I just caught up on all the post and thankfully had a good nights rest!
Bitsy and the pups seem to be doing good this morning. I did the warm compresses on Bitsy's teats last night and there is one that I have concern about. It doesn't feel hard though and she doesn't act in pain with it but it just looks a little weird. The nipple is inverted so the pups can't suck on it. I'm going to try and see if I can express milk from it and massage it with a warm compress. I may take her in to have it checked today if it doesn't look any better. The other teats look better since I've been letting the puppies nurse every six hours or so. Bitsy's panting is not near as bad since we started feeding her and giving her puppy milk immediately after nursing. I'm happy about that and Bitsy and the pups appear to be happier too
Hopefully, this can continue for the next week or so and we can start the puppies on puppy food (they will be three weeks old on Friday) and decrease the nursing more and more until they are completely weaned. We try to bottle feed the pups in between the nursing but the pups seem content with feeding every six hours with Bitsy and don't act hungry in between. I hope that's ok!!! Bitsy slept peacefully in our bed last night and was not anxious about the pups like the night before. I'm going to try the ace bandage/plastic wrap/warm towel with Bitsy and feeding her less as the pups are weaning! The vet had given me no instructions or warning signs to look for on that subject either
I'm also glad I went against the vets advice to totally remove Bitsy from the pups. It wasn't working! I would have done it if it meant her life of course, but my gut instinct felt that there has to be a way to make things work without doing that to her or the pups. So far so good! Bitsy is responding well to the changes we made and I think the puppies are too and stand a much better chance at living than when we were trying to bottle feed and do everything ourselves!! I think Bitsy tried to take her puppies out of our hands when we were bottle feeding and we wouldn't let her nurse because SHE KNEW we weren't doing it right
You are right, she would kill or die for these puppies! Don't know what I'd do without all of the advice from everyone here!!!
Your thoughts and prayers are being answered because things are beginning to look better!!!