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Usually, if a litter comes early, the mother's milk has not come down. It can take two to three days before full production occurs. And this is the period where you must be the most vigilant. Your biggest worry is dehydration. Ask your vet to teach you how to rehydrate by injecting your puppy subcutaneously over the shoulders. Ask your vet to provide three 5-cc syringes with size 22 needles, filled with lactated Ringer’s solution. Ask also for a fifty percent dextrose/water solution in a syringe. (This must be refrigerated.)

In the best case, the preemie will be able to suckle. If it is not strong enough, you must tube feed your pup. I will discuss this process later.) Usually, the mother will have some milk -- and coloestrum. It is very important that the pup receives this early nursing, both to transfer immunities and to stimulate further production. If the bitch has had a C-section, she usually will not want to have puppies on her. I lay her down on her side (sometimes having to keep her down) and work with the puppies until each has had the initial nursing. With a preemie, you need to support the puppy and work the nipple into its mouth until it has created a vacuum and is attached. I weigh the puppy after each nursing and start a chart to keep track of gain and loss to the tenth of an ounce. I then put the pup down on the pad and give it a good going-over. If the mother has no interest in cleaning the puppy, I start mimicking the procedure, using a cotton ball dampened with warm water. Usually this will elicit peeing and a bowel movement. I keep the pup on the pad.

A preemie needs to suckle frequently because its stomach is small, and it isn’t strong enough to stay attached for long period of time. Adding to supplies that you need from your vet, you must have six cans of Esplilac available and 10-cc syringes with no needles. Fill one of the syringes and have it on hand each time you try to suckle the pup. If the puppy is weak and will not suckle, put two drops of the dextrose solution on its tongue as you hold it, head elevated, in your hand. Put three drops of Espilac, one drop at a time, on the pup’s tongue. Wait for the pup to swallow after each drop. This will moisten the inside of its mouth and give it energy to nurse.

Take a nipple and express a few drops of milk on the tip, supporting the puppy against the mother. If you cannot get the pup going and it seems tired, start to feed it the Esplilac very slowly, a drop at a time, until you are able to get two ccs down. This procedure needs to be repeated every two hours. You start the same way each time, always trying to get the pup to suckle first.

After the feeding, whether hand feeding or a natural suckle, weigh your pup and keep a very accurate account of gain and loss. Most puppies lose a few tenths of an ounce the first few days. Although the mother has milk, the heavy supply doesn’t usually start for two or three days.

Weight gain is different with each pup. A good rule of thumb is that a pup should double its birth weight at two weeks. Most preemies, however, don’t start to gain until four or five days after birth. Even then, the process is very slow, and you will find yourself getting up several times a night for a week to ten days to make sure that the puppy is nursing and helping it along if it is not.

Dehydration

Check the inside of your puppy’s mouth with your little finger. It should not be sticky. The tongue should be bright pink, and the pup should attempt to nurse on your finger. If the mouth does seem sticky, your pup is dehydrated. (Another indicator is if. when you pinch folds of skin, they remained formed briefly.)

If you detect dehydration, take the lactated ringers solution and inject 2 1/2 ccs under the skin above the shoulder blades on the back. (It is easier to do with two people.) A large bubble of the solution will appear under the skin at the base of the neck. Keep the pup in your hands, away from a licking mother, until the bubble begins to absorb. If your puppy is very dehydrated, the bubble will be gone in short order. Otherwise, it should be absorbed in five to six minutes. You will sense a difference in the pup immediately. You can rehydrate two times a day. Check with your vet if you need to do the procedure more frequently.

Preemie