Thanks to everyone for your kind messages. Here is an update on Nessie.
She had her 7 babies on Sunday the 23rd. I first saw the water sack at about 4 a.m. (of course, the middle of the nite on a weekend!!) I had done a lot of reading to ready myself so I knew seeing her push for 45 minutes with me seeing nothing but a tail (no feet) was not a good thing. I called my daughter in law who lives down the street to come help me take her to the all night vet. She took one look at Nessie and said "we need to do something" At that point, she lubed up and literally pushed the pup back in slightly, found the legs, turned the pup slightly and pulled him out. (Mama did not care for this). Levi was fine and weighed in at 4.3. No all night vet bill! The other six were born without incident within 4 hours. 4 girls, 3 boys.
The smallest was the last one, Ruby at 3.8.
As expected, they lost a little weight the first 24 hours, but on day two, there was not the expected gain. Nessie only had 5 developed nipples and she was trying to feed seven. By day 3 all of them were below their birth weight and I was starting to worry. How was this little 6 pound dog going to feed 7 pups with 5 nipples?!
I texted the breeder who provided the Daddy and asked her if I needed to learn to tube these babies. (already tried bottles, they were having none of it). She called me immediately and told me that one of her females had given birth to a single pup the day before that had died. She offered to let me borrow Daisy as a wet nurse! I housed Daisy down the street at my daughter in law's house so her presence would not upset Nessie, and gave her 3 of the 7 pups. She took to them immediately as though they were her own.
The next day, Nessies pups had gained, but only one of Daisy's had. The one gained quite a bit, so we knew her milk was good. The next day, same results. Now I was worried I was going to lose those two.
I had noticed that Daisy's teats were considerable bigger than Nessies, so I decided to make yet another switch. I took the two who weren't gaining and gave them back to Nessie and her little nipples....Took two of hers that had been gaining well and gave them to Daisy. Neither Mom seemed to notice or be concerned about the switch.
I am happy to report that the two pups in question started gaining and by the next day were up .4 oz. and have since continued to gain. All seven pups are gaining and seem strong and active. I guess even though the two little ones appeared to be nursing from Daisy, the size of her nipples may have been making them work too hard! I don't know if they would have started gaining if I had left them one more day, but with 3 days of no gain, I had to try something.
I know this is a long post, but I thought maybe someone may red this and find it helpful down the road. I know I learned a lot!
