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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 Care

If the mother seems disinterested in cleaning up after her pup, you must assume the role and, after each feeding, stimulate the pup with a moistened cotton ball. Check the anus and make sure that there is no buildup of fecal matter. If there is, dissolve it with warm water and the moistened cotton ball. If the area becomes red, put a small amount of Vaseline on the affected spot. Keep the nose and muzzle free of dried formula or milk.

The more you work with your puppy, the more attuned you will become to picking up signs of trouble. Watch the coat; it should be shiny. Healthy puppies are round and firm. Crying indicates that a puppy is cold, hungry, or in pain. The puppy needs to become active and move about the whelping box. The umbilicus should be dried and separated from the puppy by the third or fourth day. The eyes should open between ten and fourteen days. The mother will clean the eyes, but watch for crusting and, if you find a buildup, dissolve it with a cotton ball saturated with warm water.

If the puppy becomes chilled because of neglect, room temperature, or separation from its siblings, rewarm it gradually. Do not place the puppy on a heating pad. This causes dilation of blood vessels and will actually increase heat loss. Place the pup under your shirt, next to your skin. If its temperature is below 94 degrees F, warming can take as long as two or three hours. Never feed formula to a cold puppy or allow it to nurse. If a puppy is chilled, its stomach and intestines stop working, and feeding will cause it to bloat and vomit. A cold puppy can, however, accommodate a 5-10 percent solution of warmed glucose and water. Give 1/2 cc every hour and warm slowly.

Tube Feeding

If your puppy is too weak to suckle -- if it cannot form a sufficient vacuum on a nipple -- you will need to feed it by tube. I use tube feeding as a last resort because, once you start tubing, it is usually hard to persuade the pup to suckle, and you find yourself on call every three to four hours for an indefinite period of time. But tube feeding has several advantages.

It takes a short period of time to feed your pup (vs. bottle feeding), and, since no air is swallowed, no burping is required. It also ensures that the proper amount of formula is administered to the pup.

Tube feeding is not difficult to master. It requires a soft rubber catheter (size 8-10 French, available from your vet or in many of the animal catalogs -- e.g. Revival) and a 10- or 20-cc plastic or glass syringe. Have your scale available for monitoring the weight.