We have a four year old dalmation who is having puppies for the first time. She tied on the 20th and 21st of June, which means today is her 67th day!!! -She started going into her whelping box over thirty hours ago and rearranging the newspapers and bedding. Shes generally restless and going around the house aimlessly. -Her teats are also heavily swollen and dripping, and she's constantly licking them. -Her temperature lastnight was 101 lastnight and has remained stable so far - I also found a small puddle of clear mucousy liquid in her whelping box, but can't be sure where it came from - her breathing has been heavier than normal for the last few days and increased a little bit lastnight and then went back to normal this morning -the puppies are still moving around inside - on a side note she is an overweight dog , and looks much larger than most pregnant dalmatians We don't want to take her to the vet all the time because shes very excitable and the car ride might not be too good for her. we also haven't taken her for scan or anything because the hospital is hours away. Should we really start worrying now?

Hi everyone, I wanted to get into owning fish as a hobby since I love animals and I love pretty fish..so I am a new fish parent..I have a 10 gallon tank right now and a 1.5 gallon as a pregnancy ward..currently there is a blue mickey mouse platy in the pregnancy tank..it has some salt and water conditioner and some greenery..so she appears to be happy in there..I have 4 dalmatian mollies, 2 mickey mouse platys, 2 guppies, 1 blue platy and another platy that i have no clue what she is..so there is 10 fish in my 10 gallon..yes yes i know its overcrowded but that is all i have right now till this weekend when i can get a 20-30 gallon tank..but i dont know what cycling a tank means..how long does it take to cycle? then after it cycles what do you do? i have had them in my current tank for 2-3 weeks and none of them are sick and they are very healthy..i do frequent water changes like 20-30% about twice a week..but i need some tips on how to cycle and what exactly cycling is and does..thank you so much for taking the time to read my story and give your answers..god bless you all! =]

My sister owns, shows and breeds AKC registered Dalmatians. She currently has a Dal who is on her 62nd day of a confirmed pregnancy. This is the dog's second litter. With her last litter, she showed obvious signs of impending labor- her temp dropped, she didn't eat that day, she had an upset stomach and she dug at everything in sight. However, this time she has shown no signs like that, although my sister believes she's in labor right now. She phoned the vet who told her sometimes dogs don't exhibit any signs before labor starts so I guess it isn't uncommon, but I wanted to know if anyone else had a dog who went in labor without showing any signs first. Like I said, this dog's temp has been 100-101 all day, she ate a meal a couple hours ago and she hasn't been nesting or anything. She is currently panting and licking herself 'down there' like crazy and whining. Anyone else experience this? Actually, I am asking out of curiosity. I don't know anything about pregnant dogs or dogs in labor so I was just wondering what other people had experienced with their dogs. There is no emergency and it's not that I'm worried or anything like that. The vet only lives like, 5 minutes away from my sister so that isn't a concern. I was just curious to know if a dog showing no signs of labor beforehand is very common.

Okay - I don't have my water parameters, because I'm at work (so you don't have to ask for them) - but they are *fine*. I test them weekly and ammonia, pH, nitrates, nitrites, etc. are all on par. I do 20-25% weekly water changes, keep my Mollies in brackish water and am basically someone who truly tries to be the best fish keeper possible (even though I definitely have made my mistakes in the past). History: I lost my entire tank of adult Mollies when I converted my 2 10G tanks into 1 29G tank. Apparently the way I converted the tanks freaked/stressed my fish out and then came down with a reverse or deflated swim bladder problem (all of them, surprisingly enough) and within a month, they began to be unable to swim (one soon after another). They would keep to the bottom, just flapping their side fins and their entire underbody would be almost "paralyzed". They would stop feeding (not able to swim to the surface and not even able to dig for falling food, until they ended up passing away. The diagnosis: Deflated/Reverse Swim Bladder Disease. (This is a "probable" diagnosis I got from a woman who is a zookeeper specializing in aquatics that happened to be at the LFS when I was there trying to explain the situation to get a diagnosis to the manager of the fish department. She works for the LFS company, so she became interested in my story and after talking to me for quite some time, determined that is what she thought the problem was.) Current Tank: Anyways --- I began to restock my tank with 2M Mollies - I thought 1 was F, sheesh - you'd think I could genderize them by now, but it is a very "fancy tail" Molly and I didn't look carefully enough to see it had a gonopodium "hidden" in its other "fancy fins". I bought them last Monday. I thought the two of them were doing fine, so yesterday I added in 2F Dalmatian Mollies. Water tests are still coming back perfectly fine as of this morning. Besides the 2 Cream Mollies I added last Monday, I already had 4 juveniles in the 29G from previous Molly pregnancies (their mothers having passed away in the death tank episode mentioned above). I also had 7 "baby" Mollies (< 3 months old). All of these babies/juveniles and the 1 "fancy fin" M Molly are doing great. The Dalmatians are also "adjusting". They were sort of hiding earlier and the "fancy fin" Molly decided to "get to know them" (If you know what I mean, that's how I realized - duh, he's a he and not a she.) The Sick Molly: The 1M Creamsicle Molly that I bought last Monday is now showing symptoms of the "deflated swim bladder" problem that my other Mollies died of. He is staying at the bottom of the tank (hiding under the bubbler wand). This morning when I fed everyone, they were busy eating and he didn't move. When I came back 15 minutes later, he was trying to surface and he was severely struggling. His two side fins were working, but his tail fin and underbody were not appearing to be functioning. He fell back down and sort of bopped on the rocks. When I came back another 5-10 minutes later, he was back laying on the rocks under the bubbler. What on earth can be done??? Has *anyone* had this problem? He has NO physical signs of parasites, Ich/Velvet, Dropsy/bloat or any other fish diseases. If I don't do something today, I feel he is going to die for sure. I will probably end up taking him back to the LFS to see if they can "save him" because I don't think this deflated/reverse swim bladder can be "fixed", where the other swim bladder disease can be fixed sometimes. I am going to be posting this on as many fish forums as I can find, so please don't think I am "spamming". I just really would like to find someone else who has had this "deflated swim bladder problem" in their Mollies or other fish. Please post here or even email me at ldorrington@earthlink.net -- I will be checking periodically from work all day to see if I can get some suggestions/advice.