Feeding problems with the mother and evaluating the state of the puppies and mother.

Weak puppies - puppies malnourished - puppies near death..

It may seem like this mother dog could handle it all by herself but when she’s just had nine puppies, she hasn’t been fed very well and is malnourished, you should step in and help take the strain off her and give her a chance to rest and at least feed some of the puppies.

When I got to Hawaii I saw that the puppies were crying a lot and not sleeping as much as they should be.  They were in the sun and it was just too hot for them.  The Mom was skin and bones.  All her body was concentrating on was making milk for the puppies and she could feed four of them but she couldn’t feed nine.

This little puppy is one of two, they were almost identical, that were about to die.  They were lethargic and weak, but most important their litter mates would not let them feed.  Survival of the fittest.  But I’ve never let any animal die just because it was inconvenient to life’s rules.

This little pup was constantly being pushed away and I felt so bad that she could not nurse.  I pushed Stripe out of the way and tried to let her nurse but by that time Tina had exhausted her milk supply.

I thought she is not going to make it.  She was so tiny and weak so I called my friends in Washington state about what I could do and as they were breeders of Old English Sheepdogs, they knew what to do about big litters and feeding.

By the second week you should have a pretty good idea what is happening to the puppies.  If some are smaller and get pushed away from the mom then these puppies are likely to die if you do not help them feed right away. 

Gather up your tools and find someone to help because it took me 2 hours a day, three times a day to feed 9 puppies.

My brother couldn’t believe it when he had to do it alone.  I spent my entire vacation with the puppies, feeding, bathing, cleaning up after them and giving the mother dog a lot of loving because she knew she was doing something wrong.  She just didn’t know that her body was not producing enough milk to feed her entire brood.  She worried and paced around but mostly was exhausted from the puppies trying to suckle when all the milk was gone.

Finally her nipples and breasts became hardened and we had to apply treatment to her so that they would soften up again and not become infected.

This is Tina, mother to nine puppies.  She is the sweetest Dobie and a good mother.  She just couldn’t feed all her puppies.  Why?  Probably because she never got a good diet needed for producing nine puppies, a litter that is somewhat large and is usually prepared for by extra high enriched dog food and good protein.