We’re making progress! At the 10 AM feeding this morning, all of the puppies nursed from the bottle. The two weakest ones were slow, but this is an important milestone. The two strong pups have been doing pretty well with the bottle, but we were having to drip the milk into the mouths of the other three 1/10 of a ml at a time. It was taking about 40 minutes to feed and stimulate all five pups. Once they’re all nursing from the bottle the time will get cut back to 20-30 minutes.
The pups need to have a certain amount of formula each day. We record the amount each pup took at each feeding to be sure we at least hit the target amount and not go too far over. Harriett created a chart that tells us how much they need each day and we adjust the amount each time the pups are weighed (currently twice each day).
Everyone gained at least 5 grams since yesterday morning except one. That one probably gained about that much, but our scale weighs in 5 gram increments and it was bouncing from 120 to 125 grams. These babies are tiny.
I’ve often commented here and on the PuppyCam about the number of people that help Harriett and me by giving us advice for complicated cases. No one has been more important to us in fostering than Dr. LeRoy Neitzel. Many long-time residents of Champaign-Urbana remember Dr. Neitzel. He was in private practice as a veterinarian for many years and was considered one of the best vets in town. He was a licensed wildlife rehabber and was President of the Board of the Champaign County Humane Society for 20 years.
When we started fostering, almost 20 years ago, it was way before CCHS had a staff veterinarian. There were no protocols for handing common things like wormings or vaccinations, much less difficult problems such as ringworm or respiratory infections. Dr. Neitzel was our vet and he set Harriett and me up with systems for sanitation, worming, vaccinations, and feeding. When the time came for us to deliver our first litter of pups he taught me how to be a canine midwife. He taught us how to bottle feed orphans and showed me how to do tube feedings for very sick pups. Virtually everything we do with our foster animals can somehow be traced back to Dr. Neitzel.
When we realized how dehydrated the Chihuahua pups were and noticed that one of them had only a slight suck reflex, Harriett was on the phone to Dr. Neitzel for advice. Long retired and living in Florida, he nevertheless ran through a list of things we should watch for and gave her some advice for feeding. As Harriett has said, “He is a wonderful resource and answers the questions you should have asked but didn't!” Dr. Neitzel will be very happy to hear that things are looking up for the pups. We’re not in the safe zone yet, but we’re moving in the right direction.
No comments:
Post a Comment