1. Very little care is required of the owner of the puppies during the first few weeks after birth. Natural instinct causes the mother to provide for most needs of the offspring. the best advice is to leave the new family alone as much as possible and simply watch for anything you feel might be abnormal .
2. Be sure puppies nurse within the first 2-6 hours following birth. This provides the antibodies which fight against diseases in the pup for the first 6-8 weeks of life. These antibodies are only absorbed during the first few hours of birth.
3. Maintain the warm environment. Room temperature should be maintained at a minimum of 72 degrees F. Remember that it’s about 10 degrees colder on the floor (since heat rises) than eye level.
4.Avoid drafts and keep warm. Dampness and chilling can be FATAL to young puppies. Recommend placing a heating pad set on LOW temperature underneath 1/3 to ½ of the nesting box. Do not place heating pad in direct contact with the puppies.
5. A properly nourished pup sleeps most of the time, stays quiet, and has a full stomach. Pups should sleep, wake up, cry, feed, and go back to sleep. Extended crying is not normal and may be a sign of problems: Such as no milk available in the breasts, infected milk (mastitis), the mother dog not letting the pups nurse, or a problem with the puppy being able to nurse properly.
6. Tail Docking and Dewclaw Removal is routinely done at 3-5 days of age at our hospital.
Eyes usually open at 10-14 days of age. Swollen eyes or discharges should be reported to Doctor when observed.
7. Puppies should be brought to the hospital at 3 weeks of age for routine deworming of intestinal parasites.
8. Being weaning the puppies at 3-4 weeks of age. Recommended mixing puppy food with warm water and milk replacer to achieve a watery gruel. As the puppies being eating this better, you can slowly make the consistency of the gruel thicker and thicker. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT that the puppies be allowed to nurse the mother dog until they are eating solid food readily. They can be allowed to nurse the female until 6-8 weeks of age.
9. The weight and size of the pups should be monitored daily, with all of them gaining approximately the same amount of weight daily. If one or two pups are smaller than the others, or are not growing as rapidly, the mother may be pushing them away and refusing to nurse them. Recommended that you supplement the feedings of these pups with puppy milk replacer. DO NOT use human milk.
10. Vaccinations and heartworm preventive for the puppies are recommended at 6-8 weeks of age. The puppies do have some protective antibodies from the mother, but his may not be a strong enough protection against diseases like PARVO and DISTEMPER.
Observe the mother dog and pups for the presence of fleas. On very small pups, even 5-6 fleas could potentially cause serious blood loss. Contact our office for instructions on fleas treatment for the mother dog and her offspring.
Be sure that the bedding and nesting area are cleaned daily to help prevent infection.
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