Monday, May 18, 2015

Sleep Deprivation & Puppy Breath

Two weeks ago today I received a text regarding a momma giving birth to some puppies outside.  To make a long story short, when I got there momma dog had a 8 puppies in total but sadly 6 of them had froze to death. Momma dog was not producing any milk and the remaining two were very cold and I wasn't sure if they would make it.  After speaking with the owner she released ownership of the puppies to me and since then it has been round the clock care.  For the first week the scheduled feeds had been every two hours but I am happy to say we are now up to 3-4 hours. 
 
Last week I cried some tears over the little black as for a few days he was not eating well and every couple of hours I had to give him about 3cc of sub-q fluids as he was dehydrated.  It was the 3rd night/morning about 4am that he grabbed onto the bottle and wouldn't let go.  He ate a full ounce that evening and from there it has been all up hill.  I have been weighing them since the second day and the little brown one came in at 328grams and last night he was 995grams.  The black one was 325grams and he is now 830grams and each of them are eating about 3 ounces at each feeding.
 
Even though their eyes and ears are not open yet they are starting to get their own personalities.  The black one is a bit of a diva, likes his milk a certain temp, not too cool/not too warm and likes to drink either on his left side or upside down. He also whines and cries loudly when it's close to feeding time where the brown one is content to sleep until it's dinner time.  He also loves to sleep upside down on his back, I guess living with GSPs it has rubbed off on him.  The brown one is a little piggy and loves to eat on his belly and will eat the formula at any temperature and will drink non stop.  They have started to make some growling noises and Blitz always checks them out when noises come from the box.
 
They had a wee bit of frost bite on their nose and pads but they have basically all healed and their colour is not as pink as when they first come to us.  Noses have changed from pink to black and their pink pads are getting some black dots on them.
 
For the first week Blitz woke up with me throughout the night to 'help' feed the puppies.  He would sit beside me while I would feed them.  It only lasted about a week then he would just lift his head from his bed and look at me and then go back to sleep.  Both him and Molly are getting more and more curious of them and he probably can't wait until they can walk and play with him.
 
I am thinking of a couple of names for them, Atka means guardian spirit and thought it would be a good name for the brown one.  Miki means little which is suitable for the black one as he was so tiny. 
 
So tiny and pink when we first got them
 
 
Not as pink but still so tiny

 
Sleeping peacefully on a heating pad

Talk to the paw

Loves to sleep on his back

He wedged himself between the towels and slept

After feeding

Upgraded to a larger box

First day and Blitz was watching over them

He is never too far from the puppy box

Making sure Craig is looking after them

Blitz was a bit upset as I was transferring them from one box
to another for cleaning

So comfy and sleeping like true honorary GSPs

Following pics were taken today - notice no more pink faces

So cute!

Relaxed

Famous sleeping position
 
Talk soon!