For puppies that are born small, they will struggle to make their way to mom. The bigger ones can easily push them away. This litter girl has a strong suck and pulls well on the nipple. She just hasn't been gaining and in fact she has lost weight. For the first day we just held her to the nipple for 15 minutes. Once this appeared to not be working, we chose to supplement. Once we supplement this is when we classify them as a "runt". Runt is an over used term to refer to the smallest puppy. It actually means extra measures need to be taken. At this point, we are taking those measures. Does this mean there is something wrong? Not always. If there is, she won't make it. If she begins to thrive then she was just born small.
We have puppy formula that is a goat's milk. We use a tube and measure to the bottom of the rib case and mark with a sharpie. We must gently guide this in. There must be NO RESISTANCE, if there is then start over because you are in the lungs and they will aspirate. The test is to suck on the tube, if you get a void, meaning nothing happens you are there! At those point we feed 1 ml per oz of weight of the warm formula very slowly. At the end we hold the tibe up to let it finish, pinch it tightly and gently pull it out. This keep air or extra milk from getting anywhere else. We add a little bit of honey to keep the blood sugar level and we also give a little bit of liver water. My vet trained me on how to properly do this. Pups must gain, must maintaining blood sugar, body temp by being close to mom. If not, they will die very quickly. With this litter girl, we are feeding every 2 hours, at the one hour mark we are holding her on a nipple so her sibling don't push her off. On the half hours we are checking on her and about every other time giving her honey. The liver water is after being fed every 4 hours. We do NOT want to over feed what she is capable of taking on. I will try to do a video to show this later. Weigh ins are every hour. She is strong, she has a strong suck and she stays close to mom. If mom pushes her away that is not a good sign. A mom will push a sick baby away if there is something wrong. Maggie Mae has not done this so we will continue this process around the clock. In the night we will go to every 3 hours. 4 hours is the typical time frame, but she is very young. Tomorrow morning she goes to the vet to removes dewclaws for the litter. More than likely she will keep her dewclaws to keep from stressing her any further.
We have also begun ENS with the other pups, but since we are handling her so much, we are not doing this protocol specifically, but based on the steps of ENS she technically is getting it while being handled.
The first photo is our little Miss. The 2nd one is Jeanette Forrey with the Socialization Program we use.
1:06 PM Monday 3.75
2:35 PM Monday 3.95
4:25 PM Monday 4.1
