Best wishes to all that took a piece of me and my life this time...K
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| a past litter ....sleepy puppies ---goodnight!! |
Saturday, November 29, 2014
Last Puppy goes HOME!!
The last page in the chapter has come to a close..."Delta" found her home today! Like all the puppies, she has a wonderful family. When the couple came they talked about how some people just can't 'get' how we love our bulldogs so much...that's so true. But for us there is just something about these dogs that is so lovable. The way they get older but still play like a puppy. The wagging stump at the back of 'em. Sometimes its the way everyone else's dog is running around and yours is flopped down on your shoe, drooling into the cuff of your pants leg...they are obsessed with their owners and waking up on a cold night to the sound of gentle snoring (and its not yours) is comforting and familiar.
Best wishes to all that took a piece of me and my life this time...K
Best wishes to all that took a piece of me and my life this time...K
Monday, November 24, 2014
Been Busy!!!
Its been a busy time here. Puppies are going now to their homes and we are really spending a lot of time house breaking and making sure they all spend time playing "nicely" with the big dogs. I am fortunate that most have seen puppies and are very careful to play easy and scold puppies when needed but not hurt them. I do have to supervise the newer dogs that really are so young they play too rough. Really they don't play with the puppies rough they just start playing with each other and then get too rough and I worry they will step on a puppy or knock them down too hard. So we watch them kind of close.
There are 3 pups left here today. Its Monday evening and its been about a week since I was writing in the blog. Saturday, 2 sweeties left...tiny Squeak was one of them! Mabel went to a wonderful home and then Sunday "Biskit" went to her home and I've already had a picture from her parents...she's doing well and I know all the others are too. The people that took the big white pup (went first) was getting her as a surprise and I had an update from her family the day after she left...someone was so happy to have their own puppy! "Bobby" will go this week, Wednesday I think and his owner is excited and ready to pick him up. Now Gingerbread and Delta will be alone and soon (hopefully) we will find the right home for Delta. She's a beauty...
There are 3 pups left here today. Its Monday evening and its been about a week since I was writing in the blog. Saturday, 2 sweeties left...tiny Squeak was one of them! Mabel went to a wonderful home and then Sunday "Biskit" went to her home and I've already had a picture from her parents...she's doing well and I know all the others are too. The people that took the big white pup (went first) was getting her as a surprise and I had an update from her family the day after she left...someone was so happy to have their own puppy! "Bobby" will go this week, Wednesday I think and his owner is excited and ready to pick him up. Now Gingerbread and Delta will be alone and soon (hopefully) we will find the right home for Delta. She's a beauty...
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Another vet visit....
Warning:graphic descriptions ahead.
Well the dreaded thing happened...woke up Monday morning (day off from farming) to a thing all people who raise puppies hate to see--- diarrhea on my puppy papers. Although everyone seemed great and was ready to gobble up breakfast, someone here had a loose stool. For a calmer description from here on out I will call it "Scours" like we do on the farm. Now scours can be, for humans, just an inconvenience but for puppies it needs to be taken serious. Many diseases and issues cause scouring in puppies just like in other animals. I has suspected it Sunday but couldn't be for sure. I have raised pups for long enough that I recognize if someone is sick or off feed even a little and that was not the case. But here was a prime loose one on the papers right in front of me. I carefully scooped up a sample and inspected the pups and decided on at least 2 I wanted to take in for an exam.
At the vets they gave them an exam and then ran a "fecal" exam where they insert an instrument into the rectum and get a swab to look at under the microscope. They did the first one and found nothing although she could see there was some scours there. The next puppy was done the same way and still nothing...no worms, no parasites, nothing. They took my sample and nothing on that either but she could definitely say there was some scouring by just looking at the sample. So between the both of us we decided it would be good just to put them on medicine for two possibilities that are common to puppies of this age; Giardia and Coccidia.
The Giardia treatment is a liquid (Albendazole ) given by mouth for 5 days that will rid them of any of the protozoan that causes this illness. Dogs of all ages can be affected and its pretty common at this age when they put everything in their mouth. Coccidia treatment is also a liquid (Albon) given by mouth for 10 days and it will inhibit the Coccidia from reproducing in the intestines and they die out. Giardia can infect almost any animal and there are like 40 species of Giardia known. It is picked up from ingesting or even sniffing the contaminated ground. Coccidia infects many different animals but is not a concern for people since it is very "picky" and has certain hosts it stays with...dogs to dogs, chickens to chickens for example. Since many people come here to look at puppies it is just a possibility it can come in on peoples shoes and infect our dogs, although adult dogs rarely ever get sick from things like that, they can shed the agents when stressed. I have occasionally boarded dogs here for breeding and that's an issue for puppies too since both can survive in the dirt for years! So we started medication and even though they don't seem bothered, I AM! I am always thankful that we have never had a break of Parvovirus here at our place. All my adult dogs are vaccinated yearly and puppies at 6 weeks but you never know if a potential buyer comes to look at puppies and has just left a kennel with Parvo! That's the importance of vaccinations at a very timely manner, and why I insist that puppies stay until 8 weeks at the earliest so they can build some immunity to this deadly disease. This is a diarrhea that will KILL a puppy in a matter of 24 hours. Always it must be considered serious until they are mature enough that they have at least 4 shots under their belt.
These were taken today...they definitely are not slowing down at all!
Well the dreaded thing happened...woke up Monday morning (day off from farming) to a thing all people who raise puppies hate to see--- diarrhea on my puppy papers. Although everyone seemed great and was ready to gobble up breakfast, someone here had a loose stool. For a calmer description from here on out I will call it "Scours" like we do on the farm. Now scours can be, for humans, just an inconvenience but for puppies it needs to be taken serious. Many diseases and issues cause scouring in puppies just like in other animals. I has suspected it Sunday but couldn't be for sure. I have raised pups for long enough that I recognize if someone is sick or off feed even a little and that was not the case. But here was a prime loose one on the papers right in front of me. I carefully scooped up a sample and inspected the pups and decided on at least 2 I wanted to take in for an exam.
At the vets they gave them an exam and then ran a "fecal" exam where they insert an instrument into the rectum and get a swab to look at under the microscope. They did the first one and found nothing although she could see there was some scours there. The next puppy was done the same way and still nothing...no worms, no parasites, nothing. They took my sample and nothing on that either but she could definitely say there was some scouring by just looking at the sample. So between the both of us we decided it would be good just to put them on medicine for two possibilities that are common to puppies of this age; Giardia and Coccidia.
The Giardia treatment is a liquid (Albendazole ) given by mouth for 5 days that will rid them of any of the protozoan that causes this illness. Dogs of all ages can be affected and its pretty common at this age when they put everything in their mouth. Coccidia treatment is also a liquid (Albon) given by mouth for 10 days and it will inhibit the Coccidia from reproducing in the intestines and they die out. Giardia can infect almost any animal and there are like 40 species of Giardia known. It is picked up from ingesting or even sniffing the contaminated ground. Coccidia infects many different animals but is not a concern for people since it is very "picky" and has certain hosts it stays with...dogs to dogs, chickens to chickens for example. Since many people come here to look at puppies it is just a possibility it can come in on peoples shoes and infect our dogs, although adult dogs rarely ever get sick from things like that, they can shed the agents when stressed. I have occasionally boarded dogs here for breeding and that's an issue for puppies too since both can survive in the dirt for years! So we started medication and even though they don't seem bothered, I AM! I am always thankful that we have never had a break of Parvovirus here at our place. All my adult dogs are vaccinated yearly and puppies at 6 weeks but you never know if a potential buyer comes to look at puppies and has just left a kennel with Parvo! That's the importance of vaccinations at a very timely manner, and why I insist that puppies stay until 8 weeks at the earliest so they can build some immunity to this deadly disease. This is a diarrhea that will KILL a puppy in a matter of 24 hours. Always it must be considered serious until they are mature enough that they have at least 4 shots under their belt.
These were taken today...they definitely are not slowing down at all!
Thursday, November 6, 2014
Vet visit and playing
Not too much has been going on....just getting into the swing of feeding, cleaning, letting puppies out, putting papers down, washing towels, rugs and toys, mixing food, giving dewormer, taking puppies to the vet and treating any issues they come up with each day. Puppies are just like kids in that they get into trouble if possible. When I am asleep at night they escape into the entire kitchen and string rugs all over and pee on the floor and other catastrophes. When you call them to come in 3 come in, 2 go back out, and 1 goes in, 4 goes back and its just pandemonium. But you can't help but just laugh at them because they are so squirmy and silly--everything is just FUN for them even if you have no time to play they always do! You put clean papers down and they find a way under them and they just delight in tearing them to shreds so you have to do it all over again. They love playing with a smashed empty plastic water bottle but manage to get it out of reach behind the kennel each time and just bark until you come get it for them. In the yard they are a blast...running and rolling around each other and the big dogs. But that's where some issues come up like a splinter in a toe, dirt in someone's eyes, a bitten foot that causes one puppy to limp for 20 minutes because some puppy played too hard. That's just like kids to me, but then I raised 2 boys so they were just like that, broken toes, scratches, bruises and scrapes....
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| Gingerbread |
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| Did you call US? |
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| Gypsy is acting to "above" playing but finally gives in... |
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| Branch carrying |
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| The little peewee "Squeak" carries the branch too |
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| what are those puppies doing now?? |
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| Dr Henry --- picture I took a year ago of him doing puppy exams |
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