Our little dog gave birth, did you follow my suggestions in the text published in 2016? Well, now we will take care of her, the new mummy and her pets .
At the birth they have been weighed and identified with different colored collars. First details have been recorded on a sheet, daily update to verify the right growth according to the race.
First 24 hours are the most critical, we will have to pay the highest attention to some things:
- Verify the appearance of each puppy. He has to be vital, warm and soon in search of mummy’s nipples.
- The face mustn’t have lip or palatine wounds. The eyes are closed, they will open them only after 10/15 days ( like the ears).
- The Limbs are short but perfectly formed with visible nails.
- The abdomen, particularly near to the umbilical cord, that the mother will have bite with teeth, mustn’t show wounds, bulges or haematic spots. The genitals are visible but not yet the testicles in the male which will go down in the scrotum only later.
- Puppies, generally the bigger, will try and reach the inguinal breast that are the ones with more milk, leaving to the smaller brothers the thoracic ones. You will take care and change them to avoid that some puppy has less milk than the “ bullies”.
- If puppies are a lot, check if their mother has some difficulties in nursing all of them. You will have to provide everything to become a nanny.
Ask to your Vet Doctor.
The mother will lick the anal area of the puppies to stimulate them to evacuation and urination, you will not find either faeces or urine because the mother will always clean all.
This attitude is important in nature to avoid that the predator can enter the nest.
Be sure they can easily move in the place considered as the “nursery”.
In small spaces the mother could sometimes squash one or more puppies without noticing that.
In the first days you will have to locate a warming lamp to avoid dangerous hypotermia, it will be put over the kennel but to direct contact with the puppies.
Then if a puppy should die by an accident, inform the Doctor who will decide according to the conditions of death if submitting him to verifications and/or autopsy to exclude viral or bacterial pathologies which could threaten the whole brood.