Oh Yeah, You Blend

Lots of playing with each other and with us!

Eating little bits of Royal Canin Puppy Mousse.

They have a startle reflex now (but no fear associated with it yet), so we’ve suddenly become very clumsy and are dropping things and slamming doors and generally being obnoxious. You want to exercise their startle/recovery reflex a lot before they start to associate the startle with fear (which happens later in their development).

Frito trying to snooze on Ruffles, who is playing bitey face with Chex

They all have teeth in varying stages of eruption, some almost all the way in, some just poking through. Poor poor Zhora. I have been putting lanolin on her teats to try and keep her as comfortable as possible.

Ruffles and Chex

They are ridiculously cute. They are all at least trying to use the litter pan, some closer than others, but all at least trying.

Unpopped Popcorn!

Orson in the “off” position

Jim being attacked by Popcorn:

Videos of bitey face:

How did this happen so fast?!

You will notice on the puppycam that their bedding has changed a few times over the last week. The littles were up and walking well but the biggers are heavy enough that they were having trouble getting enough traction to get their legs fully under them. After a few different attempts (rolled up towels underneath), I had a brainstorm in the middle of the night and just turned their Dura Whelp pad upside down so they’re on the rubber backing and voila! Five walking puppies!

They will get their first taste of real food in the next day or so…video will be made!

Today I added a litter tray (it’s an old cookie sheet with a wee wee pad taped over it, for absorption and also it has an attractant odor, Popcorn and Frito were the first to use it!).

Litter pan at bottom right.

I’m also adding an egg crate foam pad underneath to give them yet more stuff to climb on.

And I noticed when I was doing their nails this afternoon that they have TEETH coming in! Poor, poor Zhora….but they will start to get some actual food this weekend!

On the puppycam you can see Jim gave them some toys to start interacting with.

Now that their eyes are open and they’re starting to be able to hear, they are really starting to interact with each other a lot – playing bitey-face, biting each others’ tails and legs, and nursing on each other. Popcorn and Frito (the little ones are further along in their walking skills, since they started earlier) can actually RUN a few steps at a time now.

They don’t have their startle reflex yet, but that should appear any day now, at which point we will trigger a startle/recovery several times a day – per Puppy Culture, triggering a startle/recovery regularly is important.

They got LOTS of time out of the box for snuggles yesterday. And Orson knows how to HOWL! I tried to get it on video but haven’t managed yet. Today he crawled away from everyone while Zhora was feeding and cleaning them because he had to poop (since both he and Popcorn are starting to try and eliminate away from the others, even thought Zhora is still stimulating them and cleaning them, I will put a litterbox in there asap)….but apparently pooping on your own is worth howling about. Zhora isn’t ready to not clean up after them (good mama), so she followed him and helped him out. Very cool to see them start displaying their natural instincts to keep the den clean. And hilarious that he has to sing about it!

Popcorn and Ruffles (the best pillow is your big sister)

Orson

Chex and Frito (the best pillow is your little brother)

Chex (tongue out Sunday!)

Thank you for all the kind comments you’ve been making here, they matter! If you’ve been expecting a reply to an email you’ve sent, please send me a quick reminder, since I’m a bit distracted and haven’t been keeping up as well as I could.

I will try to add some pictures here later, so check back for edits if you like.

As you can see from this video, now that they have eyes, they are quite interested in their first (but definitely not last) games of bitey face. Zhora is also paying noticeably more attention to their faces now, licking and nudging them, instead of just dutifully pottying them. They actually sit up and look around, and look at Zhora and us in a Mr Magoo sort of nearsighted way.

In addition to yesterday’s early morning drama with barfy Popcorn (she’s fine now to all appearances), in the afternoon I noticed that Zhora wasn’t letting the puppies nurse on her right inguinal teat (the inguinal ones are the ones furthest back), and was licking at it. I checked it and it was quite hard, red, hot and sore.

Great. Mastitis starting? Just what we needed.

So I put ANOTHER call into the vet, just to give them a heads up, since we were heading into the weekend and mastitis can get really bad, really fast, and in rare occasions can even be fatal. I didn’t think she HAD mastitis, but that teat wasn’t looking happy and I was worried it could be a risk.

I quickly reviewed the awesome information in my awesome Facebook repro group about it (since I’ve never had to deal with it before, luckily), sent Jim to the store, and went to work trying to head things off.

Here’s what I did:

• Zhora has already been getting 1 large capsule of sunflower lecithin twice daily, this can help prevent mastitis. She’s been getting this all along, but I think it’s very likely been helpful in making sure this DIDN’T progress to mastitis
• I soaked hand towels in hot water (not too hot to touch, don’t want burns too, but as warm as is tolerable), wrung them out, and laid them on the affected teat. I did this for 10-15 minutes at a time, changing and resoaking the towels as they cooled.
• I massaged the affected teat (I’m telling you, this dog breeding thing is all glamour) during the warm compresses.
• I expressed some milk to make sure it wasn’t bloody or purulent (it wasn’t, it was just milk)
• I put puppies one by one on it on their own so they could really work at it and drain it after the warm compresses, and massaged it while they nursed. I did all this with Zhora up on the bed on a waterproof pad.
• Cabbage leaves – washed and then placed in the freezer for 10-15 minutes until they were very cold, then crushed with a rolling pin, then applied to the affected teat and held in place with an ace bandage (what we call a tensor bandage in Canada). Left that on for 15-20 minutes. Zhora herself and the other dogs kept trying to pull the cabbage out and eat it…
• I alternated the hot compresses/massage/nursing puppies/cabbage leaves/rest throughout the evening last night and this morning that teat is back to normal and just like the others! Hooray for being proactive!
• I think she likely had a clogged milk duct that started this, and this helped unclog it. I will keep a close eye on things as I have been all along, but she seems fine this morning!

I also got some canned tripe and added that to Zhora’s meals, I don’t know why I didn’t remember that before, tripe can be great for helping with digestion, and I usually also feed it to puppies when they first start eating. It’s disgusting, which is why dogs love it, but it is really good for them. I’m also going to go back to the dogs’ usual one raw meal a day routine starting today (they usually get one kibble and one raw meal per day, I stopped the raw while Zhora was pregnant, since it can be difficult to keep the calcium low enough and properly balanced with the phosphorus, and that is vitally important in the later stages of pregnancy, since too much calcium can predispose the dog to eclampsia and uterine inertia). I am sure they will be excited to have raw again (they eat Doggone Raw, which is a local company and sourced and made locally)!

Weight checks:

• Ruffles – 946 grams (4.76% gain)
• Orson – 1044 grams (HE’S OVER A KILO! 6.42% gain)
• Chex – 960 grams (4% gain)
• Frito – 875 grams (6% gain)
• Popcorn – 614 grams (SHE’S OVER 600 GRAMS! 11.84% gain, she sure made up for the vomiting!)

The Fab Five today. Clockwise from top: Ruffles (on her back), Frito, Chex, Orson, Popcorn.

As Roseanne Roseannadanna said – “it’s always something”.

You learn something new with each litter, and this one appears to be my Masters level course in dog breeding…

So the puppies had a dose of mild dewormer (pyrantel) yesterday. This morning about 4 am, I was awakened by a puppy crying and crying and crying. I looked into the box to see that little Popcorn was walking around (she is by far the best walker so far, she has almost completely given up walrusing now), walked into a corner and proceeded to poop diarrhea. And then she threw up. Now I have never seen a 2 week old puppy throw up before, and I have to admit I was pretty freaked out, especially when she did it a second and then a third time (once all over her brother Orson). I suctioned her because I was scared she might aspirate the vomit. She was very uncomfortable so I gave her some simethicone (Gas X) and cuddled and comforted her as best I could. She eventually settled down an hour or so later, but I put a message into my repro vet right away.

Turns out my plan was “perfect” per Dr Gray. That plan is: simethicone as needed and a probiotic, which they all have on board now, and monitor them. Odds are she just had a gastrointestinal reaction to the dewormer, which happens (pyrantel is a very benign dewormer, but that doesn’t mean that every single puppy is going to tolerate it perfectly every time, and diarrhea and vomiting afterwards are not uncommon, I’d just never seen it before in such a young puppy). The unfortunate fact is that even if they don’t tolerate it particularly well, it’s still important to deworm them, since worms can weaken and even kill puppies. After talking to Dr Gray though, we decided to just check fecal samples on the puppies in a few weeks and deworm them only if we feel it’s necessary, since I used the 30 day fenbendazole protocol with Zhora, so their worm burden should be very light, if they even have any. I always at least TRY to do the right thing, and the CDC recommendation for deworming puppies is 2, 4, 6 and 8 weeks while they’re with the breeder, and then per vet recommendations, and that’s what I’ve always done. We can only kill certain life stages of parasitic worms, and they are at risk of regular exposure to them in the environment, so regular deworming and other parasite prevention is an important part of good dog management.

They’re all a little quiet today, so they’ve all had a dose of a good probiotic (Benebac Plus) and will get another in a week or so. Popcorn (along with everyone else) is nursing well today (we’ve been watching them like hawks), hasn’t vomited since early this morning, and she seems no worse for wear.

It’s always something.

They made it to their second big milestone – two weeks! Two weeks marks their first deworming with pyrantel pamoate (a very gentle dewormer to dogs, but effective against most common canine intestinal parasites). This is necessary even though Zhora has been on a 30-day deworming protocol with fenbendazole (Panacur C), which has been shown in studies to reduce the number of “encysted” larvae being passed to puppies in breast milk. No matter how good your parasite prevention is (my dogs get monthly heartworm preventative, which also prevents most intestinal parasites, along with flea and tick prevention, and I check fecals several times a year), canine intestinal parasites have this nasty way of “hiding” from the dewormers, called “encysting”, and can still be transmitted to puppies even if the mother doesn’t appear to have a parasite burden. This is why deworming is recommended for all puppies, even if their mothers don’t appear to have worms, and even if the puppies themselves don’t appear to have worms. Most dewormers are quite safe and gentle to dogs, even young puppies, and reducing parasite burdens on puppies can be a huge factor in their survival and general health. I deworm with pyrantel every 2 weeks starting at 2 weeks of age, and do a three day course of Panacur at about 6 weeks.

The puppies loved the pyrantel, it’s actually a human product I use (for treating parasites in children), and it’s sweet and flavored. They also get a probiotic although because they got colostrum and have been nursing well all along, their gut flora is probably starting to be nicely established.

We are now down to the last two days of Early Neurological Stimulation.

I’m still clipping their nails with a human nail nipper, but I will try starting the Dremel next week if their nails appear to be hard enough.

Weight check:

Ruffles – 842 grams ( 8.37% gain)

Orson – 925 grams (5% gain)

Chex – 880 grams (5 % gain)

Frito – 795 grams ( 10.26% gain)

Popcorn – 544 grams (9.9 % gain)

Once again the two littles were the biggest gainers, although Ruffles was right behind them. As long as they are all gaining 5-10% per day on average, they’re doing fine.

They are all able to stand up now, although Popcorn so far is the most advanced when it comes to walking. They are all trying to walk, even though if they’re in a hurry (like if Zhora has made an appearance) they revert to walrusing, since for now it’s faster for them. Frito can walk backwards but hasn’t quite figured out forward gear yet. The ones with open eyes are spending more time sitting up and Mr Magoo-ing around. Their eyes should be open all the way in the next couple of days, everybody has at least a sliver of eye open now.

What’s interesting is that, just as Jane Killion from Puppy Culture says, as soon as their eyes started to open, Zhora started licking and nuzzling their faces instead of just paying attention to their bottoms. She is starting to interact with them as individuals, not just furry blobs of need.

I want to thank those who reached out to me about my little rant about the anti-breeder folks yesterday. 🙂

They’re 13 days old and some exciting developments! Several of them have eyes, Popcorn (just like Demi, who was the smallest in the A litter) is the first to have two eyes almost all the way open, but they all have at least squinty openings. AND! Popcorn, Frito and Orson have all been seen STANDING UP on all four legs!

Frito standing up (sort of)!

Popcorn eyeballs!

The Fab Five 13 days old

Ruffles in a milk coma

Popcorn has eyes!

Ruffles

Orson

Chex

Frito

I wanted to take a moment to get on a soapbox, please feel free to stop reading if that bothers you. A throwaway comment by a client at work yesterday cut deep. She said, when she found out that I had a litter of puppies that I (dared to) breed ON PURPOSE, that I must be “in it for the money”. I am SO tired of the hateful, brainwashed rhetoric out there against breeders. Are there bad breeders? Sure. But most of us do this to preserve our breed, to produce dogs with predictable temperament, appearance, health and tendencies. And the shitty breeders out there should not be the standard by which all should be judged (not that it’s anyone’s business to judge me anyway).

If you do it right, you’re lucky if you break even. Purebred dogs are pieces of history. I’ve had rescue dogs, I think rescue is a wonderful and noble thing. But it is NOT the only way to ethically obtain a dog, and I am sick to death of hearing “adopt don’t shop” and that sort of shit. Dogs end up in shelters overwhelmingly because their OWNERS give them up.

I breed very, very rarely (the last litter I bred was the one in which the now-5 year old mother of THIS litter was born). I do NOTHING else when I have a litter of puppies, I lose money on missing time at work to care for them. I put a TON of work into my puppies, from training, testing and trialing the mother, to researching pedigrees, to breeding the litter, to not sleeping for 72 hours trying to keep a puppy alive, to clicker training, socializing, enriching and stimulating them in the hopes of setting them up to have the best possible lives. I screen homes carefully and agonize over that. I care about every single one of my puppies, I take responsibility for them for their entire lives, and I love each and every one of them. And this litter especially….I won’t even come CLOSE to breaking even on, this litter had cost me thousands of dollars (stud fee, progesterone testing, shipping semen, artificial insemination, ultrasound) before I had a single puppy on the ground, because the first litter was resorbed. And now that I have five beautiful puppies, they cost me thousands MORE to get them here (consult with a specialist, driving to pick up the stud, housing him for nearly 6 months then driving him back, progesterone testing, ultrasounds, more consults, medication, emergency cesarean section to save the last puppy (that surgery alone was one puppy’s purchase price), vet care and medication for Zhora afterwards when she was sick, special food, special feeding supplies, subcutaneous fluids and supplements for Popcorn to keep her alive until she could make it on her own, etc. etc. etc.) and that’s all WITHOUT taking my time into account, or the expenses yet to come. I don’t dare add it up. I assure you, it’s not about the money, that’s just laughable. It’s about love for this breed and these dogs. My dogs sleep on my bed and snooze on the couch, they want for nothing, they are beloved pets first and foremost.

So think what you want, but I would suggest that if you blithely wander around spewing hateful things about breeders, you’re truly ignorant of what ethical breeders do, and why they do it, and it might benefit you to learn a bit before you parrot the rhetoric.

The prize – a real WALK!

The price – a bath (undercarriage and feet, just to be safe).

That’s the face of a Zhora who gladly paid that price for that prize!

(And yeah, her four meals a day plus treats are free, she eats like a Hobbit right now….breakfast, second breakfast, elevenses, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner, bedtime snack…)

The puppies make all kinds of cute noises now – still the high pitched squeaks and squeals they’ve made since birth, but now also buzzing noises like tiny growls, and louder almost-barks. You can definitely tell when one of them is annoyed that another one is trying to muscle in on their teat when they’re feeding, they make a crabby squealing/whining noise. Since there are only five of them and Zhora has eight teats, there’s plenty of food to go around.

Last night we noticed that some of them are already almost standing on all four feet- that should gradually increase over the next few days and they will start sort-of walking (toddling) instead of walrusing (pulling themselves along with their front legs and pushing with their back legs). And we should start seeing their eyes open any day now. The puppycam time will reduce for a while when their eyes start opening, since I usually limit the lighting for the first several days after their eyes open.

Weight check:

Ruffles – 723 grams (7.9 % gain)

Orson – 800 grams !! (6.24% gain)

Chex – 772 grams (5.6% gain, but he was the big gainer yesterday)

Frito – 675 grams (13.45% gain, yowza!)

Popcorn – 461 grams (12.17% gain)

The two littles did the most gaining, but everybody is nicely in the right zone for gains (ideal ballpark is 5-10% per day average).

Oh, and I weigh them in grams for 2 reasons – one is that it’s easier to track small changes in grams rather than ounces. The other is that I’m originally Canadian, and my mentor and dear friend Ulla Gamberg at Vastgota Swedish Vallhunds (in Canada) always weighs in grams and so when we talk about puppies it’s more useful to know their weight in grams, plus all the learning I’ve done from her involves grams.

The puppies’ lives right now consist mainly of eating and sleeping (must be nice!). And activated sleep, where they pop and jump and twitch and build muscles and their nervous system.

Zhora doesn’t make skim milk, they are all fat and plush.

Weigh in:

Ruffles – 670 grams ( 5.5% gain)

Orson – 753 grams (11.9% gain)

Chex – 731 grams (13.5% gain)

Frito – 595 grams (7 % gain)

Popcorn – 411 grams (8% gain)