honestly tjedt...
a pet nurse is going to be NO HELP what so ever.
i AM experienced, i grew up with chis, my grandfather has bred and raised many, i was present for 90% of whelps from the age of 7, my grandmother was a veterinary assistant and highly exerienced whelping before even ever meeting my granfather...
and both grew up on farms
but...
during a chihuahua whelp...
humans are TOO BIG to help, even the tiniest of droppers are too big for all but the normal/biggest of chi pups...
if a pup breeches/gets stuck there is absolutly NO way to manipulate that puppy as you can with some of the larger animals...
and with a dog this small, particularly one under 4 lbs...by the time the dog is showing sighns of stress its usually too late.
please encorage her NOT to pay some human nurse with FARM experience (something that will offer absolutly NO help in this situation) instead spend that money on that c-section.
HONESTLY it is this poor tiny dogs ONLY viable chance at surviving this...
this is a human error and hoping "god" will watch over this dog is going to do NOTHING...
many a god fearing person who KNOW what they are doing have lost females and pups during birth...
in this case, this dogs blood IS on your freinds hands, as is the blood of each and every puppy.
there was absolutly NO reason for that male to still be intact...she was waiting on spaying the female due to apointment dates...why wasnt the male neutered when he turned the right age?
this is 100% her FAULT
and the fact she is now KNOWINGLY continuing forth, HOPING god will protect this dog and her puppies...and from the sounds of it, doesnt even want to spend the money to pre-book the c-section...
That is no better than knowing a murder is about to happen and doing NOTHING about it.
if she cared about this dog...
in terms of what to look for
as ive said, if something goes wrong she will have LITERALLY minutes to get this dog to an emergency clinic, having someone who isnt epereinced in whelping a dog this small is NOT going to help unless they have a rocket powerd car or a transporter beam...
in a dog that small ANY sign of stressing uncomfortable beyond be is an emergency...
strain goes straight to the heart, and being this is a young chi and so small its hihgly likely that her heart is already not up to full par (murmers are highly common particularly in tiny chis) so any amount of stress on this dog could cause her to have a heart attack. pushing with no production of a puppy will kill her, and she will exhaust quickly.
PLEASE...
in this situation its not a case of "oh it would be a good idea to pre-book the c-section"
its a case of "she MUST pre-book a c-section if she cares even a little about this dog"
this dog will not likley survive even an attempt at a natural birth...
the fact that shes a BABY and pregnant is bad enough but to simply hope god will protect her is like sitting back and going "ehh, whatever!"
i understand your doing your best here, this isnt your desicion ect...
but quite honestly...in my years...
i HAVE ended freindships over situations like this...
if your friend wont listen over sincere concern for this tiny little dog she Claims she loves...then shes NOT a good friend...
personally at this point, youve offered her advice shes obviously unwilling to accept it, i would simply say goodbye and walk away...
a real freind takes advice, acepts, listens and takes to heart...
seems however in this case your frined doesnt care enough.
unfortunatly ive SEEN this before...
a girl with a very small chi (her girl was just over 3lbs at 2yrs old) "accidentally" mated with her 6 yr old 4lb intact male...she wouldnt abort because "it was against god" and ignored even her vets advice...
the female started delivery, after 15 mins she was in obvious distress...she got her to the emergency vet who did an imediate c-section, (breeched puppy that even they couldnt turn without a section)
unfortunatly the stress of that 15 mins on the mothers heart killed her (she had a very mild undiagnosed murmur), and over the next 3 hours they lost all but 1 of the 3 puppies...
this girl was extreemly upset, couldnt accept that god had let her "baby" die and threw a fit at the vets saying they killed her purposly...
the surviving puppy died about 3 days later
she tried to claim money from the vet for the cost of the c-section PLUS the value of the mother and all 3 puppies claiming they were "very expensive teacup chihuahuas"
turned out that while the breeding was accidental, and while she didnt want to abort because she is religious...about a week of looking online after the mating had showed her that "teacup chihuahuas" are selling for big bucks and she figured that it would all be ok and if the dog needed a c-section shed at least make it all back on puppy sales!
instead she not only lost her girl and all the puppies but was out $3000 in emergency c-section fees, plus another $1000 for the emergency care for the puppies, $100 for the cremation for her dog and the puppies and the cost of the supplies she did buy...
and the judge laughed her case out...
and grammy...
the puppies from that litter, 3 pups, full term from a pairing about 1lb per dog larger than the op describes were born about the size of an adult mouse! they are weighed in points of an ounce! and all 3 pups fit in the palm of a female vet tech hand.
vixieis puppies were only about 6 inches long at birth and vixie is a little over 5lbs!
the pups form this breeding, if there lucky enough to make it to birth will be about the size of a mouse!