Need help quick--puppies

[AndreaMoon]

My mother has a Golden Retriever. She got her as a puppy and never got her fixed out of irresponsibility. She is chained up outside all the time. It has always hurt my heart but I haven't been able to talk sense into her about it. I never really go around the dog or pet it because she is very unruly. You can't get near her without her jumping on you. I know it's only because she doesn't get the attention she needs. Yesterday Mom says Ginger is sick, she threw up. She said she thinks she may be pregnant. Oh I was so mad because she is so young So today I see my Mom and she said Ginger had puppies. I can't believe no one even knew she was pregnant until yesterday. Anyway, all this is beside the point. Here's where I need help. Ginger had 10 puppies. Only 3 survived. Mom said the rest were in sacks??? Do you know why this happened? Is it common for a dog to lose that many puppies? Also, Ginger is acting like she doesn't know how to nurse them. I don't really understand this because I haven't seen it with my own eyes. I would think instinct would take over here. Ginger is over a year old so I don't think this is all because she's too young but I have no idea about the proper age for dogs to breed. This is all just breaking my heart and I want to help and understand. Thank you.

[Dax]

I debated whether or not to answer your post. Your mother is one of those owners that I would like to put in a 4x6 cage for a couple of weeks or tie to a tree on a 10ft lead for a while.

It is likely she lost that many pups for a variety of reasons –
a) She should be over 2 years of age for breeding.
b) She should have had a proper whelping area set up so she could keep pups safe and warm. (At the end of rope doesn’t cut it)
c) Proper care & nutrition is a must during pregnancy as well as during birth. If she is inexperienced and no one is there to help her – the puppies are at risk.
d) Your mother isn’t experienced enough or a good enough dog owner.

I’m sure when Ellierat comes on line this afternoon she can provide you much more information.

Here are some things you can do now to make sure the few that are left make it. Set up a quiet room where she can lie down in peace to nurse them –preferably in a box she can easily get in & out of but the pups can’t. Increase the quantity and quality of food. Her body needs more nutrition (fat & calories). Make sure the puppies are properly cared for – you may need to hand feed if she isn’t. The puppies will need to be de-wormed at 2 weeks or may suffer permanent damage.

My advise to your mother would be to get this dog fixed as soon as she’s finish weaning the pups – put in a kennel run allowing the dog to have some kind of a life – or give her away to someone who wants a dog not just a lawn ornament.

[sgour]

It sounds to me like they suffocated to death. If she said the rest were in sacks, they are born that way, and the sack must be broken within minutes of being born or the pup will not survive. The other three must have ripped their sacks on the way out so they were able to breathe at birth.

You said they were born yesterday, but they will not nurse? Unfrotunately the chances of these pups surviving are smaller yet, because it is most important that the pups nurse in the first 24hrs to get the colostrum to help them fight disease or infection.

Since a pup cannot control it's own body temp., they must be maintained in an environment that is around 85 degrees F for at least the first week or two. They need to be indoors in a low traffic area. My recommendation is to get them inside, in a box as doglover said, and see if you can't get mom to nurse the pups. A heating pad or heat lamp should be in one area of the box to help keep the puppies warm. The only other option, and it would be a great undertaking, is to bottle feed the puppies an orphan b**** milk replacement and raise them that way. It would require feeding every two or three hours, and you would have to rub the pups genitals to stimulate defication. It would be alot of work.

Obviously this dog has some maternal instincts because she must have cleaned and stimulated the survivors, and chewed the chord on her own. It is possible that if she were moved into a warmer, more quite environment that she would be just fine.

Hope this helps, let us know what happens.

Shannon

[lindsi]

If will not nurse you will have to bottle feed them which is a lot of work and you should talk your mother into giving the dog to someone who will take care of her and give her the love and attention she deserves

[erdog3]

Most maiden b's need someone there to help, it can be a bit daunting for the new mum, all these puppies. Sgour is right the dead ones would have actually drowned in the fluid in the sacks. Mum would have handled the first 3 (your survivers), breaking the bag and cleaning them up, but by the time the rest came, which could have been too quick for her to handle, if it was consecutively, she would have been too busy delivering a pup, and not been able to clean the one just born.
Now there are other things your mum needs to know, first of all the care of the mum, she will need some extra food, but 3 pups on a big dog will not drag her back too much.
She will need a supplement of calcium or she may get whats called eclampsia...(and die from this).
She will also need to be wormed, do it when you do the puppies at 2 weeks.
She should also be checked by a vets to make sure all the afterbirths came out, some will be absorbed into the body and disposed in the normal course, you will notice she may have black poo. Some vets give an injection just to get these extra afterbirths out and make sure there are no more pups, so the VET is a must for this dog.
The pups, you have been given some good advise by others, Sgour has just been through this so she knows what to do, and Doglover knows all the nutrition facts.
I am very, very sorry for your dog, this kind of thing should never happen, she won't forget!!!!

Sorry I forgot the nursing part, the puppies are probably so cold they have gone into SHOCK, you will have to warm them up, hot water bottle, towel over the top, puppies on top, heater in background.
See if there is any milk in mums teats, just a gentle squeeze should see it come out.
When the pups have been on some warmth for half an hour or so, get a towel, place the towel over your hand, place the pup on your hand, get the left over towel and rub the pups back, this will stimulate it, what mum would normally do, it should have a wee and poo on the towel, and start to sqwark a bit. Now you are gonna have to squeeze a bit of milk out of a teat and place that pup right up to it so it can SMELL (cause thats the only instinct it is born with, it is blind and deaf now) the milk, it should now naturally search the nipple, do this one at a time with each puppy, if it won't suckle, try the towel again, or a bit more heat, but these pups must be stimulated and warmed to get them going.
You have about 12 hrs. max or they will die.

[ July 12, 2004, 02:26 PM: Message edited by: ellierat ]

[AndreaMoon]

Thank you all for your advice. It has been quite a day. I went over to see the puppies around noonish. They were in teh garage with Ginger. Ginger was quite a ways away from the pups. The 3 were COVERED in flies. It was disgusting. I picked them up and took them into the porch. They were covered in this crusty yellow stuff that I assumed was the fluids from Ginger. I put them in a box and went and got some milk replacer from the vet. I went to try and feed them and when I picked one up and looked closer I realized that the crusty stuff was not from Ginger. It was thousands upon thousands of maggot eggs. So I spent about 2 hours getting these things off the pups. It was very hard. The eggs were in their ears, everywhere. Poor miserable things. They are very responsive. Moving a lot, whining. It has been very warm here so I think they are fine as far as being cold. They ate from the dropper pretty well. I am going over in a bit to try and get them to nurse off Ginger. Ginger needs to be washed first though, she's a mess. Covered in mud because it rained last night. She is staying in the garage and not eating and drinking a thing. I really think that she may be in mourning for her lost puppies. Maybe I'm silly but it sure seems that way. Thank you so much for the replies, they've helped so much. I will let you all know how the nursing goes.

[erdog3]

Don't worry about washing mum, you have to get them puppies onto her now if you don't want to be stuck with feeding the pups which will need to be done every four hours, day and night. Get the pups onto her, spray some flyspray around to get rid of the flies, put them all together after that and get them on her teats, she will get mastitis if you don't, do it NOW.

[erdog3]

Originally posted by ellierat:
Don't worry about washing mum, you have to get them puppies onto her now if you don't want to be stuck with feeding the pups which will need to be done every four hours, day and night. Get the pups onto her, spray some flyspray around to get rid of the flies, put them all together after that and get them on her teats, she will get mastitis if you don't, do it NOW.

To get mum to eat, go get some puppy formula food, tin stuff from shop, warm it a little and offer it to her, also try some milk half half with warm water and some sugar in it, about a teaspoon full.

[Dax]

So sorry you are having to clean up your mom's mess. It just breaks my heart. Good for you for trying. Remember you can only do your best. Hope it works out.

[ July 12, 2004, 06:34 PM: Message edited by: doglover ]

[AndreaMoon]

Well we cleaned Ginger up, moved her into the porch and they're eating! It actually wasn't as easy as I just made it sound, lol. And the puppies have also went to the bathroom. When I left they were sleeping on their mommy. I loved seeing that. Ginger is SO SO skinny right now. I don't know if she was malnourished during her pregnancy or what. She drank a bunch of the puppy formula though. And she's eating again. So all seems well for now. Again, thanks for the advice. You guys helped me out tremendously.