I have one living puppy from a litter of 15, five of which were stillborn.  This little fellow is very strong, with a strong suckle a and has been since born two weeks ago.  However, he is below normal birth weight and hasn't increased in weight at all, despite plenty of milk from mum and bottle top ups.  He is very settled and happy.  Has anyone had similar experience, and do you think I should persevere with him.

Sorry to hear about your lost ones...never an easy thing to deal with. I always tend to breathe a sigh of relief when we get to the two week mark as the pups are out of the 'Danger Zone' as I call it. Obviously you still have to be careful but I always think that once you reach this point the pups are much more likely to be viable.
I would say definitely persevere as you have obviously being doing everything you can up to this point and it would seem such a shame to stop now...we had a litter that mum completely lost interest in at about 3 weeks so started weaning then so you are nearly at the point that you could start introducing puppy porridge to supplement.
In my experience the tiny ones often play catch up when they start on solid food ... quite often very quickly so that it becomes hard to tell which one they were in the litter.

Has your vet had a look at him? I wouldn't be happy that he has not increased in weight at all, very worrying, particularly as he is a singleton pup now, he should be thriving.  Although saying that if he is happy and feeding and appears to have no outwardly defects I would not give up on anything fighting to live, you should give him all your effort and TLC.

Your girl had a very large litter, 5 stillborn and over time you have lost another 9? :-( Does your vet have any answers to that? Have autopsies been done on the other pups, has your vet recommended any medication? If the cause is a virus it may even be better not to let the dam feed the pup at all and just to bottle feed, I know that colostrum is important but as full milk is due now it would be a worry for me whether the pup will gain better on the bottle, what has caused such a great loss of life? You need to know a cause or at least a surmised caused.

It's such a great and terrible loss there may well be something wrong with this pup too, you need answers........ but no I wouldn't give up, I would fight to the last, keep going there is always hope, never give up!

So sorry........ it's so heartbreaking when things like this happen, I will keep my fingers crossed for the little one. x

As the pups were premature it will take time to reach the same milestones and weight gain can be slow too.

Provided he is gaining weight and acting normal I wouldn't worry too much.

Ahh.... The curse of starting new threads and not knowing what came before, didn't realise the pups were premature, he still should be gaining some weight though even if slowly, bless him. x

> hasn't increased in weight at all, despite plenty of milk from mum and bottle top ups.

I had this in a litter and put the puppy to sleep at 11 days.

Plenty of Nutrition in should mean weight gain and growth, points to some serious abnormally, whichh would only become more apparent with time as the puppy fails to develop.

Even should the pup survive infancy, who know what health issues, poor quality of life and lifespan it may have.

>I had this in a litter and put the puppy to sleep at 11 days.

Unfortunately I would be as worried as Barbara.  I had to have a 9 day old pup PTS a few years ago for the very same reason.

I always suspected some unseen abnormailty.

Sadly I would not hold out kuch hope for this pip. Even prem. pups shd put weight on. Has mum been propely checked over? R u topping the pup up?

I had this experience once. One puppy not gaining weight etc. I tried my utmost to the extent the puppy then started gaining weight and although a lot smaller than the others then appeared to be normal. He went out to his new home but fell ill and died at around 14/15 weeks/ It was awful but turned out there was a reason for the earlier problems ( I thought he was being lazy or taking longer to recover from birthing - there were also 15 1 stillborn ), Turned out that he had one immature kidney ( basically shrivelled ) so his problems had been greater than I thought. He was the most lively friendly puppy at 8 weeks because of all the handling but later started to deteriorate. I would investigate further if I had a problem like this again. Fortunately in my case all the other puppies were fine. Sorry to hear about your loss which is tragic.

He is now gaining a little weight daily, and is ravenous with the bottle, so having to be careful not to overdo it.  He is a strong little fellow, and I hope we are turning the corner with him.  I will be taking him to the vet when I feel he is strong enough to cope, but want to take things very slowly, and give him as much help as I can.  He has proved extremely resilient up to now, and will not be letting him go, but keeping him if he pulls through.  I have grown very attached to him, and couldnt part with him now.  In any case, if there is a problem, I will be the one wanting to deal with it.

we had a little girl born here 3years ago now and she was so tiny i told hubby to get used to the fact she wasnt going to make it she was even smaller then half of the rest of the litter shes still small but never had any health problem at all so fingers crossed for your little man x

Update.  Puppy now 1 month old and going strong.  He is 100g bigger than when born and gaining 20g a day now, up on his feet and eyes open.  We have named him Freddie and as yet not weaned but being topped up by bottle.  He lets me know if he dislikes the puppy porridge and while mum is still able and willing, happy to leave it as it is if he is gaining weight.  Getting very attached, so think I will have 7 dogs!!

Well done Jennyho - hope he continues to go from strength to strength.  Think I would too not be able to part with such a special fella!!

>Getting very attached, so think I will have 7 dogs!!

:-)  :-)  :-)

How perfectly normal you sound.   ;-)

That's great news, I've been watching for updates and praying this little now will make it. Fingers crossed he continues to grow xx

Great news :)

thats great news :)

Keep going Freddie, oh he is a definite keeper........ hope he continues to climb that mountain, he's your little miracle. x

Freddie has now hit the 400g mark, his eyes are open and he is on his feet.  He has also started taking a small amount of puppy porridge, and although being topped up by bottle, still suckles his mum, who is brilliant with him.  Obviously he still needs constant attention, but has a cute, very strong willed character and is now a delight to watch, as he tries racing across the whelping box.  He is very attached to his teddy, and can usually be seen fast asleep on the heat pad cuddling his teddy.  I am so hoping that he continues to thrive.

Hes a month old and just opened his eyes? wow that's very late - I had a litter born on Day 57 (large litter for the breed) but they all had their eyes open by 2 wks - how premature was the litter

This pup has struggled from the start and lost all his littermates, the fact he is still alive is a miracle so being slow with milestones would be the least of his breeders worries.

At no point did the OP say he had just opened his eyes, she just said his eyes were open and he was on his feet and that he is now a month

Fantastic, you must have put in so much hard work to get him this far after such a terrible experience with the rest of the litter. Fingers crossed he continues to make progress from here!

I am not concerned when he gets to each stage - I am happy that he is surviving, and shows great strength, and am confident he will be a very healthy, active puppy eventually.

Update on tiny puppy.
Freddie is now running around the kitchen, playing and generally being very appealling.  He recognises voices, is very responsive, and getting lots of cuddles.  He is not taking milk from mum now, and is feeding and drinking well.  He adores scrambled egg and yoghurt.  All signs are good, and he has become stronger and stronger, with absolutely no problems whatsoever, apart from being smaller than he should.  His mum looks amazing -  as though she has never had a litter. I cant explain how relieved I am to have one puppy survive from such a stressful time. 

Thanks for the update. So pleased for you and this baby :) :)

Ah, well done. So pleased to hear about Freddie.

Great news!

Great news, glad the little one is doing well.

Its fantasic news well done you and freddy :)

Update on Freddie.  He is now a normal, chunky, lively pup who has caught up in size and an absolute delight.  He has been vaccinated and checked over and is very confident, friendly and very popular.  He is my little treasure and it still astounds me that he managed to survive.

Thanks for the update on Freddy, well done, now you can just enjoy your little miracle.

Great to hear he has caught up, and thanks for letting us know, we rarely get to find out what happens to pups who had a rough start.

Wonderful! :-)

Well done i can imagine how relieved you are. Enjoy your gorgeous little puppy xxx

Fantastic jennyho, really, really good news, love a happy ending. :-)