Quote:
Originally Posted by toke  I'm glad to hear she's hanging in there. You would never know there was anything wrong...what a little beauty.  Was she smaller at birth than the others? |
There were seven in this litter, Pixie was around 2 ozs at birth. Her brother was a little bigger and the rest of the pups were 3 ozs or so. All of Pixie's litter mates are now 3 to 3 1/2 lbs at 12 1/2 weeks. Pixie has just never grown much. Sometime when you have a large litter because of crowding in the womb some of the babies just have health problems. Actually it does not even have to be a large litter for a momma dog to have problems and crowding in the womb. You take a little 3 to 4 lbs female and it is so hard for them to even carry 3 or 4 pups. That is one reason I am so against breeding any female under 5 lbs.
I heard on the news awhile back that when humans have a multiple births,like the lady that had 7 babies a while back, many of the children will grow up with health problems and birth defects. I think it just stands to reason that the same thing would apply to dogs that have huge litters. It is not uncommon with huge litters for several of them to die. Pixie would not have made it at birth if I had not supplemented her. As a breeder we do all we can to save our babies but in the end, often those that we work so hard to save end up having a lifetime of problems. I will never know if Pixie was born with this problem or if it developed later.