Diary of a Runty Pup - Page 3

bottle fed babbies are often smaller.

if you're still bottle feeding, make sure his lungs are clear. the first pup i bottle fed was so hungry that she asperated at 12 days, but just a little, she ended up with a mild case of pneumonia and i stayed up 3 days on death watch, but she pulled through. at 6 weeks she snapped out of it and hasn't been sick a day since.

don't worry about his size......he'll catch up.

I hand raised a litter of 6 years back after their mother Chanel developed toxic milk.  I started off feeding the powder puppy formula and the puppies did not do very well on it at all; they did not gain weight, were horribly constipated, dehydrated and really wanted NOTHING to do with the formula at all.  Finally after one week of hell, loosing one little girl, almost loosing a little boy, IVs and vet visits I found Ed Frawley's formula on his website (http://leerburg.com/bottlefeeding.htm).  There was a huge turn around in the babies right away; they fattened up almost over nigh, REALLY wanted to take the bottle and developed into normal sized, healthy puppies.  I have used this formula on EVERY puppy that has needed to be supplemented since then and would use it in a heartbeat for any puppy I had to hand raise.  It really did wonders for Chanel's babies.  

I wish all the best for your guy, he sounds like a fighter!  Hand raising puppies is not easy but you sound like you are doing a wonderful job with him!  

  

When I had to hand raise 4 puppies for a while, I used goat's milk.  Later, on two litters later, I weaned them on goats milk until they could eat other foods.

Sunsilver, thats so encouraging!  :)  This lil guy was almost 2 ounces smaller than tiny teena at birth.  It's my hope that he'll turn a corner and grow to be a normal size dog someday too.
The main difference between this pup and tiny teena is that this pup was emaciated at birth, you could see each of his ribs and hip bones, I don't see that on newborn teena.  He was also very dehydrated and low oxygen at birth, it's a miracle that he wasn't stillborn.

Sitasmom, this isn't my first time hand raising a pup from birth.  He hasn't had any problems with aspirating (the nipple is a slow flow.)  Just my first time raising a pup who is so frail and actually survived past his first few days of life. 

Olga, leerburg's recipe is what I use too, the only difference is a few days ago I added one more raw egg yolk to the recipe just for this lil guy since he so desperately needs the calories. 

K9nme, I wish I had some goats milk I could use.  A couple years ago there was someone in my area who was selling it, but they stopped selling it now :( 

I tried to take some new pics just now but he's being so wiggly the pics are blurry, lol.  I'll have to wait til he's sleeping again. 

Grocery stores sell paper containers of it.  Costs a lot.  It is in the cold milk section.  There is canned milk, but I liked the paper container kind.  I purchased it at Ralphs.  I have seen it in other stores, but since I do not use it now, I do not remember what stores.  I fed it straight from the container, but not cold of course.

The night Teena was born, I had to make a run to the store at 2 am to get goat's milk, as the carton we had on hand had gone sour. I think I got it at Sobey's.

We had one pup that had been in there too long, and was too weak to suckle, so we mixed up a batch of the Leerburg recipie and tube fed him. He died the next day. We also had a stillborn girl pup.

Talk about a steep learning curve: a first litter for the bitch, and two totally inexperienced birthing assistants! We were lucky we managed to save 7 of the 9 pups! The ultrasound had predicted a small litter of 2 or 3 at the most. If we'd known how many more were in there, things might have gone better.

I've never seen a Ralph's or a Sobey's store.  Never seen refridgerated goats milk in a carton at the store before either :(   I wonder if our local health food stores have it?  I'll have to check. 

Walmart carries canned goat milk, I've used that before with good success.

Sunsilver, was the ultrasound done by a vet?  If so it sounds like they may have not been very skilled at it.  I can see missing 1 or 2 pups, but missing 6?!  wow.  On the other hand, if the person using the ultrasound equipment wasn't a vet or wasn't trained in it's use then I can understand missing pups. 

some stores carry powdered goats milk along with the canned.

I gave Jyota goats milk and she got so constipated and sick that I had to switch her to milk replacer.   it all depneds on the individual.

Ultrasounds are notoriously innaccurate at determining the number of pups early in pregnancy. Its best used to confirm pregnancy, then if you REALLY want to get an accurate number, you should do an x-ray shortly before delivery.

Too bad: we probably could have saved those last two pups if we'd been prepared for such a large litter!

And yes, the u/s was done by a vet at Ontario Veterinary College in Guelph.

Sad News, the little guy passed away today

I don't know the exact cause, I left him for about an hour to eat lunch and take my dogs out for a run in the fields near our home.  When I got back to feed him he was not breathing, I tried to revive him but he was already gone.  
It is upsetting, I had high hopes for him that he would make it to adulthood once he was past 3 days old.   I knew he was weak, but otherwise he showed no signs of impending death.   I looked him over real well but I couldn't find any obvious reason for death so it had to be something internal. 
He was 12 days old. 

Rest in peace little Noah
(that was the name his breeder gave him, he was from their N litter)