I have a 10 day old pup who was breach in the birth canal and feared dead before a C section, she was the smallest of a litter of 8 at birth and even though she was small held her own until yesterday. The mother keeps taking her out of the whelping box and placing her in all sorts of odd places, she lets the puppy feed etc etc but just keeps it away from the others. The other pups have all trebled in size and are right little porkers. This poor little girl has been back to the vet who just gave me some Royal Canin and said do what you can if she dies it was meant to be, needless to say we have hand fed her so we know exactly what she is taking and she is taking a fraction of the reccomended amount, does anyone have any ideas of what I can give her to perk her up she is looking dehydrated, we are going back to the vets this afternoon but on speaking to the veterinary nurse I was asked if I just wanted her put to sleep as it is likely to be FPS................. Of course this is not what I want and I want to give her every possible chance HELP PLEASE!!!!

i know what your going though ,this happend to me too ,i tried everything to keep ,angel alive and at 9 days old i had to pts its heart breaking :( there was nothing i or vets could do ,but if you type in FPS in the box at the end of the page you will find a post about this that might help ,it didnt help us becuse it wasnt ment to be sadly, some times there underling problems with pups that mum dont want there so sorry for you ,i hope you find away of geting her sorted ((hugs))

It's not a good sign that the dam is removing her, sometimes we need to trust the natural instincts that animals have and we choose to ignore. However as a human being I too would be trying to do what you are and save the wee mite, sometimes that is ok for us to do sometimes we are saving an animal which will continue to have medical problems which is probably why your vet has suggested putting her to sleep.

But, I guess we have to go with our heart for now, dehydration is a bad sign it is good that the dam is feeding her which to be honest is going to throw off an accurate mesurement of the substitute milk as you don't know how much of the dams she is taking. I would continue to keep placing her on the back teat, mum's milk is the best thing for her, if she is too weak then top her up by syringe or bottle just a tiny bit at a time, as she is so small she can only take a little at a time so small and frequent meals.

Has the vet given her antibiotics incase she has an infection?

I'm sure that others will be along soon with remedies they have used, I would also try anything and everything, I hope that she does pull through, if she doesn't it's no-ones fault, though bless her she has fought for 10 days so I hope she can pull through.

I had the same problem.
My bitch had 3 pups..2 were doing great..littlest 1 stopped suckling after 2 days..we were told FPS aswell...I hand fed day and night with Lactol and a syringe every 2 hrs for 2 weeks...I also put pup back onto mum in between these hand feeds so she was getting as much of mums milk as possible. I put her onto the most productive nipples and put my hand in between her and the other pups to stop them pushing her off..even just a couple of minutes suckling from mum is better than not at all....I hardly had any sleep ...my pups are just coming up to 7wks and all are doing really well. I honestly think if I hadnt done that she wouldnt be here today.

Every one is different..other people with more experiance will be able to give you more advice. I just know I couldnt give up on her.
Good Luck and fingers crossed.

I meant to add...

Tooolz told me to put a tiny amount of glucose powder on the tip of my little finger and put onto the roof of her mouth before getting her to suckle off mum..this would give her the extra energy she needed...I had some fantastic help here and Im sure you will aswell.

This little one probably has an underlying problem or infection. Maybe she is already having a course of antibiotics? Only allow her with her mother and rest of the litter to feed, making sure she gets a teat you know is full of milk. Then keep her in a warm box on a heated pad, making sure she can move away from the pad to an area where she is comfortable with the temperature.  It's essential not to stress the mother with an unwanted puppy in the nest.

The best way to get fluid into a puppy in an emergency is by injection under the skin in the neck and shoulder area. Discuss this with your Vet. It's essential this is given in a very gentle manner other wise the shock could damage the puppy. The fluid MUST be injected at body temperature. If this is done two or three times and there is nothing else wrong with her it will give her strength.

I agree that the mother knows something is wrong and, despite all efforts, there may be an underlying issue which will surface.

It is very unusual fore a mother to isolate and remove a healthy puppy from the rest.

In the last case of this I saw, the mother kept pushing a little male boxer pup out of the nest, it was hand reared and then suffered severe seizures at 2 weeks and died.

The mother knew best, sorry but is likely to be so.

I think you have to ask yourself how much harder it will be to PTS as she gets older.

Even with help she is not thriving, so likely there is a problem that will become more and more evident as she develops (or fails to).

You need to remember that you will be passing your puppies onto new owners who deserve to have as healthy a puppy as is humanly possible, and the pup deserves a Good quality of life, if this is unlikely then better a quick end. 

It's a hard thing to swallow, but part of responsible breeding.

Thanks everyone for advice will see what this evening brings at the vets !!!

Totally agree with your points tooolz and Brainless. However the OP has not confirmed the puppy has been given antibiotics and due to the difficult circumstances of her birth she could easily have picked up an infection. Although we don't know the exact details it could well be that the puppy has done very well to continue on for 10 days, so it's worth doing everything to give her the chance to survive. However if she has suffered brain damage at birth that will manifest itself in due course.

I had a puppy that the mother kept pushing away, we took her to the vet who diagnosed pneumonia, milk had got into her lungs.  After a course of anibiotics she picked up and lived to be 13 years old!!

Before making any decision I would wait for your vet to check her over thoroughly and take his professional advice.

Pup is now doing really well, she has gained 4 ounces and is really strong but I know this could change. Thanks for all your messages.

Really pleased for you...well done and good luck:)

Really pleased to hear that news.  Hope she continues to do well.

good news i had 2 in the litter 40z and 5 oz when the norm for our breed is about 7-10 dont give up to soon as my 2 went on grand and soon caught up to the others good luck