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!