Little eyes start to open

Today is 9-30-14.  The pups eyes started to open yesterday.  They all had tiny openings in the morning and by evening most were open pretty big...all but Big White.  Hers opened a little just today.

I cut their toenails today for the first time.  They "knead" her udder when they are nursing and their little nails are like needles!  I know it can't be comfortable and also they rake each other in the face...with new eyes open I surely don't want one scratched now.

Salty is doing better.  She still wants to be babied, being watered with a big syringe each time, even through the night.  I have got her to drink out of a bowl twice this week.  Pups are really fattening and with that is much more poo and lots of pee!  Towels in their pool to be changed real frequently so they don't make a mess.  Salty cleans them some but now they just pee when they feel like it and the towels get kind damp after a few hours.  They used to just wait for her licking but now its a free-for-all.  :\

She now spends more time just sleeping in the doorway instead of with the pups all the time...and they are content to sleep more and more too, starting to lay upside down---they are so cute and look like little walruses!

a WEEK old

We have been a week.  Friday was a little nerve-wrecking.  Woke up (after a 3 hour night "nap") to hear Salty up at my bed.  She was wanting out.  Before we made it down the hallway she started vomiting.  She tossed up all her food from over 10 hours ago, I too had a bad feeling in my stomach after seeing that...something was not at all right.  I put her out and she just stood there on the porch.  I brought her back into the bedroom and she just sat there shivering.  I found a thermometer and took her temperature, a high fever of 104.5 F.

I gave her some more water and looked at the time--5:15 am.  She had a slight pinkish discharge and she acted like she was pushing another pup out!  Probably from the strain of vomiting and also maybe an infection of the uterus?  A run to the vets would be in order for sure.  I watched her for a while longer and she settled down and seemed to relax.  More water.  The crazy thing about Salty is she is picky when it comes to WATER.  She wants the water to be running.  She will seek out a leaking hose especially one that leaks from the faucet so she can drink from a "fountain".  She hates drinking from a bowl.  So to help with that when she has puppies I often let her drink from a novel bowl that we use for soup (she knows its a person-bowl) or a solo cup.  He favorite drinking thing is a big 50cc syringe.  You fill it up and slowly squirt it out and she takes it in the side of her mouth and licks it as it squirts out.  CRAZY, I know but worth her doing well.

Without enough water she will not make the milk needed for nursing pups and her food intake will slow down and weight will start to fall off....both not good.  I often feed her by hand if needed, always with her puppies and most times I hold the bowl the whole time she eats.  Not all females-new mothers are like this but she is, and she has beautiful puppies.  If I make the decision to get her bred I have to also take on the responsibility of making sure she is ok and does well with those little pups.

At the vet's she was cheerful and perky but still had a fever of 103.2.  An x-ray was done, an abdominal check.  Luckily no little skeletons of retained puppies---a big, big problem for a dog.  She looked good to the vet and she felt like she just had the beginning of an infection.  A shot for the fever, an antibiotic shot and some Amoxicillan for home for the next 2 weeks.

Now writing this its Saturday and she is already on the mend.  Puppies doing wonderful, nursing just fine and gaining weight!

taking care of puppies...

Now is the hard part.  Night after night of little sleep.  Waking at every peep.  2 hour "naps" at night while Salty is outside or in the kitchen pining to be back with her litter.  Its getting better though, I find puppies all able to get latched on just fine on their own and when I just can't wake myself now and sleep on for 4 hours I see she has moved and changed position but everyone is fine.

 Count 1 ...2...3...4...5...6...7 puppies visible when I lean over the end of the bed and look.  They are all strong and I check each time for fat, plump bellies.

Now I handle them and hold them upside-down and play with each little paw.  This is part of their human-training.  In 8 short weeks they will have to be still, get nails done, be well mannered, be obedient, know their human is someone to be trusted and IS very familiar.  It starts now when they are just getting to know their world.  They only smell me now and some hearing but mostly touch and smell.  I can see their little ears unwinding inside and soon hearing will be much sharper.  In another week or so eyes will be cracking open and the real fun will begin!

Made it through the night....

So now we are up eating breakfast (Salty, Mom and me)  Cooked Salty some eggs and she had some cooked pork --anything she will eat for her first meal, and Mom cooked my breakfast.  Spent 1/2 the night up helping the little red pup get "on" a teat and made sure she was nursing.  Woke up a few times and found Mom in the room doing the same.  Both of us are broken down with sore backs, rib cages and rubbed knees and elbows from leaning over into Salty's pool to help them nurse through the night.  Funny how it only takes a few minutes of propping up on my elbows to completely rub the skin off.  It happens each litter the same, I need some elbow pads like a skateboarder.

Every single squeak and movement sends you dashing over the bed to check on the pups.  Its so easy in the first few days for the dog to lay on a little one when she shifts her position since the puppies naturally tunnel down under her warm belly to find a nipple.  It makes for a long week and during the day you fumble around like a drunk person, barely able to think from lack of complete sleep.  I set my clock for 2-3 hour checks to make sure a puppy had not wandered away from her allowing it to chill or maneuvered behind her making it easy to be crushed by their own mother who may not hear their tiny voice yet.  In a week they will be much stronger and really cry out if sat or stepped on accidentally by the mom, plus they can wiggle out from under her pretty easy by then.

Now they have new clean towels fresh from the dryer and all are lined up nursing...time for me to rest.

DELIVERY DAY!!

9-18-14

Puppies came today!  When I got up and put the dogs out at 6 am, Salty wanted to back to the bedroom...I put her back in the kitchen and she was panting and wrinkled her nose when she refused her favorite snack: pepperoni.  I had a feeling she was already in labor.  I went on the the farm and called my mom a little later, she already planning on  coming down for dinner.  She was only 15 minutes away and would call me when she got to my  house.  At 10 she called and said Salty had already delivered on pup and it was too cold...she went to work on it warming the little life.  I came home to find a proud midwife with 4 puppies!

 The next pup was born not breathing and I quickly went to work on the lifeless tiny baby.

warming up the pup who I just got breathing

 Rubbing and offering canned oxygen made for human runners, he finally started coming around and was taking gasping breaths.  It took several airway swings and more rubbing and he began to pant and the immediate danger was over.  Salty went on to deliver 2 more and then things halted.

At 2:15 I phone my vet and talked to him about the labor and how I could just feel a little foot but she was not progressing.  We decided to give her some more time.  I had given her

Calcium at 12 pm and that should keep her uterus in good shape to push.  The pup was not stuck but just too far back.  She continued to push but not real hard.

4:30.  Another call to Dr. Henry.  He suggested we go ahead and run her in and he would check her.

We got to Clinton by 5:25 and he could not feel a thing.  (I was hoping just the car ride would result in a birth)  We opted for an x-ray and we could just see what looked like 2 pups.  He and I decided not to rush in and do a c-section since she was not frantic and seemed fresh.  2 more injections of Ca and instructions to use Oxytocin in a hour after arriving home.

She still was pushing some at 6:30 when I gave her the shot.  I moved her into the bathroom where she could walk around, dig, and labor more freely than in her kiddy pool in the bedroom with the puppies.  At 8 she finally pushed out the little one.  A brindle stillborn pup- his head turned over his shoulder keeping him trapped for too many hours.  A next puppy followed immediately but this one too was born dead, unable to move past the other blocking puppy.  This sad delivery was overshadowed by a lovely litter of 7 finally happy to nurse their tired mom.  All are well.

The tiny red pup that had been born not breathing now needed more help getting on and nursing.  Right after she was born I gave her a q-tip of Karo syrup on her tongue and she got a bit more interested.  Now it was close to 9 and I wanted to get her on and make SURE I saw her get a belly full of colostrum.  Another touch of Karo and after 10 minutes she got a kick and started to nurse after some help.  Time now to feed the other dogs and take a break!  Pictures in the morning since now it will be a long night of assisted nursing and watches to make sure no one got smashed by an exhausted Salty.

About Food and Feeding! (or the open wallet post)

Well, a little time out to discuss feeding.  Most people that come want to know what we feed...we stick close to Eukanuba but use Iams, EVO and sometimes California Natural.  I am not against any other feed but I'm in  program from the makers of Eukanuba and get free food after so many purchases.  You can get in too if you enter my # in the BREEDsmart program web page here:  411660775420116 and then follow the prompts.  Plus they will send you monthly milestones for your puppy or dog and coupons too.  

Brace yourself...we have also been a RAW feeder too.  We bought a big grinder and ground chicken quarters, chicken, beef, beef heart & liver, whole fish and pork.  Bones of chicken included in the quarters.  We of course mixed essential minerals and omega-3's, calcium and small amounts of vegetables too.  Loved the results but it just got so involved with 9 dogs.  We didn't have a great way to do it all at one time and store it but we fed raw exclusively for almost 4 months.  I will definitely do it this winter in combo with dry (always soaked in warm water) food.  I do believe in using grain free foods when ever possible.  I love EVO for this quality.  Its pricey though.  28lb bag is about $60-$65 and it won't last long with 9 dogs.  This weekend I bought a bag of EVO Chicken and Turkey and one California Natural Salmon and Herring, both bags about 25-28lb and spent over $120 for them together.  I see now on Wednesday that they will probably last until next week, about 10 days.  I had a 33lb bag of Eukanuba Puppy already that came from WAG.com, bought with Eukanuba "points" so I'm feeding that too and that's how the other two will stretch until next week! 

Just doing the right thing with my dog's nutrition is important to me.  I try to keep learning from others and try to understand what is best for them at all stages of life.  I don't want to feed for mere existence, I want them to thrive and have life lived to the fullest without disease and health issues that can be caused by poor nutrition or wrong feeding practices.  Its kind of like the difference between meals always from fast food or pure home grown fruits, veggies, and meat.  We have changed the outside of the dog...the sizes and shapes but very little if any has changed on the inside!   What they could catch and find as a wild animal is probably the best for them (but balanced of course) possibly more abundantly but with measure always.  They probably never came upon corn,wheat, or other grains to eat in any large quantity other than as stomach contents of rabbits, etc. so I like them out of my feed if possible.  But the reality is some grains will not be the end of your dog but each dog may or may not have problems with them...just be informed and do what you can to get as close to your own ideal program that you can.  k