>Well, it's a little late in the day to offer criticism about what's already under way<
Yep. Dystocia in a Toy breed can and does kill, without Veterinary intervention (when it's needed). Thank goodness Vetvetdoug happened upon the post. I was out last evening (at a meeting planning next year's local dawg show, as a matter of fact).
Advice that may work with a large breed, can kill a Toy bitch. Some bitches will whelp the first couple of pups, and then require a shot of Oxytocin or a C-section to rescue the last baby. Uterine inertia happens fairly often in Papillons.
The last litter I whelped (this past December) had me hanging onto the front end of the momma (who really, really wanted to bite me, and I can't blame her) while a red-faced Vet struggled to pull the very large first pup into the world. Little scamp was stuck tight as a cork (c;
If I'd "left her alone to let nature take its course", I'd have lost my girl dog, not to mention the 2 babies.
Had a maiden queen with her first litter - very small cat and a VERY big kitten. We were all worried about pelvic disproportion, but since I lived only a mile from my vet, we decided on a trial of labor and she popped that kitten out after only four contractions! Wound up taking her over to the vet anyhow because she passed the afterbirth and settled down to nurse her baby with absolutely no sign of further labor . . . turned out she had just the ONE kitten. She had tons of milk and he kept four spigots flowing . . . he grew like a weed and was four times his mother's size at 9 months . . .
On her second litter, though, she was obviously in distress and failing to progress, so we wound up with a C section and I had her spayed as long as they were in. Since she just had ONE kitten again . . .
Hence my rule of thumb that the number of kittens is inversely proportional to the stud fee!