This page is designed to inform you about things that we have learned either during the pregnancies or directly afterwards, and what we did about them.  We do want to say that if you are ever unsure of something that is happening at anytime during your dogs pregnancy that you should ask your vet. 

Basic things to know:

• Pomeranians are known to have miscarriages so it is important that you keep a very close eye on them.
• Calcium tablets (from a vets office because of quality) should be given to the female all throughout the pregnancy. 
• Lose of appetite for their food is normal.  We have had to give ours a little of what we are eating at the time  or turkey to get them to eat.
• Several weeks before the puppies are to be born you should be giving the female salt. This will cause her to drink lots of water which will help her to have plenty of milk.
• When it gets close to her due date you should never leave them alone or with someone who does not know how to help her deliver the babies.  (I will try to get together some names and authors on books that are helpful in this area and put a list on this page in the next few days.)

Here are some books that I found had excellent information on delivering the puppies: "The New Pomeranian" by Sari Brewster Tietjen; "Pomeranian" by Beverly Pisano; " The Pomeranian" by Happeth A. Jones

Signs of a miscarriage:

• There will be a black discharge and the dead baby should fall to the bottom.  

Other possible signs of something wrong:

• You should have a stethoscope on hand and listen to the babies heart beats during the pregnancy.  If they are a fast ticking noise they should be fine, however if they are slow something is wrong. 

Things that happened with our females:

• Right after one of our dogs gave birth she began shaking all over and no matter what we did she wouldn't stop.  We gave her the supplement milk, pedialyte, and nutra-cal.  We thought that maybe she was having problems with hypoglycemia (as you know all poms can) , however, nothing helped.  We took her to a vet and he gave her a calcium shot, this seemed to get it under control.
• One of our dogs also developed a large, hard, pink, swollen area under her last two nipples right after delivering her second baby.  It also seemed very hot to the touch.  We talked with a vet and they did x-ray's because they thought that she may have a stillborn baby that hadn't come out.  It turned out to be a hematoma (which do not occur very often).  This is an excessive of fluid which will go away on its own.  The vet did tell us that we could give her baby aspirin to help with pain.   We put warm compresses on it which seemed to help with the inflammation an pinkness.  They take awhile to go away, and the babies will not usually nurse on those nipples.
• We have found that the puppies do not always know how to feed or can't quite get the hang of nursing right after they are born, so we help by teaching them on baby bottles with supplement milk for a few minute, then they take right to nursing normally.