Yesterday was a lovely day and we decided it was high time to pack the little fuzz balls out to the grass! They were utterly fearless in their new surroundings. Munchie was delighted and got a little ball playing in while her puppies were busy. We took about a million pictures and videos. A great time was had by all – followed by some serious napping (for the four leggeds, not the two leggeds, unfortunately!)!
Moving in and settling in for a nap!
Munchie’s pups’ eyes are open now and since we’ve been bottle feeding to supplement them all this time, we are now transitioning them to lapping milk. It gets everywhere at this stage! They walk in it, lay in it, walk on each other after walking in it…. They suck it off the side of the dish, their own feet, and each other’s faces! It looks like the aftermath of a milk hurricane! Thankfully, Munchie is happy to clean up every one after.
Tonight we will start soaking some kibble in the milk and make a gruel. Munch will have a hard time keeping up with the puppies growing nutritional needs, so the sooner we can get them eating, the better. With smaller litters, we simply wait until the pups join mom at the food dish and start eating on their own.
Little Specs is doing well. Here’s some pictures of her getting pottied (in case you didn’t know, very young puppies can’t do that on their own!) and tube fed. She doesn’t have good “suck” which means she can’t latch onto mom’s teat and get milk out very well. We help her along with the stomach tube which is safer than a baby bottle for puppies in her condition. She is currently spending most of her time in the incubator, but we put her in with her litter mates periodically for the comfort and socialization that provides.
Her legs are already improving! She pulls them both forward and is walking on her knees. This shows us her hip muscling and joints are in good shape and is certainly encouraging!
Yesterday we had a litter born and for the first time ever, there was a puppy with a deformity. We were devastated, especially when the vet’s initial assessment was that there was nothing we could do. Her back feet point the wrong way and are bowed. This usually happens as a result of crowding in the uterus and is not genetic.
We gave her the baby name of Spunky Specs because she wants to live and she’s not quite up to spec! She started physical therapy immediately. We are stretching and moving her legs very gently and pulling them as close as possible to the proper position. She can move them and does pull one leg forward on her own, so we are hopeful that the legs will straighten out and normalize with time.
For now she has a hard time getting into mom’s milk with her brothers and sisters and tends to get cold, so we’ve moved her to the incubator and will tube feed her as needed. She needs the colostrum from mom, so will be spending some supervised nursing time with Skyla. We will try hard to keep you updated on her progress. She is not our first “hopeless case” so send her good energy and we will work our best magic on her!
Hi everyone! So sorry it has been so many days between updates. I am a midwoof for several breeders and this past week we have had 4 litters born! I sit with their momma dogs and am there to catch newborn puppies, dry, sever umbilical cords, and even resuscitate at times.
Munchie’s puppy update: Dash passed at three days old. She had hydrocephalus, which is basically the body that creates too much cerebral spinal fluid and pours it into the brain and puts pressure on the brain. Sometimes this can be medically dealt with by placing a shunt from the puppy’s brain and draining the excess fluid into the abdomen. Often times this is a symptom of something else wrong with the puppy and is only effective if the other problem can be diagnosed and treated swiftly and successfully.
Munchie is now at 11 puppies. She is feeding and caring for all, but we are still assisting with bottle feeding and extra potty checks. In another week the puppies will be able to potty themselves and so some of the extra stuff will be able to be stopped, but we won’t be able to stop bottle feeding until the little guys are eating kibble.
I have sent in DNA swabs for the fluffy gene. This company gets back to me within a couple of weeks, and at that point, we can get you started picking which puppy will be yours! When you do choose your puppy, if you have a name picked out already, let us know so that we can start using it when handling them. This way they will be familiar with their names before they come home!
Faery Mount Farm 