4 days old... and tailess!

After the inner turmoil suffered over the tail docking fiasco, the deed is done. I opted to watch, as I think that it's a good thing to witness if you're going to be involved in this breed for any length of time. We did Mac first, as he's the biggest and most robust. He was actually more upset about the styptic stick following the dewclaw removal than he was the tail.

Basically, Ed (or Dr. Womack, for those of you who haven't been his client for 10+ years) clamped the tail, cut the tail with scissors just below the clamp, and threw a suture on the dock. Then he cut off dewclaws flush with the leg and applied the styptic stick. It took about 2 minutes per puppy. Sure, they screamed, but once they were back with their littermates, they settled right in and went to sleep. Overall, it wasn't quite as terrible as I was expecting. I've got tough dogs, anyway. Ed even gave me the option to take the pile of tails home to make Christmas Ornaments. I respectfully declined. ;o)

As of yesterday (day 4), everyone but little Fiona is over a pound. I'm keeping a close eye on her, but she is gaining consistently... just not as fast as everyone else. Here are a few snapshots from yesterday. I decided to wait for individual shots until they're 1 week.