Hi I'm wondering if anyone can offer advice, on 15th December my toy breed girl gave birth to 3 pups, two were healthy weights, 6oz but one little boy weighed only 1.3oz, for the first 7 hours he wouldn't latch on to mum so I persevered and he started to suck a tiny bit, but the big pups would knock him off, I weighed him every 12 hours and he wasn't gaining weight, my vet told me to hand feed him, at day 7 he started to get a bloated tummy, stimulating him with warm soaked cotton wasn't producing results and mum refused to lick him,so I took him back to the vets, they gave him a mini enema, antibiotic drops, pain relief and a water injection under his skin, for 24 hours after that, he cried and cried, I rang the vets again but they said they had done all they could as he was just too tiny and they couldn't even take his temperature because he was too small.

I carried on keeping him warm (hot water bottle) massaging his tummy, giving him baby gripe water, stimulating him to toilet, feeding him with a syringe and by day 9 he finally went toilet and stopped crying.

He is now two weeks old and weighs 2.9 ounces he has a vet check up today bit I would like every piece of advice I can get.

Now that I've given his history, the advice I need is this.

He is taking approximately 1.5- 2ml every 2 hours, is this enough, I am feeding him the evavopated milk, yoghurt, egg, karo and boiled water recipe warmed to body temp.

I asked my vet but she said all pups are different and feed until he's satisfied.

Trouble is since yesterday I feed him and he doesn't settle after, he throws his head back and starts army crawling like he's on a mission, his little paws are paddling but if I offer more he doesn't want it, I've tried everything I can think of, massaging, winding on shoulder, snuggling him in his nest, putting him with mum but to no avail, he normally settles if I place my hand near him or hold him in a blanket and rock him, but he just seems more restless.

I read on here that some people start them on puppy mush at 18 days, Is that safe? I am thinking he might be craving something more filling to catch up his growth but don't want to do anything that could hurt him, I have gotten so attached to him I am going to keep him if he makes it.

He's already lapping because that's how I syringe feed him. Also being so small what do people think about worming him and when. Any advice on anything greatly appreciated.

hi i carnt give much advise as ive not had to rear for long but im wondering if hes swolling in to much air? this happens when useing syring so maybe he has tummy ach after his feed he probly needs more milk but carnt if hes full of air ,i dont think i would give any food just yet but i dont have toy breeds, hopefuly jean will be along soon to help!
but looking at his weight gain he has doubled so thats good! sorry i carnt help much but do wish you all the best with your little 1 and pry hes grows as big as the others which im sure he will :-) xxx

I personally feel you are doing it the right way, don't give any more just yet, pup is still very tiny and if you over feed it will get an upset tummy and you'll be back to square one.  I know, because I've done it!

When we've had mums with little milk, we've had pups on puppy porridge at 14 days old, once they get onto it there is no looking back, I would try a little on your finger and see if he's interested.

Have you tried him back on mum to see if, now he's a little bigger, if he will feed from her?

When were hand rearing we use infacol as its got a tiny dropper in the bottle.

I have had reared tiny ones before, but never this small.  IF he is unwilling to take more at a feed how about trying to sneak in an extra feed or 2?  Woudl he have a couple of hourly feed?  With 3 oz pups I am usually aiming for 5ml per feed if they will take it.  Not sure about the lapping at 2 weeks, but if you think he would be happy give it a go - I had a tiny 3 week old pup who suddenly refused to feed from Mum or bottle.  Ended up the only way she would feed was by sucking from my fingers, in a sort of lapping motion (2 fingers together so she sucked out form between the and then lick off finger ends.  I added Farleys rusks to the milk mix to make it a bit thicker and earier to get hold of.

Good luck.

Thank you all for your kind advice, today has been so bad, I took little Jimmy (that's pups name) to the vets, as I was leaving he stopped breathing, I rubbed karo on his gums and he came round, so obviously a hypoglycemic attack.

At the vets they examined him and said it wasn't lack of food, his weight gain is fine but that he has a touch of hydrocephalus, and that his esophagus may be too small or damaged which is what is causing him to throw his head back, she told me I should only try two more days max to see if he improves and if not I should put him to sleep, I am devastated by what she said, the thing is he seems so lively, he's not crying and he crawls up to my hand and starts licking it when he wants food, apart from him throwing his head back and the hypoglycemia he seems to have come so far, I just don't know what to do, I love him so much but I don't want to be selfish if he will have a bad quality of life, but I can't help thinking that if he grew just a bit more his esophagus might grow wider, his hypoglycemia might fade and that could be causing the hydrocephalus.

I am so torn, I just can't bear to think of him dying on a cold vets table if there is a chance he could be ok, I have cried all day, but I want to do what is best for him, I just don't know what is.

his weight gain is fine but that he has a touch of hydrocephalus, and that his esophagus may be too small or damaged which is what is causing him to throw his head back, she told me I should only try two more days max to see if he improves and if not I should put him to sleep,

I had a litter of kittens  where some were born with open fontanelles. One of them had a really HUGE open one, over an inch long and half an inch across. His head was very domed but that goes with the breed so I didn't think much of it to start with -then when the fontanelle didn't start to close I realised he did have hydrocephalus, but again not very obvious. (The fontanelles of the others did close.) He was doing fine. All the books said don't rear such a kitten, he will get brain damage etc, and it will happen over a period of time. But he seemed so well. So when he stopped gaining weight I bottlefed him. When he stopped growing despite being bottlefed (wasn't too thin, just didn't grow) I just figured I'd take each day as it came. He came running for his feeds, climbing up my trouser legs.

Boxing Day he turned 5 weeks old and in the morning I spotted him sitting in the food bowl eating chicken mince for the first time. Cracked it I thought, he's going to be fine now! Again he looked SO WELL.

Just a few hours later he was unable to walk, just kept falling over, and his soft spot on the head was bulging. He fell asleep and I left him asleep, thinking again we'll wait and see how he goes on. An hour or so later he woke up and started screaming. He screamed and screamed and kicked at his head with his hindlegs, obviously in a lot of pain. It was awful to watch. I cuddled him but nothing helped and the only thing we could do was have him put to sleep as quickly as possible. Heartbreaking.

The one thing I've learned from this is that if I ever have a kitten (or puppy) born the same again, I will let it go at birth and not go through this again. I could never have expected he could turn so bad so quickly -and be in so much pain.

I believe that I have the same breed.  I had a tiny pup that I tried my utmost to hand rear, several years ago.

Like you, it was eventually decided by my vet that hydrocephalus was the main problem.

When I had the little mite put to sleep at 9 days old, I vowed, never again.  I agree with Marianne, I could never go through it again.

There is no need for him to die on a cold vets table.  You can hold him and tell him you love him while he slips away.  Sometimes you just have to love them enough,,,,

I'm crying as I type this, but I know what I would do.

At the size of 1oz I really don't think the pup would sadly live a long life.  I had one a number of years ago and his oesophagus didn't grow fully. He lived for 12 weeks and it was so heartbreaking to lose him after such a struggle to keep him going.

No advice but how heartbreaking for the OP and you others who have fought for weeks, you'd think once you'd got them through the first 2 weeks, let alone 12, that they'd be ok. Poor little puppy, and poor you! :-(