I HAVE A PUPPY FROM A LITTER BOOKED THAT WERE BORN 9 DAYS EARLY. DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE OF THIS? IS THERE ANYTHING I SHOULD BE AWARE OF? ALL ADVICE APPRECIATED. LOISLANE :-) :-) :-)

9 days early , this will probaly be a touch and go situation for the pups, they will be very lucky if they all survive, if any.
We have had experiance of early pups on three occasions.
The puppies are not born with all their hair, their lungs will be full of fluid as they are not designed to breath air yet, most of the time there rear ends are not open to be able to poo, they cannot control their tempreture, their suckerling on the teat will be not very strong again because they are not really ready to take fluids through there mouths yet , and sometimes when they are trying to breath and suckle they will breath the milk down into there lungs.
I feel for the person who has bred this litter very much, as they will really have there work cut out , but all the help in the world just may not be enough.

Peanuts

I had a litter 8 days early and all survived ,my bitch done all the work and they had most of their hair by the time they were about 1week old ,eyes opened later than normal and walking the same .I didn`t start weening until thet were about 5 weeks as that was when my bitch decided it was time.Keep a close eye on them and make sure mum has enough food as my girl ate a lot during first week with that litter.Good luck with your little ones keep us updated on their progress.

I had a litter born 7 days early , I kept the heating up day and night to keep them warm , other than that they were no different to any other litter I have bred and all 6 survived!

Someone I know has just had a litter born 5 days early by C Section.
The bitch does not want to know the pups. Can anyone offer and tips on how best to hand rear or encourage the bitch to accept them. Is this a common problem after a section?

7 days is usually thought to be the maximum time they can be early and still be viable, but hopefully some will make it!

I understand it is a common problem after a c-section yes, the bitch not having given birth naturally takes time to realise that the puppies are hers, I'm sure the experts will be on to advise the best way of encouraging the bitch to accept them.

> I had a litter born 7 days early , I kept the heating up day and night to keep them warm , other than that they were no different to any other litter I have bred and all 6 survived!

Seven days early is still considered full term.

Amazing that at 8 days early they had little hair but at 7 days they are considered full term !! But thank you for your information.

i would think that there could be some variation on how viable they would be as eggs could be fertilised 4-5 days after mating in some cases so that would make them more premature than you may think, i think that is why some people may not lose all/some of  the litter at 7 days early and some people will as if concieved days after the mating then they are actually more like 10/11 days early and that can make a huge difference

Had quite a few litters 7 days early in both my Pomeranian's and Spanish and never had any problems, not needed to up the heat etc and they've all been healthy, normal pups.  My last litter was born full term, I was worried about how big they were but then realised that in reality there were born a week to 5 days later than my normal litters were so it wasn't surprising that they were so heavy.  They are now around the breed average in height size etc at 5 weeks of age.