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05-06-2013, 03:35 PM | #1 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2013 Location: Andalusia, AL
Posts: 17
| C-Section babies! Hello everyone! This is my first post, I have came here before and have gotten advice, but I decided to ask a question this time. My sweet Laci just delivered 6 BEAUTIFUL yorkie babies via elective c-section. It is her first litter. I understand it is normal for the mom not to take to the puppies this soon, but should I give them a milk replacement until she lets them nurse? Is a heating pad too hot? I have them on a heating pad set on low with blankets between them and it. They have been sleeping but now are crying and restless. Any advice will be appreciated! This is the first time I have ever had puppies to take care of on my own. |
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05-06-2013, 07:36 PM | #2 |
Donating YT 5000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Southeast Texas
Posts: 7,959
| First of all congratulations on your new litter. I will be praying that momma and babies do well. You will have your work cut out. I don't even know where to begin on what all you are in for. I hope you have been doing some research on what to do. Is momma alert and has she accepted her babies? What advise did the vet give you? Do you have puppy formula? It is important that the pups nurse if possible. It is important for the pups to get colostrum from the momma. She may not have much milk in the beginning so you most likely will need to supplement them. How big is the momma? Hopefully she is a bigger girl so it will be easier for her to care for the pups. It will be very important to get the momma to eat lots of food. You will need to feed her about 4 times a day and she will need a calcium supplement. The heating pad will probably be okay but you should have the pups in a whelping box with the heating pad only covering half the box. You don't want to make it to hot for the momma because that can effect her milk production. I have only had one female that had a c-section and she only had one pup. She accepted the pup right way. In most cases the momma will accept the pups right away but occasionally I have heard of a momma that just won't accept their pups. You should be able to put the pups with the momma and you might need to hold her in the beginning while the pups nurse. Usually once the pups start nursing the new momma's natural instincts will kick in. Please keep us updated on how everything is going.
__________________ "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." |
05-06-2013, 08:04 PM | #3 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2013 Location: Andalusia, AL
Posts: 17
| Yay! She is finally laying still and letting them nurse! We did get some formula and tried a little of that just to give them some type of nourishment. She was very curious watching us do that an about an hour later I made her lay down and petted her to keep her still while my husband brought over the pups one by one. We made each attach before we brought another so we wouldn't overwhelm her. Maybe we are in the clear now, if she will keep doing this I will feel a lot better! |
05-06-2013, 09:08 PM | #4 |
Rosehill Yorkies Donating YT Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston Texas
Posts: 9,462
| Every momma I have ever had that had a c-section, except one, took to the babies immediately, trying so hard to encircle her babies and care for them...I would have those babies with momma now....so she knows she has babies....you just need to watch her closely to be sure she is trying to nurture her babies.....those babies need the colostrum from momma and the nursing will stimulate her to nurture them. I never put a heating pad in the same bed with the babies....I always put it on LOW and place the heating pad UNDER the bed, so there is NO WAY the babies can scooch around and end up on top of that pad....you will cook them....you only have to do that one time and you wont ever put a heating pad near another baby again. |
05-06-2013, 09:37 PM | #5 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2013 Location: Andalusia, AL
Posts: 17
| Yay! I held Laci down and petted her while they nursed. Anytime I put them next to her she gets up and leaves. The only way I have gotten her to stay put is by petting her until she almost goes to sleep then laying the puppies next to her. She refuses to get in the box with them. I'm hoping she will get better soon. I put them with her in her bed right now, she's sleeping and so are they. Could I put her and them in our kennel and shut the door? I don't want to force her into something like that but I'm feeling desperate. |
05-07-2013, 04:52 AM | #6 |
Donating YT 5000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Southeast Texas
Posts: 7,959
| Is their anyone in your immediate area that raises yorkies or small breeds that you can call? You should also call your vet for advise. I have never kept a new mamma locked in a small kennel with her pups so I really cannot advise on if that would be okay or not. I keep my new mommas in an exercise pen with the whelping box on one end. I am praying that the momma's natural instincts will kick in and she will start laying with her pups. You do need to confine the momma and her babies in a small area that is away from any other dogs. If the momma is used to sleeping with you then it will take her longer to adjust to being alone with the pups. Is the momma eating? Is she licking the pups at all. The situation does sound desperate. I pray you can get some help. Why did you do an elective c-section, just curious? What are the weights of the puppies?
__________________ "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." |
05-07-2013, 05:50 AM | #7 |
Rosehill Yorkies Donating YT Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston Texas
Posts: 9,462
| Do NOT leave the momma unattended with thopse newborns....if she does not accept them, she could kill them and eat them. You are going to have to continue to do what you are doing every two hours, around the clock, allowing the babies to nurse. They need that initial milk from her as it has all her antibodies to disease in that milk. How old is Laci? Meanwhile, you really need to go to the vet and have them show you how to tube feed babies. It is easy to do, and it gives YOU control over how much those babies get to eat....they need to be receiving 1cc/oz of weight. Bottle feeding is great, but you do not know how much they are actually getting, and it takes a long time to bottle feed then pee/poop 6 babies. Newborns can aspirate milk given to them from a bottle or an eyedropper, and then they die from pneumona. The vet can show you how to tube feed....it is safe, quick, and precise on the # of calories you are giving. Babies must be kept at 90* or they will not be able to absorb their food. There are recepies for formula on here....you need to add stuff to a commercial formula to make sure these babies are getting all they need. You need to be weighing them at least once daily, to make sure they are gaining weight ......that is where you will first notice a problem, as they should be gaining weight each day. Congratulations on your litter....is this YOUR first litter? If so, welcome to the world of a breeder! If you are not familiar with raising babies, you have alot of learning and catching up to do over the next 24 hours....you do not want to let those babies start to fail on you, you have to get on top of this immediately or you will start loosing babies. Hopefully, you have prepared for this possibility. And you cant forget about momma and her health....is she eating and drinking? Last edited by Yorkiemom1; 05-07-2013 at 05:52 AM. |
05-07-2013, 05:54 AM | #8 |
Rosehill Yorkies Donating YT Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston Texas
Posts: 9,462
| I forgot....if momma is not cleaning/licking and peeing/pooping her babies after they nurse, you have to do that....they can not do that by themselves and you have to do that to stimulate them to pee/poop. |
05-07-2013, 06:13 AM | #9 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2013 Location: Andalusia, AL
Posts: 17
| UPDATE!! We left Laci in the kitchen last night and I kept the puppies in the bedroom with me. We set an alarm for 3:30 and brought Laci in to feed them. We had to lay her down and pet her again but once they were all latched on she was fine. Then by some miracle she started licking them and realized Hey, these are MINE. I held each one in front of her bottom up and she licked all 6's private area and stayed curled up with them. Then later this morning she moved them to the basket that we came home from the vet in. Maybe she feels safer there. But she is doing so good now! I'm gonna have to force her to go to the bathroom. Lol |
05-07-2013, 09:58 AM | #10 |
Donating YT 5000 Club Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Southeast Texas
Posts: 7,959
| That is great news. I was hoping her natural instincts would kick in. Now your biggest job will be keeping mom well fed so she will be able to feed 6 puppies. I hope you can post pictures soon.
__________________ "Lord grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." |
05-07-2013, 11:29 AM | #11 |
I Love My Yorkies Donating Member Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Posts: 37,147
| Thats great that Mom is now taking care of puppies now maybe you can get some much deserved rest. Best of luck
__________________ Chachi's & Jewels Mom Jewels http://www.dogster.com/?132431Chachi http://www.dogster.com/?132427 |
05-07-2013, 11:58 AM | #12 |
Rosehill Yorkies Donating YT Member Join Date: Dec 2007 Location: Houston Texas
Posts: 9,462
| ALL RIGHT!!! This is SUPER news!!!! NOW YOU CAN EXHALE!!!!!! She has realized those are hers and she is mothering them......I would make sure she is not roaming free around the house....she may start moving babies all over th house...and loose some....you want her confined, and you want her in a bed large enough that she isnt laying on them. CONGRATS!!! How many girls/boys? |
05-08-2013, 03:51 AM | #14 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2013 Location: Andalusia, AL
Posts: 17
| For some reason my other update didn't post, so here we go again. The basket she moved them to was right next to my side of the bed, so maybe she wanted to be closer to me. My original whelping box was her kennel with a big towel over it to keep it dark, but I quickly discovered that wasn't going to work when I put them in and they had squirmed half way through the bars, so I put them in the cat bed until I could get something else, since she wasn't laying with them yet. My step-dad put together a box for me and brought it over. Its really cute, he made it look like a little dog house with a roof and everything We have always kept the door shut to the bedroom and kept both Laci and daddy Bentley in the kitchen, because Bentley loves to pee on everything that doesn't move, so she is in the bedroom next to me and Bentley is in the kitchen. We bring him in to see them every now and then and so Laci won't be totally cut off from seeing her best friend. He's very curious, he just likes to stare at them. This is my first litter of Yorkies and my first puppies by myself since moving out of my moms house. When I was growing up we had 1 or 2 dogs have puppies and one cat have kittens, but my mom was always there to help. Her daschund had a c-section with her puppies, but mothered them right away. As for my elective c-section decision, maybe I jumped the gun, but I am very happy with my decision to have it done. She was over a week overdue, so I took her back to the vet for a checkup and he gave me that option. He told me they felt pretty good sized and that there was a pretty good amount in there, that he couldn't say for sure that she was going to have trouble, but she would probably have them in the middle of the night after it was dark and everything got quiet. I didn't want to take the chance on her getting in trouble and me sleep through it. Given the choice on who's life I would save, it would always be mama. He told me after he was done that one of the smaller ones was curled up at the opening of her birth canal, so it probably would have given us trouble. The smallest was 2.7 oz and the largest was 5.3 oz! Mama is 8 lbs and daddy is 5 lbs. We had 3 boys and 3 girls. Laci does not want to leave them at all! I had to pick her up and take her outside yesterday morning just to go pee. She runs back to the door without even doing her business so I have to walk around with her a little bit, then as soon as she's done she runs up to me and looks up like she's saying "lets go!" She kept trying to get under the bedroom door while I was taking her IV out, the vet had left it in overnight just in case we had to come back to get fluids. I'll try to post some pictures of her and the babies! |
05-08-2013, 04:03 AM | #15 |
Yorkie Talker Join Date: May 2013 Location: Andalusia, AL
Posts: 17
| Pictures! Got a few pictures uploaded. I have more on my camera that look a lot better, I just snapped these with my phone on Monday. Excuse the bloody mess, as I said before this was our "coming home" box and she was still having a little bloody discharge. |
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