A year ago today Paige who we had as a stray gave birth to 12 puppies. The first one came naturally, the second got stuck and we had to help her, she was so thin she wouldnt have had the energy for another one, let alone another ten so she was rushed off to the vets for an emergency caesarian. We had no idea there were that many puppies in her and considering how thin she was its a miracle that they all came out alive, but they did! The vet couldnt even spey her after the birth as she didnt have enough spare blood to survive the operation. We were warned that with that many and with her so thin that we shouldnt expect them all to survive and Paige was also on the brink of death. I saw that as a challenge and knew I had to do everything that I can to ensure they survive. The first few days were hard. There was no way Paige could feed them all so we knew straight away we had a battle on our hands. We weighed them and the smallest three stayed with her, the remaining 9 we had to take away from her and hand rear. Those nine obviously didnt want powdered milk, and wanted mum milk. They took if for the first day of their lives but werent keen. Fortunately we had a dog that had just had a litter and had weaned them a week previously. Jingle, we hoped, would give them the start they needed. She still had a little milk and she was happy to let the nine feed off her for a few days. We believe this gave them what they needed and helped them survive. Jingle, you really are a life saver and we are eternally grateful. After 3 days Jingle dried up and she went off to her forever home, now the battle really began. I made a chart and after every meal we wrote down how much milk each of them had eaten, we also weighed them daily to monitor their growth and had to help them take care of nature as puppies cant go by themselves and need to be stimulated, normally by mum licking them. (We used cotton wool pads). We had a table full of pads, warm water, feeding chart, thermos full of puppy milk, feeding bottles and thermometers as we had to be thorough and make sure we did it right. The first few days were not to bad. 7 meals a day over a 24 hour period we worked out as midnight, 3 am, 6 am, 10 am, 1pm, 4 pm, 8 pm. this was going to be my life for 6 weeks, better fill the iPod! Each puppy took 5 minutes start to finish, two of us doing the daytime shifts half an hour tops. Easy. Nights were a bit harder. Caroline looked after our animals last thing at night and first thing in the morning. I did the midnight, 3am and 6 and shifts, I got an early evening snooze to try to catch up after tea. After about a week Paige was getting stronger and the three she had were doing great so we decided to take the smallest one of the hand rears and let Paige take over, She did a great job and after another 4 days she took her fifth puppy, but we knew that she would never be able to cope with more than five. The puppies were doing well and getting bigger and stronger, but also because they ate more, it took longer and longer to feed them. Feeding time was now an hour still 7 times a day. After several more weeks (and the puppies taking an hour and a half to feed) it was time to worm them for the first time. It was unlikely that the hand rears would have worms as the had never had mums milk and Jingle had been wormed but we had to do it to them all just in case. Disaster. One of the pups had a bad reaction and stopped eating and became very ill. Well I wasnt going to lose one now so had to go with extreme measures. I made a food/milk, solution that I tried to syringe feed her with. I stayed by her side for 48 hours straight trying to feed her every few hours. The others were gaining 50 grams a day in weight, she was losing 50 grams a day. She wouldnt survive more than a few days if this continued. Towards the end of the second day she was tottering around the living room when she smelled some food that I had in a small bowl. She went up to it and sniffed it, then started to eat it! She was actually the first of the 12 to eat solid food. As she ate it with gusto she made a content little noise. “nam nam nam nam nam nam nam nam “ as she ate. Well that told me that her name would be NamNam and I also realised at that point that I didnt want her to go after all Id been through with her so NamNam has stayed and is part of our family now. Everyone continued to grow and get healthy over the next few weeks and NamNam rejoined her brothers and sisters. Feeding time now took 2 hours a time and it was like painting the Forth Bridge starting again as soon as Id finished Thankfully I had a lot of Dr Who audio books and radio 4 plays to keep me going. I sometimes got only an hour and a half off before I needed to prep and start again. Eventually they got onto puppy food and I re-discovered my bed. Nine (hard) weeks after they were born they started to go to their new families. We want to again thank each and every one of you that helped us by buying something from the wish list to help us save these 12. Towards the end of their stay with us they were eating about £30+ of food a day (puppy milk is expensive) and we couldnt have done it without you. The wonderful families that now have one of these adorable dogs in their lives. Also our friend Mel who helped Caroline get Paige to the vets and helped with the first two births as I was in London that evening and didnt get back till late. This video is the story of their lives with us. The final part we have never posted before, we have been saving it for today. It is the last morning of them all together before they started their lives with their new families later that day. Mojo (Bono), Hazel (Enya), Mia (Gigi), Mia (Gerri), Mabel (Oopah),Nelly, Robbie, Ollie (Ozzie), Bella (Andria), Stella (Suzie), Bessie (Cindy) and NamNam . Caroline, Paige (who we still see often) and I wish you a very very Happy first Birthday and have a wonderful fun filled day. x
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:07:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015