With every litter, you always learn something new.
The puppies are thriving, gaining weight, learning how to play and become more and more confident on their paws. Which is such a joy for me to see and monitor their every milestone reached. I have immense pride for how I rear my puppies and seeing them develop is reward that continues throughout their adulthood too.
The mum, in this case Wilma a first time mum has been exceptional. The level of care given to her, meets the same high standards of any animal in my care. The past couple of days have been hard for her. Her needs are as important as the puppies. Being given calcium supplements daily, additional meals, scrambled eggs, cooked fish, nutriplus gel regularly to help ensure she is meeting the nutritional demands.
Wilma has been struggling with feeding the pups for the last two days and it had looked like she didn’t want to feed them anymore, as a result her milk was overflowing bless her. The concern of mastitis is always on my mind (along with other health problems). We have always had a system in place that ensures we are checking mums teats at least three times a day. A simple method of wiping her down with a soft flannnal soaked in diluted hibiscrub ensures we can feel for heat or hardness every single time. This process is never missed. So should the teats become engorged we are going to be safe in the knowledge of the timeframe. This is the difference between puppy farmers who don’t care about their animals and a breeder who cares about their animals beyond measure. The system enables us to be confident things are never missed. We are also very likely to pick up on a problem outside of those routine checks namely because I look for possible problems all the time (as my mentor will verify). Just to note having a mentor is about challenging my thought processes, we support each other on what is a rollercoaster of emotions fuelled by a lack of sleep. So a big thank you to Lynda from Davricanby Labradors.
So whilst Wilma was finding it hard I was making a decision about how to handle the situation. Do I give her home remedies to reduce milk supply? Does she need to see the vet? Do we really want her to stop feeding the pups? It is not a decision to take lightly. When the answer of what to do became so very obvious.
It became apparent she was desperate to feed them and wanted to feed them but just couldn’t face feeding them.
The solution presented itself yesterday mid morning when she tried to feed them but was overwhelmed by 7 puppies all going at her teats with gusto. So now we are on rotational feeds with the puppies. They are all having milk based on two pups at a time. Wilma is much happier and can manage two puppies at a time. I am keeping a chart of which puppies have their turn. So puppies are fed fairly. Wilma’s teats are being monitored so regularly that she thinks Im obsessed.
Being a conscientious breeder means making decisions for welfare throughout the entire 8 weeks the pups are in my care. The responsibility is huge and exhausting so I take my joy with my wonderful flourishing puppies.
so.. as updates go you haven’t even had a new puppy photo but a small insight to having puppies.
The pups additional nutritional needs are being met with four meals a day.
I’m much happier as Wilma and her puppies needs are met.
As an experienced breeder I haven’t encountered this situation quite like this. I have had pups stop being fed before but at 6 weeks of age so I was happy to take the decision of stopping milk flow (using herb supplements which was enough for thats occassiom). This was different as Mum wanted to keep feeding and the pups were still of an age where they can digest the nutritional values from.the milk. Whereas at 6 weeks they no longer digest milk effectively and have nothing to gain from being given any milk.
