Owlet
Well-known member
I'll warn you that this can be a graphic read
I'm still shaking from it, it's been a long day. As some of you may know, I work with a dog breeder. It's mostly all good and we usually have perfectly healthy puppies. We had a momma due today and we had 9 confirmed puppies that we were expecting from an xray we did a few days prior. The first 4 puppies were birthed relatively easily, they were very strong and took to nursing immediately. They weighed 280-320grams which is a nice healthy weight.
This is where things get complicated, if you know about breeding you generally dont want too long to pass in between births otherwise there may be complications. 2 hours is like the max you want to go. And we were getting to that 2 hour mark without a puppy so we were getting concerned and preping to bring momma to the repo vet that we have on speed dial. My boss decided to try feathering her first (running your finger along her cervix) to try and encourage contractions (we didnt do this till now because the moms, and this mom specifically, generally hate it, it can be painful) we had success with this and the pup came out, however he was pale as a ghost and not breathing. We didnt have much hope for the little guy but we starting rubbing him trying to get him going and after a bit he started to gasp for air which was a good sign and we kept going and brought the oxygen in front of him. I kept going like that for ~45 min while my boss handled the rest of the babies being born (they were like shooting out now) he started to pink up a bit and cry which was an amazing sign. We kept going until we felt like he had enough mouth control to give him some nurture mate which is a supplement that's kind of like fake colostrum and helps perk the puppy up. At this point he was perked up enough that we felt comfortable enough setting him in the incubator with the oxygen and some more heat.
I barely wanted to take my eyes off him but we were still expecting 1 more pup and I had to take care of the others that were born (weigh them, mark down their information, etc) so we just let him be and he kept getting stronger and stronger. He was eventually breathing pretty evenly, no more gasping, and be was wiggling around, rooting for a nipple. So we pulled most of the puppies off mom for a little (they had already gotten a nice belly full of milk so it was okay, we left the newer pups though) and propped him up to a nipple and he started nursing! we were ecstatic because he went from this literally lifeless puppy to being able to hold himself up and nurse.
Hes still got a long way to go, hes only 200grams and hes a lot weaker than the other pups and with 8 siblings he has a lot of competition. We are hopeful that if we keep ontop of making sure he gets a turn to nurse that he can catch up and live a happy healthy normal life.
Here are some picture, hes the yellow collar pup (or the collarless on in the last pic)
I'm still shaking from it, it's been a long day. As some of you may know, I work with a dog breeder. It's mostly all good and we usually have perfectly healthy puppies. We had a momma due today and we had 9 confirmed puppies that we were expecting from an xray we did a few days prior. The first 4 puppies were birthed relatively easily, they were very strong and took to nursing immediately. They weighed 280-320grams which is a nice healthy weight.
This is where things get complicated, if you know about breeding you generally dont want too long to pass in between births otherwise there may be complications. 2 hours is like the max you want to go. And we were getting to that 2 hour mark without a puppy so we were getting concerned and preping to bring momma to the repo vet that we have on speed dial. My boss decided to try feathering her first (running your finger along her cervix) to try and encourage contractions (we didnt do this till now because the moms, and this mom specifically, generally hate it, it can be painful) we had success with this and the pup came out, however he was pale as a ghost and not breathing. We didnt have much hope for the little guy but we starting rubbing him trying to get him going and after a bit he started to gasp for air which was a good sign and we kept going and brought the oxygen in front of him. I kept going like that for ~45 min while my boss handled the rest of the babies being born (they were like shooting out now) he started to pink up a bit and cry which was an amazing sign. We kept going until we felt like he had enough mouth control to give him some nurture mate which is a supplement that's kind of like fake colostrum and helps perk the puppy up. At this point he was perked up enough that we felt comfortable enough setting him in the incubator with the oxygen and some more heat.
I barely wanted to take my eyes off him but we were still expecting 1 more pup and I had to take care of the others that were born (weigh them, mark down their information, etc) so we just let him be and he kept getting stronger and stronger. He was eventually breathing pretty evenly, no more gasping, and be was wiggling around, rooting for a nipple. So we pulled most of the puppies off mom for a little (they had already gotten a nice belly full of milk so it was okay, we left the newer pups though) and propped him up to a nipple and he started nursing! we were ecstatic because he went from this literally lifeless puppy to being able to hold himself up and nurse.
Hes still got a long way to go, hes only 200grams and hes a lot weaker than the other pups and with 8 siblings he has a lot of competition. We are hopeful that if we keep ontop of making sure he gets a turn to nurse that he can catch up and live a happy healthy normal life.
Here are some picture, hes the yellow collar pup (or the collarless on in the last pic)
