Hi , my large breed pups are now 6 days old and i have having problems with the smallest one , she was much much smaller than the others (half the size) and was the last born after some delay. The problem is that she does not seem to be sucking effectively and is not gaining much weight at all. She is on mum all the time and is always sucking away but i don't think she is getting much milk , even if i put her on after one of the others has started it off for her. I am now considering topping her up til she is strong enough to suckle properly.
I have bought some RC Babydog milk just in case but would like some advice as to how to get started , should i use a syringe? how much would i give her as i still want her to take some from mum too? I am getting really concerned that she is not gaining weight.

How much weight is she gaining, if you expect her to gain the same amount as the others that won't happen as she is smaller.

Hi , no she is not even gaining a quarter of what the others are Brainless.

I'm having the same issue...

What are you doing Liz?

I'm keeping an eye on her, and 6x a day for half hour I'm holding her to a teat to make sure she's getting a good go and none of the others are knocking her off. I don't want to step in too quickly because I know she needs the anti bodies from mum, especially being the smallest.... I'm considering topping her up after each feed

Exactly what i am doing , my girl is suckling all the time but doesn't seem to be getting much milk , i am starting to worry about her getting dehydrated. What are you going to top up with?

I've got some Skinners puppy milk in, but I'm going to look for some others and compare contents

get 1 of the bigst to start at the back ,so the milk is flowing well then put little pup there ,lucy we have same breed ,i had a friends bith here 5months ago to whelp and she had 8 pup1 1 of them was tiny she only weighed 345g at birth ,i didnt think she would make it! i did what ive wrote and did it all the time ,she wasnt aganing much at all but it was again she did get alittle dehydrated and had some fluids from the vets ,well she stayed the smallst till now ,at 5months she as big as her sisters ,good luck both of you xxx

Thanks White Lilly , thats pretty much what i have been doing. The last girl was only 10 oz at birth which is tiny for our breed , the others were over a lb , the biggest boy was 1lb 6 oz which isn't bad for a large litter. I am not worried about any of the others just this little girl , although she is gaining it is very slow , she looks half the size of the others , even the other girls. What do you think about topping her up?
Lucy

yes she will need the fluids , just make sure she still gets what she can from mum xx good luck xx

Anyone got any advice please? I do not want to lose this girl , vet says she is not poorly just small.

If the vet is happy with her then I would offer her a bottle after she has fed from mum.   Sometimes when they are suckling although it looks like that they are getting plenty of milk, do not forget that the milk does not let down immediately, so make sure that she stays on and does not get pushed off.  Easy to do during the day, not so easy during the night so I would last thing at night  offer her a bottle and then about 3 a.m., and then again first thing in the morning, (in case she has been pushed off by the stronger pups in the night).

Best of luck with her.

If it's a large breed, I would purchase a premature baby bottle (or similar hand rearing kit) and feed/top up the pup with whelpi or similar every 2 hours. You may find a few days of this and the pup will be strong enough to suckle for itself and is putting on weight. If after a few days the weight gain is very minimal or the pup is still weakened with little improvement, I would question whether there may be something wrong that I can't see and the vet can't tell with minimal examinations. In this case I would probably have the vet put the pup to sleep than let it keep struggling. It's easy to tell yourself they are a fighter because they've survived (not thrived) this long and that you need to carry on, but a healthy pup should show a turn around quite quickly once they are getting enough milk via you hand rearing or topping them up.

I wouldn't rush to feed extra by hand, it can cause more harm than good sometimes. 2 years ago I helped whelp and rear a large breed litter, and there was a very small one, and the same thing happened in my last litter with mine. I found that as long as they were suckling they were getting their fill. Do put the smallest pup on the back nipples before the bigger ones empty them, you can feel when their little bellies are full of milk but I think it does come with experience. I begin to wean pups fairly early 3-4 weeks and then the small pups catch up very quickly indeed. Do you have anyone near you who has had experience of breeding who can help. I know the books tell you different stuff about how much weight they should be gaining each day but that is only the ideal situation and it doesn't often happen that way.

loulou i agree , when you get a small pup its very worring but as long as shes geting milk and weight is going on she will be fine ,i wean about 2/3 weeks with my breed and they go mad for it! you will see her put loads on then lucy ,like your vet said shes not poorly just small hun so try not to worry (easy siad i know but i know how you feel) x

just make sure she dont get dehydrated x