Hi, I'm new here, tho I have been reading a lot of posts in preparation for my first litter!!
My bitch had her pups early hours Tues, she started Mon tea-time, delivered 2 live, 2 stillborn, and appeared to be struggling so the vet was called and she was taken to the surgery, and had a further 8 by c-section. One of the ones born at home had to be pts, so she now has 9 pups.
We have a very small one, 8oz weight compared with average 1lb weight of siblings, so we have been hand feeding, as she appears to have no desire to suckle. I have noticed today that she is a lot more vocal...is this normal now she is getting some food inside her?? Or should I be (more) worried?? She is lively, has pink feet like her siblings, and is the same temperature as her siblings, I'm hoping she's just a little weaker and the hand-feeding will bring her on, she goes back to Mum after every feed for a wash etc.
She cries for a minute or so, then stops and seems to settle, and then starts crying again...I've tried putting her on a teat but she doesn't seem too interested, Mum doesn't appeared worried by her crying.....just me being a worry-wort:rolleyes:

please disregard this post - I have just examined her and discovered she has a cleft palate. I am so upset, and also angry, as all pups were examined at the vets before I was allowed to collect them, and this should have been picked up by them. I am heartbroken, and I don't know how my bitch will react to her being removed now as she watched me like a hawk when I was hand-feeding her...

Remove 2 pups, put one in your jumper and return the other one and leave the room.

I'm so sorry. This is exactly what I was going to say -the crying and wanting to suckle but not doing it is classic cleft palate signs. .(

Ahh so sorry to hear this.  KNow what you are going through.  Unfortunately my mums taking one of her pups to the vet tomorrow night he definitely doesn't have a cleft palate but we feel that there's something wrong with his teeth (back ones seem to big for his head).  my mums done so well to keep him going for so long.  I hope she gets good news but sadly I don't think she will.

well the little one made the decision for us last night, she went to sleep next to her mum and didn't wake up. I know it's for the best but both me and my Husband were distraught.
On the up side, we still have 8 wriggly healthy pups to worry about now!!!!

I have been told once they start that seagull cry they won't make it, and in my experience sadly it is true.

Atleast she went peacefully next to her mum.

I know, and I hope she wasn't in any major discomfort, I had been hand feeding her every hour all day, my Husband took over so I could have a break and spend some time with the other dogs, and that is when she slipped away......
I was stood by the back door earlier and I caught the scent of some Stargazer Lilies in a pot near the door, so I have decided to put the little one in a pot with some lilies, to remind me of her.
I know you probably think I'm daft, but this is our first litter, she spent 2 days with us, and I want to remember her.

I don't think anyone would think you silly. You brought her into the world and therefore she has a special place in your heart.
The lilies sound a beautiful idea and something that you can always remember her by.
Thinking of you
Anna

run free little one

I don't think you are daft - very caring

That is a lovely thing to do and a super way to remember her by, you are not silly but very kind and caring. The seagull cry rips right through you, I broke my heart when I lost a 10 day old pup and cried for days after, he had the seagull cry the day before and spent the day and night at the vets where he passed away . You gave your wee one love and attention whilst she was here.

am getting really paranoid about this "seagull cry" now...I keep listening to all the pups and their usual mumbly grumbles, and one of them does make a crying noise when actually on the teat, but I don't think it's a seagull cry??? They are all putting weight on, I guess we're not out of the woods for another 10 days yet, I'm not going to settle until we reach 2 weeks, and even then there's no guarantee

ho hum

Dear Dearlady,

Please don't worry about the seagull cry, if you have a pup with it you will be able to distinguish against the other puppy noises. Pups make some weird and wonderful noises but the seagull cry is awful and is quite high pitched, it's just like the noise the seagulls make. The crying on the teat may be out of frustration until the milk lets down. With the Seagull cry, they usually do it virtually constantly until they get weaker. It is heartbreaking, a friend had 3 of her pups with pnuemonia ( she had them pts), they developed the seagull cry, she was heartbroken as she could hear it four rooms away, unfortunately the vets could do nothing for these wee souls. They had a steriod injection plus antibiotic injection but failed to thrive. In am sure your pups will be fine, please don't worry

Yup the seagull cry is quite different to normal puppy mumbles or gripes.

You are not being silly at all. This has been a terrible experience for you and in my opinion it doesn't get better as you gain more experience. Every litter is to some degree stressful and that is because you care enough to want all the puppies to survive and Mum to be okay too. As they get a little bit bigger you feel a little bit more confident and the stress becomes less. Hope everything is plain sailing for you all now.

Hi

I am so sorry to hear of you losing your little puppy. I know what you are going through, in May we had 2 litters, A litter of 10 and a litter of 4. The litter of 10 we lost 3 of them, 1 was stillborn, 1 was rolled on by the mother, even though we had the pig rails and just went to the toilet and the 3 puppy was totally gorgeous and healthy apart from when she was in the womb she was crushed and her foot/leg didn't form properly and after 2 days I had to make the decision to get her put to sleep, as in my breed she wouldn't have a happy life with just 3 legs. That broke my heart.
Ok and the 2nd litter of 4 they were all healthy pups and then suddenly the little girl pup at 5 weeks started looking of colour and not eating, so we started to handfed her and after two days started making an awful crying noise and took her straight to the vet, but sadly she died. Which broke my heart and my friends who the puppy was going too. SO you see Puppies can die at any stage and breeding is a very tearful experience. But we all have just have to live and learn from these experiences and grow stronger next time. But I do hope all your puppies grow to become gorgeous Adults. :-)

Chezza :-)

Really pleased for you, good sign also that they are gaining weight, try to get as much rest as practicably possible. When mine get older I always have a nap, turn phones off when the pups are fed and asleep. Keeps me going through the long nights!!!! What we do for love eh

Hi Dearlady,

How are all of the pups today and secondly you? I hope you are more relaxed now and the pups are all doing ok x

Morning all (and it's a glorious sunny morning here) Thanks for asking FloraDora, the pups and Mum all appear to be well, I slept with them again last night (being a novice I don't feel I can leave them:rolleyes:) I weighed all the pups again last night, average weight gain per pup is 2oz, one only had a gain of 1oz, but I'm not going to worry too much right now, will see how she gains when I weigh them again later.
I sneaked upstairs for a lie down this morning for a couple of hours, then dashed madly down to make sure all was well.....my Girl keeps looking at me as if to say "chill out will you, I know what I'm doing!!!"
lol  

Hi Dearlady, I am so pleased that all is ok. I know what you are feeling like and I am sure you will feel better as they grow. You are not daft sleeping with them, I do for the first 3 weeks much to my husbands annoyance! I end up like the walking dead and I do things on autopilot

I sleep with mine until Mum decides she doesn't need to feed them through the night. It is a real relief to sleep in a bed after that time but as I lost one at 12 days old once while I was somewhere else around the house I just feel better to keep an eye on things (mind you she was a very clumsy bitch and is quite a heavily boned girl).

Really glad that everything is coming together with Mum and pups now, soon you will get to a stage when you can really enjoy them without as much stress. Wait until they are on their feet and running you ragged!!!!

ha yes!! I've been warned that I will look back on this as the halcyon period!!!

I dread to think the amount of poo and wee these 8 little bundles will be able to produce

But I can't wait until their own personalities start to show, there's already a couple that have caught my eye, and we havn't decided whether to keep a bitch or a dog, but she only has 2 bitch puppies....so we'll see:rolleyes:

well yesterday I managed to nip out to the Garden Nursery in the vilage, they didn't have any lilies, but they did have some beautiful Agapanthus!! So I bought 2 healthy specimens.
The little one has been put in a lovely aged terracotta pot, with these 2 plants, and under-planted with species tulips, so the pot will be beautiful all year round. And because you have to care for Agapanthus, make sure they don't get frosted etc, I can feel that I'm caring for her.
So all in all I am very pleased, even if I did shed another tear or 3 whilst carefully placing her inside.......