Please Help!

[Blaze]

Lilly's babies are 5 days old and 4 of them are putting on weight very well but one little girl isn't! She's still around 90 something grams and I noticed tonight that even though she puts Lilly's teats in her mouth she doesn't suck. She just holds it in her mouth and then drops it as soon as Lilly or one of the other puppies move. I've tried holding her on but she still doesn't suck. Last night she had a big feed for about 20 minutes and other little ones but today she doesn't want much at all. So I've started giving her Milk Replacer during feeds and trying to make her drink a little from Lilly too. I think she's just not very strong at the moment. I'm hoping that she'll become stronger with the milk replacer and start drinking more from Lilly! What does everyone think? Am I doing the right thing? If she's not improving in the morning I'll take her to the vets. Most of the other pups are 2-3 times bigger than her! I'm getting really worried and it doesn't help that I've had virtually no sleep since Sunday. I did notice that the little girl did poop today so she must be getting something just not much. I'd really appreciate any advice!
Thank you so much!

[southern_girl09]

I think you are doing the right thing with milk replacer, but try to keep her sucking from Lilly. If it doesnt improve, I would take her to the vet.

[BabyElephant]

You are doing the right thing with the milk replacer - does she drink all of that? Do you have a guide for how much to feed her? Do you know how to hold the puppy right to get it to feed from the bottle? Sorry for all the questions but I can't remember if you've done this before...

Some pups do need supplementing and help from the breeder, and you will probably find that in time she will start to suckle on her own. Let us know how she is doing.

[Blaze]

Thank you both!

The baby will drink all the milk replacer. I give it to her in two lots (half an hour apart). She's meant to have 30mls a day and I give her 3mls each time. I give it to her slowly so as not to squirt it to fast and make it go straight to her lungs.

She still drinks from Lilly but she doesn't drink for long and the other puppies aren't very good at letting her feed on her own. But I just managed to get her to drink for 7 minutes with little help from me.
I think the milk replacer must be giving her more energy! I'm going to keep giving it to her every second feed and try and get her to suckle from Lilly on the other feeds. Lilly looks upset when I give her the milk replacer . She's such a good mummy and really wants to feed them all.

So do you think it's alright to keep giving her the milk replacer until she can drink all by herself?

[Blaze]

Oh and she doesn't drink as happily as the others so it's really hard to tell if she's getting anything or not. Half the time she just wants to hold on to Lilly's teat without sucking. Is that normal??

[BabyElephant]

Apparently weaker puppies won't suckle for very long so you have to keep supplementing them until they are strong enough to suckle on their own. You may be better switching to a bottle and teat rather than "squirting" it - that way she will learn to suckle on her own and will then take more milk from Lilly. There is a technique to getting puppies to suckle from a teat - let me know if you want to know how.

I think it's perfectly fine to keep giving her the milk replacer until she can drink all by herself. She may never get enough from Lilly so you may have to do this until she's weaned. Just keep a close eye on her and if she seems as if she's not thriving then it's straight to the vet.

[Blaze]

Thanks! I will get a bottle and teat when I go out this morning. I'd really appreciate it if you could tell me the technique too!

Here's a picture of the little baby compared to the next smallest. (I know she looks like a little rat ) You can't see the other babies face but you can see how big she is next to the little 'Gem'.

[RiverKayleesMuM]

well from what it sounds like it is kinda like what happened with our little female puppy. She is still have the size of her brother!
Anyways she wouldnt even put the teat in her mouth so saying we had so force her to eat. Every 2 to 3 hours we would have to hold her on the teat until she started sucking. She usually didnt eat to much so we usually did this about every 2 hours. After 3 weeks she was able to eat on her own. She was very tiny compaired to her brother who was normal size. To this day she still looks almost like a 3 month old puppy!
Just keep trying! The vet told us if ours didnt start eating soon we would have to toob feed her! thankfully we didnt have to!

[BabyElephant]

I'm not sure how big Lilly is but you may be able to use a baby's bottle but if that is too big you need to use one for cats (available from vets). You need to make sure the hole allows the milk to "drip" through slowly when the bottle is held vertically - this is a very important because if the hole is too small the pup won't feed and will get tired and if too big the pup may choke. So get one with a small hole and make it bigger if necessary.

To get the pup to feed from the bottle put the tip of your finger into its mouth, pressing the teat of the bottle gently down onto the pups bottom lip. Hold your thumb and forefinger at the corners of the puppy's mouth, from behind its head to ensure good suction. The pup might fight you to start with but once it gets used to it you will be OK. You need to hold the bottle at an angle of about 45 degrees to guard against air entering the puppy's stomach and jiggle the pup (gently) to keep her sucking. It can take up to 10 minutes per pup to drink enough formula for its needs.

After you've fed her put her back with Lilly on a nipple to try to encourage her to feed, she probably won't and will fall asleep but Lilly can do what she needs to get her to burp etc...

Hope this helps - let me know.

[Blaze]

That's a relief. I'm looking forward to her being able to eat by herself. Did you baby get better with eating when she opened her eyes and could see where to put her mouth?