Hi everyone
My bitch had three puppies by emergency c section Thursday night. The thing that is worrying me is that one of the pups is not gaining weight, he has lost about 5ozs (1lb 8oz born). He is doing everything normal, feeding, sleeping etc. anyone have any ideas.

Is he warm enough,cold is one of the biggest killers in new born pups as the body temp drops
they cant suckle and absorb the milk.
If he is warm enough I would be thinking of bottle feeding and also putting him on the back teats
where the best milk flow is and gently holding him on so to be sure he is drinking.

I would say they are warm enough all sleeping contentedly, twitching and dreaming, no shivering. He won't have anything to do with back teats i think they are too big for him i generally manage to get him in the middle ok. He sucks well and paddles and seems content

Pups tend to lose weight for a day or so after being born but after 3 days I would expect him to be gaining.
Try supplementing him a little,we used cornation milk and water and the pups thrived.

Crikey - I've never had pups lose weight in the day or so after birth - they just about double it in about 24 hours, actually, but they are usually comparatively small when they are born, maybe as I have eight or so in a litter.

By day two they are rounded little people, but quite scrawny when they're born.

It's probably a matter of litter size, breed, milk supply or a combination of all three.

I've never used Carnation milk to supplement - is it as good as Lactol?

Jo

I have had pups loose weight if they have been on the big side when born, I suppose it is harder to keep the weight on and gain in the first few days if pups are largish.

Usual weight 10 - 12oz though.  I have had pups around a pound loose or not gain in the first 3 days when milk comes in with a vengeance.

A good supplement food is lifeaid,carnation milk and boiled water.Its an old fashioned recipe but very effective.Gail :) :) :)

My parents bulldogs milk dried up after about 10 days and after chatting to the stud dog owner he
advised carnation milk and water and they thrived,nice size happy content pups all 8 of them,only problem was
when shopping people looked at us as if we were mad with about 20 tins of carnation in the trolley lol.