Duke-pup mix

DUKE Lexi and her Lucky Litter Hillary Clinton said It takes a village to raise a child. Illinois Doberman Rescue Plus says It takes an entire rescue organization to save a Dober-Mom and her litter … Nothing was going to stand in our way when the call from a wonderful woman at the Evansville Shelter came through asking us to rescue a very pregnant Dober-Mom without a name. We knew two things. Lexi was close to her time to deliver and she was heartworm positive. It took us a couple of days and many e-mails but the plan finally came together and the transport began. Our mama-to-be met many wonderful rescuers on her journey to her foster home. Our girl traveled over 400 miles during a 12-hour trip that included tornados, severe thunderstorms, hail, floods, and construction traffic! Not one barrier stopped the dedicated transporters as they continued to rush our girl to safety. Each transporter knew her time was close and every one of us had a heart-to-heart chat with her; we begged her to just hang on! The last leg of her journey began in Lexington, Illinois when she was met by the transporters who were going to take her to her foster home where a whelping box was waiting. It was during this leg of her trip that we named her Lexi (for Lexington, IL) and knew for sure she was in labor. We were still, however, about 100 miles from her final destination! But we thought we were okay because we had blankets, pillows and a flashlight! If you happened to be on Interstate 55 between Lexington, IL and Joliet on Thursday, May 27 between 8 & 10 PM and saw a red Toyota truck driving at very illegal speeds, that was the Dober-delivery vehicle! For about 50 miles when Lexi wasn’t pacing, she was shredding blankets & pillows which we soon learned is called “nesting”, an activity a mama-to-be does right before the babies start coming. About 50 miles from our final destination, Lexi gave birth to her first puppy, a little boy which we discovered when we stopped at Exit 240 and inspected the delivery room with our flashlight. What a shock we had when we opened the back door of the truck and found Lexi with a pup in her mouth sitting in a sea of shredded pillow stuffing! We made the decision rather than deliver all the babies in the gas station parking lot in the middle of nowhere, we would get back on the road and get her and her baby to safety. One hour later we arrived at our foster home with Lexi in hard labor and still only one pup. After a total of 30 hours of labor, Lexi had delivered 7 pups. She has 4 girls and 3 boys. Little Boy #1 (born in a truck traveling faster than a speeding bullet) at 6 inches and 10 ounces turned out to be the smallest! We suspect Lexi is a senior citizen, perhaps 7 or 8 years old. We also strongly suspect she has had many litters. The stress of a long and arduous labor at her age along with the incredible long trip she had on the road to safety, not to mention the terrible strain of the heartworms, took a toll on our Dober-Mom. In the early hours of Friday Lexi collapsed and her tired heart stopped. Lexi’s foster mom did CPR while her foster dad readied their car and they rushed Lexi and her newly born pups to the emergency vet. Everyone was determined that Lexi would survive to raise her pups … we weren’t about to lose her after how hard she worked getting to us! If being heartworm positive wasn’t bad enough, we learned that Lexi is anemic, full of worms, loaded with fleas, and was hosting several nasty tics. Our new mom was thoroughly exhausted with a heart that worked too hard under the strain of heartworm. Many caring hands took over Lexi’s care and after x-rays, fluids, antibiotics, several shots, and a bath, Lexi was reunited with her pups. Lexi, now back in her foster home, is on complete bed rest and although we are bottle-feeding the pups, we are allowing Lexi to supplement their milk. The pups are being bottle-fed around-the-clock, every 2 hours. Lexi insists on being the best Dober-Mom and takes care to inventory her pups at regular intervals to make sure they are all counted for when she wakes up from a well deserved nap! We are making sure she is resting and that her environment is stress-free so she can focus on her pups and getting the rest she needs to regain her strength. Once the litter is weaned we will focus all our attention on treating Lexi’s heartworm. For now she is on a diet high in iron and we are treating her parasites. The fleas are gone and the tics have been eradicated. Her care is being monitored by several of our dependable Dober-doctors. For the first time since we met her on Thursday, she managed a Dober-lean on her foster mom’s leg today! Lexi’s Lucky 7 are doing well. We have no clue what dad was, but we know that if these pups have a fraction of their mom’s beauty and intelligence, they will grow up and make their mom and everyone at Illinois Doberman Rescue Plus very proud. If you follow our site you know first hand that we never deny a Doberman Pinscher entry into our program due to medical issues. Lexi is no exception and currently her medical bills top $1000.00. We will be accelerating our fund raising efforts to cover the costs associated with bringing this incredible dog back to the best that she can be. If you would like to donate to Lexi’s medical fund, all donations will be gratefully accepted and will be exclusively used to offset the costs of her medical bills and her future heartworm treatment. We appreciate every contribution and no donation is too small. You can help IDR+ rescue a litter and it’s wonderful Mom. Donations can be sent to: Illinois Doberman Rescue Plus Attention: Lexi's Medical Fund P.O. Box 435 Barrington, IL 60011 UPDATE ON JUNE 15, 2004: Lexi is showing steady improvement; she is gaining strength and is the best Dober-mom ever. The puppies continue to thrive and each one has tripled its original birth weight. Now that they are almost 3 weeks old, we think they may be a mix of Doberman and Mastiff. Although we aren't sure (and probably never will be) their faces sure resemble the Mastiff breed and their paws are huge! Even at their tender age, they do a wonderful mini-Dober-lean! Now that Lexi has regained some strength she is nursing and mothering her growing pack and the pups have started to enjoy some supplemental rice cereal. Once Lexi's litter is weaned we will begin to put into action our plan to treat her heartworm. A bit of a sparkle has returned to Lexi's eyes which we know is her way of thanking all the volunteers and faithful IDR+ followers for their hard work and prayers. Don't give up on her yet--Lexi and her amazing litter still need everyone' help and positive vibes!