I hope someone can help me everything you can imagine has gone wrong. My husband and I just wanted to have one litter of pups not thinking anything would go wrong and it did. Our female, Cheyanne got really sick after her litter was born, has matises (sorry can't spell that one), her boob opened up real large with a gaping whole. Her tounge has a sore on it and just today we noticed a sore area on her back right leg. We have yet another appointment for her at the vet ($700+ in vet bills so far). As for her pups we have been bottle feeding (was every 2hours) but we are feeding now every three hours. I am exhaused and I have a baby at home. THe pups are picky we tried to feed them puppy formula and they refused, then the vet said goats milk would be okay, they loved that! The vet wanted me to put an egg, little honey and pinch of salt but they refused the milk with that stuff in there.

My question is how often do I have to feed them? When can I stop feeding through the night? When can I introduce eukanuba puppy food? I am desparate and TIRED! Any info will help. I do not know how much the puppies weigh now. There are 6 of them and they are kind of big. We named them: Charity, Mia, Sampson, Kane, Bruce, and Jag. We also chart each and every feeding, and how much they ate. We do have one puppy, Charity, that is constantly eating sometimes on the hour. I make her a bottle as soon as I hear her sucking. I have to hurry or else she begins to find other items in the play pen she should not drink from!!!!!

Last question, my mommy dog is just begining to eat again and she does not seem to interested in her Eukanuba puppy food that I have for her (both dry or wet) she tends to beg around the babies high chair and will eat chicken. Any ideas for her?

Thanks

Stephanie Troxell
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You dont say how old the pups are? and the bitch needs more and better food than Eukanuba give her chicken and rice and some of the goats milk,if the pups are 3 weeks then you can start to wean i use beef to start with just scrape the blunt edge of the knife over the beef and you get pulp just put this on your finger and pups will have a bit do this for two meals and feed them as you would with there milk and very soon you will be able to give them other foods scrambled eggs live yogurt, i would also find a better food for mum.

If the pups are under three weeks then also add something to their milk. Goat's milk on its own is not a suitable food for pupies. Bitches' milk is very rich and cow and goats milk do not come anywhere near close. Can you get cans of condensed in the US to add to the goats milk if your vet approves of this?

Christine

Do you know if I start to add condensed milk to the goats milk if it will upset them? I lost my runt last week, could have been becasue she was small but I changed her food from goats milk to puppy formula. She hated it and almost refused to eat. But she was a lot smaller than the rest of the pups since birth. The vet implied I'd probably loose her. I was upset with her loss. So I am worried about adding anything to their milk since the 6 I have left are doing okay, from what I see.

Let me know what you think.

Thanks
Stephanie

You can start them on mushy puppy complete as soon as their eyes are open and they are lapping milk happily. Soak the complete kibble in very hot water. When soaked take out some and add more warm water to make it mushy but not watery. I put egg yolk into the milk once a day, probably 1 yolk between 3 puppies, whisked into their milk. My pups love this. I start adding a tiny bit of "baby rice" to the milk to make a "running cream" and once they are 16-17days they prefer it to milk alone and prepares them for solid food. They must have fresh water available as soon as they are steady on their feet.

It may have been the salt they didn't like, if they are not dehyrated I dont see why salt was recommended. Dehydrated puppies/dogs are given water mixed with glucose and salt in the right proportions, but its only a tiny amount of salt in a litre of water. Salt shouldn't normally be added to dogs feed, its very bad for their developing organs.

Remove the mum and offer them some good quality soaked puppy kibble individually on a deep saucer, right up under their chin. Eukanuba should be ok, but it does occasionally make some pups/dogs have runny poos, so if this happens, you may need to change.

Offer twice a day to begin, about a dessert spoon/level tablespoon per puppy but dont let them eat all they want for 2 or 3 days to accustom their tums to it. Watch their poos and make sure they dont get constipated or runny. Once they are polishing off 2 little meals a day you can offer a third meal at lunchtime. Still give milk drinks in between.

Its hard to advise as we dont know their age but if 2-3 weeks to start weaning I would give milk at 7 am, followed by a little meal then milk throughout the day (2 weeks every 3 hours, 3 weeks a meal or milk every 3 hours, 4 weeks and another meal at about 4 pm. If they wake very early the next morning then its time to give a late night meal as well. I give my pups their first worming once they have been on solid food about 4 days. Please get wormer from the vet and be very careful to weigh each puppy and give exactly the right amount of wormer. Keep to 2 meals for the first 2 days or so, then you can gradually increase the size and number of the meals so by 4 or 5 weeks they are on 5 feeds eating all they want. At 7 weeks you can drop to 4 meals and they should stay on 4 meals until at least 12-14 weeks. Keep in touch and we can help as time goes on. Add chicken, grated cheese, tinned oily fish (sardines/pilchard/tuna), rice pudding, beef suet, 2 oz baked crumbed dry baked pigs/ox liver(tiny pieces) - only one new thing a day though ans start with a tablespoon to see if she likes it - to the bitch's meals. feed her twice a day (I assume she has dried up) with a milk drink at lunctime. You could also drizzle a like evaporated milk on her food if she likes it. Give her daily exersise, start with 10 mins smart trot twice a day. With good food and a little exersise she will imrove. Have you wormed her since she had the puppies? If not worm her the same time you do the pups. Good luck. :-)

Hi it is Stephanie again. I am going to try and get them to lick their milk today. Last night was a long night it took over an hour at each feeding to bottle feed! I tried eariler to get them to drink from a bowl and had no luck. Is there any tricks I should try? I have a feeding in 15 minutes so I will check back in a few hours or later tonight. I appreciate your input. Thanks
Stephanie

Hi Stephanie

I am no expert but with mine i held them and let then lick/suck my finger first then gradually put the saucer to them and luckily once they got the taste they will go for it themselves. Sorry acant be of any other help

Brinny

I am sorry, the puppies are 10 days old now!

We went to the vet last week and both the pups and the mom were checked for worms. How can they get worms? They are inside pets, including the babies they sleep in a play-pen in the living room.
Also I am working on getting Cheyanne, the mom, to eat. I am making chicken and rice right now. Hope this works.

Thanks for all of your help everyone I really appreciate it!!! I will keep checking for new replys.

Stephanie

Hi Stephanie

I think it might be a good idea for you to buy "The Book of the Bitch" and "Doglopaedia" to answer many of your questions.

Most dogs are born with worms - do a search on the web for the life cycle of worms. Do you regularly worm your bitch, did you worm her with an appropriate wormer during her pregnancy? If not she will definitely pass them on and if you did she probably still passed some on.

Check with your vet about the condensed milk - he will be the best person to advise you as he can see exactly what is happening, and the condition of Cheyanne and her pups.

Christine

All puppies are born with worms. They are passed on from larava that encyst in the tissues of bitches when they are puppies. These larva are stimulated by pregnancy hormones, and pass over the placenta to infect the pups, this is the lifecycle of the dog round worm.

In fact it is mostly puppies that and pregnant/hormonal bitches that harbour worms. If regularly wormed very few adult dogs have a significant wworm burden

That is why Panacur for example can be given from day 40 of pregnancy to after whelping to limit the worm transference to the pups by up to 98%.

Even then the small number of larva multiply very quickly qand pups should be wormed at 3, 5 and 8 weeks with a modern product, and every two weeks if using Piperazine.

Pups should then be wormed every month until 6 or 9 months, and then every 3 months thereafter. Mum should be done the same.

A heavy worm infestation can stunt, and even kill puppies and cause serious anaemia

Hi, I dont quite understand how 10 day old puppies were checked for worms a week ago? How did the vet do this? I am intrigued. As others have said ALL puppies are born with roundworms. If the mother was not wormed before mating or for several months before that then they will have a HUGE worm burden. Even if the bitch was wormed not long before mating her puppies will still be carrying a large number. They only take 3 weeks to mature from encysted egg to full grown worm that is ready to breed again. So you MUST worm them with a puppy wormer between day 21-25 or your puppies will be FULL of worms and whatever you are feeding them will show no benefit. Some advise worming at 2 weeks but I think this is too early especially for hand reared puppies.I am afraid if a vet says otherwise then he is wrong. :-( As they are 10 days - keep going with 100% milk feeds for at least another 4 days - sorry!!

Thank you for your reply. I took them to the vet last week and the vet had me bring in their stool along with a sample of Cheyanne's stool. He did a fecal float and the results were negative. Cheyanne has always been on Interceptor, a monthly pill that protects her from heart worms and if I am not mistaken I believe it protects her from hook worms, round worms and whip worms.

I am still doing 100% milk feeds every three hours. It is really hard especially since I have a baby at home. I try to feed the puppies on schedule during my daughters nap times and bed times. She naps two times a day and then goes down for the night between 7 & 730. I am looking foward to them eating on their own! I just do not know what to introduce to them first.

You could start them on food now, I did make suggestions for you. If you dont fancy my ideas do ask others, but I think you should start now, Do come back and tell us how they are doing.

Thanks for staying in touch. I am going to try and start them on food tomorrow. I will let you know how it goes. As of right now they have been on 100% bottle feedings. I am trying to get the them to drink out of a bowl and I've had no luck so far! I will stay in touch .

Thanks
Stephanie

Hi everyone I hope someone can help me again? They will be 3 weeks on Saturday and I am having NO luck in getting them to lick. They are walking and are quite finiky about the temperature of their drink so I am constantly having to worm up there milk. I have tried to get them to lick from a bowl. I am putting a little rice cereal in their milk but sometimes it gets annoying when the milk does not come out. I cut the nipple a little sometimes that helps but it stills gets blocked. Anyways, I will try again tomorrow to get them to eat on their own. I thought the smell or taste of the food would get them going but it does not. Oh, they are getting their teeth in now. In addition most of them are quite BIG. They are huge some of them I have to use two hands to pick them up! They do pee A LOT, and they get very dirty since their mom cannot clean them. I am constantly cleaning. This was a learning lesson to what the Mommy dog would have done for me! Thanks again for all of your input I will check back tomorrow and see if anyone replys.
Stephanie

I have found that pups if not hungry will not want to try eating out of a plate. I have this at the moment with my own 3 week old pups, they are doing so well on Mum that they are barely touching what I am offering, and can only get a little into them about twice a day, so have given up on my usual routine of four times a day, starting with tiny amounts and increasing with appetite.

You will have to try the thickened puppy milk, or better still some scraped beef. I find you have to do one pu at a time. I usually hold the dish off the floor under their mouths to stop them walking in it. With the scraped meat you make a little ball and pop it in their mouths.

As for cleaning them, did the bitch not so this at all???? Even if she has no milk it is a;lways better to let her do the rest of the maternal things, it forms a bond, and also the pups need a canine role model and disciplinarian to grow up well adjusted.

Thank you for the reply. Today I had better luck with getting them to eat. The vet told me to take their milk and add a few spoon fulls of wet canned puppy food and blend it real good to make a shake like drink (doggy style). They are kind of drinking that and I think it is satisfying them a little more than just plain milk. Several people made the comment of 'scraped beef', I do not exactly understand. Am I suppose to scrap the meat off of the bone of something we ate?
Cleaning. I do let Cheyanne, the mom, clean them. She is always licking them, cleaning their faces after we feed them and she was for a while and still does lick them to make them go potty. She also eats their poop! But inside of their sleeping areas she cannot clean. I have to make sure she cannot get in there because her milk is 'poisonous', all of her boobs have mastites, one of which is finally healing from being wide open!

Tomorrow will be three weeks and I am anxiously looking foward to next Saturday. It takes me about one hour to feed them all. I will update soon. Thanks
Stephanie

For "scraped beef", get a nice piece of steak, lay it flat on a chopping board and scrape the surface with the blade of a knife (as if you're scraping a carrot). You're not cutting the meat, you're getting a kind of "meat pulp" that has no lumps for puppies to choke on - remember that very young pups of even large breeds can choke to death on a stringy piece of mince.

Hi it is me again. Now my puppies are 3 weeks and 3 days old. They are still 100% bottle fed. I cannot get them to drink from a bowl yet nor can I get them to eat dog food. I am trying so hard. It takes me for ever to feed them and I am very tired at night. Also if anyone can let me know, sometimes in the afternoon they tend to get loud especially after I feed them. Is this becaue they are getting older or should I be worried. They are on the quite healthy side in size and proportion. Must run baby woke up.
Stephanie