came over with blood from her Great Dane to transfuse Holly again.

The vet checked her at 3:30 a.m. and told us that Holly would not live through the night.  We discussed everything that would happen before dying and we sat in her whelping box crying and saying goodbye.  Within 10 minutes of the vet leaving, Holly did everything the vet said she would do.  She got restless and then laid down, released her bladder, slowly closing her eyes and we thought Holly had completely stopped breathing.  At that same moment, one of Holly's puppies yelped and we saw Holly slowly raise her head.  Most of the time we tried to keep the puppies all around her so she would know that they were close and it might give her some  fight to stay alive.  
 

Holly made it through the night, but very, very weak. The vet said she could go at any time. In the meantime, Holly wasn't producing enough milk and we didn't know what to do, but tried to bottle feed the pups.  We found out that a breeder who lived 2 hours away had a bitch that was weaning her pups, but still had milk and she would loan the bitch to us. My husband after not sleeping at all the night before drove the 2 hours to pick up the bitch and bring her home.  We felt very lucky to have the substitute Mom.  Holly was slowly making a come back and her blood was starting to clot.  We have been without sleep for days with putting the pups with the substitute Mom every 2 hours and taking Holly out to potty which took two people with the I.V. attached.  One pup was also having troubles and needed glucose solution every 15 minutes. My husband took the week off of work, so he could devote his time to the situation.  (And I thought he wasn't a doggy person :-))

Holly has improved everyday and the vet took the I.V. out today and said she was out of the woods. After this experience I doubt that I will want to ever breed again.  This was only the second litter that I have bred and I think I will leave the breeding up to other people.  I realize that this was a rare case, but it is not worth losing a great dog that is loved dearly. Sorry this is so long, but wanted to share my nightmare.  I thank God she is alive.  She is without a doubt our Miracle Holly.