"Care Of Puppies"

Care of Puppies
by: Dr.Debbie Jensen


Learning to recognize a healthy pup from a fading pup.
Supplementing mothers milk by bottle feeding or tube feeding
for a pup that refuses to nurse.
Treating a pup that has gas or colic.


Learning to recognize a healthy pup from a fading pup

What is a Healthy pup - A Healthy pup feels warm, and has a full belly of milk.
He twitches and never lies perfectly still. (Activated sleep) - The muscles are
getting stronger during activated sleep

A Puppy in trouble will feel cold to the touch. Lays limp and refuses to nurse.
This puppy needs your assistance in hope for survival.

Colic Puppy - A Colic puppy scream in pain for days. I found giving a puppy plain yogurt helps ease a colic puppy.

Gas - Gas is another culprit for causing a puppy to cry in pain.
I give them a few drops Gasex and a lactate intolerance over the counter drug.
If all this fails to relieve the puppy, you need to ask your vet for some medication.

Feeding Methods - Bottle feeding or Tube feeding.
Alternative feeding methods will are necessary when the mothers milk is dried up
or the mother is ill.

Note#if you have another nursing mother you can give her the litter but you will still need to
help her by bottle feeding or tube feeding the pups.

Note : Never feed a chilled puppy if a pups temp is below 94 degrees,
they should NOT be nursing and you should NOT be tube feeding

Bottle feeding - satisfies the natural instinct to suck. It also gives the puppy a choice on the amount it wishes to consume.
Pups can get gas if they are not burped after feeding.
Their is always the danger of a pup inhaling milk into its lungs and then
getting pneumonia. Make sure your nipple hole is not to large or to small.
Stick a hot paper clip in the nipple. Hold it upside down the milk should drip out, but never flow.
Encourage the pup by wiggling the nipple across his lips.
You will know if he is getting the milk by measuring the amount in the bottle
and after burping can you see if he has a full belly or he needs more.
The puppies mouth may have little bubbles on the side of his lips but the milk
should not run out the sides of his mouth.
Making up formulas and feeding a litter of puppies is very time consuming.
It seems like as soon as your finished its time to began again.

Tube Feeding - Tube feeding advantages are that it takes very little time and you always know how much the puppy is getting.
Burping is not necessary in tube feeding. The disadvantages are the puppy's become lazy eaters.
If you tube feeding because the puppy has a congenital defect like a bad heart
or other life endangering defect his chances of survival are poor. A puppy that
has no congenital problem has a good chance of survival.

Directions on tube feeding- Measure the distance from the pups mouth to the last
rib and mark the tube, changing the distance as the pup grows.