Just thought I would post about my recent experience with a friends litter. My friend, unfortunately got the timing wrong for his litter and was on holiday when the puppies were born. To cut a long story short, one of the 6 puppies did not thrive and by day 2 was cold and listless. I put him next to my skin to warm him and syringe fed him every hour for around 5 hours. I took him to the vet who gave him fluids under the skin and he rallied. I continued to "top him up" as he seemed not that interested in feeding from mum. By this time he was feeding from a bottle and gaining weight. He then started to feed from mum so I stopped the top ups, too soon as is happened and he had to have more fluids from the vet. The upshot is, he is fine , although smaller than the rest of the litter and still on bottle feeds. The moral is.....NEVER give up on our babies. A big learning curve for me but worth every minute.

Well done but what a responsibility  to be left with. Hope your friend realises what a good friend you are

He does, furriefriends, just thought I would post this to give hope to people in a similar situation

The moral is.....NEVER give up on our babies.

My very special dog is Mickey, a 19 month old Papillon. He was much the same -rejected by his mum at birth, tiny, bottlefed, went downhill and almost died, made it etc. He's a wonderful dog. But I do have to disagree with NEVER giving up. There are times when it is far kinder to let a puppy go, than to rear it to potentially have life long problems or a short life. Every case has to be considered on its own merits, there's no one size fits all.