Thursday May 30 -- Shock and Awe

I was in a bit of shock I think; happy but a little afraid too. Questions were running through my head; will she produce enough milk to feed them, how do we keep her from crushing the puppies (in her eagerness to be a good parent and look after each puppy she had already sat on puppies a couple of times and we'd had to gentle scoop them out from under her), are the puppies healthy and term? I phoned our veterinarians office and left a message asking for a call back when they opened.

Dr. Milcius, who we have used now to help us with four dogs and whom they all adored, called me. He explained that while she may only have two mammary glands that are full of milk right now the actual act of nursing releases a hormone that stimulates milk production -- so the more she feeds the more she'll produce. He was confident her body would catch up with the puppies very quickly. He suggested weighing the puppies often for the first little while to help ensure they are thriving; if a puppy starts to loose weight, or stops gaining, you know that little one needs medical attention. Since her deliveries had all been smooth and none had been still-born the puppies were full likely term and going to do just fine. Dr. Milcius also said that though it did happen it was rare for a mom to crush her puppies; we should just continue doing what we were doing, lifting them out anytime we noticed it, until she got a little more settled and used to being a mom.

Here's a picture showing her feeding the puppies; they are hard to pick out against the green blanket but there are 10 of them.

We did some reading about how to mark puppies so you can track them; we decided to try nail polish on a couple of nails on one paw. We marked them and weighed them:

The results:

1. 225 grams -- red nail polish on back left paw
2. 260 grams -- red nail polish on left front paw
3. 255 grams -- reg nail polish on right front paw
4. 268 grams -- blue, left front
5. 300 grams -- blue, left rear
6. 272 grams -- blue, left front
7. 285 grams -- white, left front
8. 271 grams -- yellow, left front
9. 271 grams -- yellow, right front
10. 290 grams -- no mark