Orphan puppies

Rising orphan puppies is hard, demands time and is not for faint hearted. Even with most care you can provide there still is a chance of puppies dying but don't give up your hopes think possitive. But whatever you do you must take the biggest care and know what you're doing. The hopes of the puppies lay on you!

Surrogate bitches
The first thing to do, faced with this, is to look for a surrogate bitch/bitches and there are a few places where you can search.


 * Ask local breeders if they know of anyone who has a litter and who can take one or two.
 * Champdogs.co.uk.
 * local radio station and paper.
 * Your vet and other vets in the area may know of a bitch with a small litter.

If you find a surrogate bitch ask the owner to remove the bitch while you take one of her puppies and make it defecate and/or wee on the puppy you want her to adopt. Rub this around the puppy and place it in the nest with her litter. Give a little time for the smells to mingle and you will find most bitches will then take to the puppy with little problem. You need to make sure the litter and your puppy are around the same age. You don’t want your puppy’s eyes opening later than the rest of the litter or they will get pushed around.

Feeding
Purchase a heat pad, they are cheap enough, and placed it in the bottom of a crisp box with a cover on the pad that you can wash. You can use pillow cases for this as the puppy cannot get under the cloth and get too hot.This will keep the puppies in the right environment. You can use a heat lamp keep a thermometer in the box it should be around 21c (70F). Leave a cool area in the box in case the puppy gets too hot it can then crawl away from the heat. Puppies are very dependant at birth so keep good records, record their daily weight, what they took at the bottle, whether they urinated or defecated and the general condition. It is priceless to have these records both for now and future litters. One thing you will have to watch is not to overfeed. Little and often is the best and a slight press on the tummy will tell you if the pup is full the pup so it does not need to be engorged. Feed every two hours and start with 10ml given by syringe first and later a bottle. As the puppies grow you can encourage them to suck on a bottle. insert a clean finger in the puppy's mouth, let it suck and thread a syringe down the side, with practise you can press the syringe and gradually get the puppy to take the feed. We then move to a a baby bottle, the best is one that is designed for a premature baby, the teat is just right. The Catac bottles for puppies we find too small for a deerhound and the teat too hard. Think how big a teat is on a bitch and you can see how a tiny teat will be not good. Don't be tempted to enlarge the hole as the sucking instinct has to be taught and is good for the puppy. It has to learn to work for its food. It is quicker to enlarge the hole but not as good for the puppy. This is where you can pull in friends and family to help, you have to share this as you cannot maintain the 2 hourly feeds without getting some sleep yourself. A cows milk contains 1/2 the fat of bitches milk but more lactose. There are many proprietary brands of milk on the market, Welpi being the one most people recommend. Although you can use use 6oz evaporated milk 6ozboiled water with 1 teaspoon glucose 1 small egg yolk (no white) This is not recommended for sick puppies where you should use Welpi mixed to the manufacturers requirement. After every 2 or 3rd feed you must stimulate the puppy to empty its bladder and bowel. (We try every puppy after every feed but make note of any that do not empty themselves) Take a piece of wet cotton wool and for the bitch’s stroke from the middle of the tubby down to the vulva with slightly more pressure underneath the tail. Don't give up too easily, this has to be done even if the puppy is slow. With the males you must stroke up towards the penis to get the pup to wee and down towards the tail to get it defecate. At all times keep the cotton wool moistened with water or you can make the puppy sore. All this can take time but be patient it will happen. Occasionally puppies hand fed will get constipated, this can be a sign the milk is too rich - you can insert a tiny plug of warm Vaseline and massage it into the anus this will usually be enough to get the puppy to pass the stool. Never give liquid paraffin as it can irritate the intestines and if you do need to give an enema again consult your vet. Once you have been shown how to do it you will get confident. In the second week you can start to extend the night feeds slightly. Keep the 2 hourly up during daylight hours but if you feed one feed late around midnight you can get another on in at 4 then up at 7ish for another. As the puppies grow they get very smelly and messy. The bitch usually keeps the litter clean so you have to wash them in warm soapy water (use a good baby shampoo) and dry well on a clean soft towel or use a low heat hair dryer but if you put the puppies on a soft paper shred bed this will help to keep them in good order. Weigh them daily. They should put on 2/3 oz per day if they are growing right. By doing this you can tell if one is falling by the wayside and do something about it by upping the feed slightly.

Feeding programme for healthy puppies

 * At 2 weeks give 9 feeds spread evenly over 24 hours
 * At 3 weeks give 7 feeds from 6am to midnight
 * At 4 weeks give 6 feeds from 7am to midnight
 * At 5 weeks give 5 feeds spread from 7am to 11 pm
 * At 6 weeks 4 feeds from 7am to 11pm

Sick puppies
Don’t be tempted to give milk to a sick puppy. While every instinct is to put milk into the puppy start your puppies on glucose and electrolyte - boiled water and liquid life aid is very successful. It is sold in most corn merchants and is used for re-hydrating farm stock. I do believe there is similar available from Pedigree or your vet but it is always more expensive. 2 or 3 feeds of life aid with water have saved many puppies. You can however test for dehydration by a pinch test. Take the skin on the back of the puppy in a pinch and if it stays raised the puppy is dehydrated, the urine will become darker and the motions can become lumpy. It is important you act immediately as dehydration can kill very quickly but recovery is good. A very young puppy can suffer colic, and again this can be due to incorrect feed. You will hear a nasty cry like a seagull which nearly drives you around the bend. Infracol from the chemist (it is for young babies with colic) works but often the pain can cause a lot of stress. Pain and stress again are killers but we have found an eye dropper rescue remedy (in one case a tiny drop of whisky worked) along with the Infracol will help settle the puppy and relieve the pain. This condition is not to be mistaken for fading puppies which is more bacterial and need a vets attention. Don't be tempted to wean too early by putting things in the bottle. A puppy cannot take protein too early so 3 weeks is soon enough. You can get the puppies to lap earlier than 3 weeks but only feed milk feeds with maybe a little baby rice and glucose but certainly do not feed protein before 3 weeks. You could keep the pups on with the bottle even after 3 weeks as a top up to their solid feed.

Diagnosing illness
The colour of the mucous membranes can give some indication as to what is going on with a sick puppy.


 * DEEP CHERRY RED can indicate bacterial infection and veterinary treatment is necessary.
 * BRIGHT RED can occurs with hyperthermia (cause - being nursed in too high a temperature). Lower the temperature slowly, you can use a little ice pack but be careful you don’t cause hypothermia. This condition is usually caused by the puppy being put on a water bottle that is too hot.
 * PALE can indicate hypothermia (causes, being nursed in too low a temperature, shock, fading, or malnutrition) never feed puppy milk in this condition as it cannot digest and treatment is very urgent. Puppies are very dependant and get very cold quickly. They have no control over their body temperature and this is a frequent cause of early death. The puppies will appear limp and lifeless and be hard to get back so act quickly. Raise the puppy’s temperature slowly to avoid the puppy going into shock it may take a couple of hours to warm the pup but do not try and feed it with anything other than glucose and electrolyte and only around 2/3 ml every 1/2 hour. If you feed milk it will stagnate in the stomach and cause more problems, as the pup warms up the gums will become pink and if you can get a sucking reflex going you know you are winning. If the sucking reflex is not there you will have to tube feed. This condition can be heartbreaking and it is a difficult one to win.