Gypsy

So Gypsy was the second born pup and came out REALLY tiny.  As soon as I saw her, my heart sunk.  She was so small, my initial though was that she might not even be alive.  I immediately took her from Rave and starting working on her.  While Octane came out of the sac kicking and vigorous, Gypsy was quiet and purple.  I suctioned a fair bit of mucous from her throat and stimulated the heck out of her.  She turned pink and seemed to gain some strength.  She weighed 4.2 ounces at birth and Octane weighed in at almost 12 ounces.  A huge difference.

When I felt comfortable enough, I offered her the nipple.  Now Octane latched on instantly and nursed like a champ, but Gypsy would not latch on at all.  I tried for about 30 minutes before I started contacting my "support system" of breeders as well as my vet, because I felt woefully under prepared for this type of situation.

I was provided with a number of suggestions and fortunately I had some Nutrical on hand to put in her mouth to at least give her some glucose.  That seemed to help a bit and she did attempt to nurse, but with very little effort.  In retrospect, I think she was so weak and had a suckle reflex that wasn't as developed as the other pups.  The colostrom that comes in at birth is very thick and she really did struggle to get it out.  I could see the other pups really working to get it out, but she just didn't have the strength.  I tried bottle feeding and she didn't want any part of it.  I syringe fed her a bit, but that's really risky since they can aspirate the liquid though I was able to get a bit into her at least.

Then one breeder suggested something pretty simple, run my nails down her spine pretty vigorously and wouldn't you know it irritate her enough that she started eating!  I had to keep doing it for a bit, but she got the idea, though still not terribly vigorous in her nursing.  We never left her unsupervised and really kept encouraging her to nurse.  And she did start offering more effort over time.

She had a little set back on Monday where I think her glucose level dropped and she was hypoglycemic, as she had not eaten for fours hours. Thanks to a sugar/salt solution suggested by another breeder, she perked back up and began nursing again.  Thank goodness, because I was all set to start tube feeding her and I was glad to have avoided that.  About that time, Rave's milk turned from colostrom to milk, which is much thinner and we could immediately see a change.  Gypsy started nursing much more aggressively and you could see she was really getting milk out now.

Since then, she's been nursing very well.  We make sure to give her special nipple time when Rave is really full and we keep the others away.  All the other pups are really, really pushy at the milk bar and while Gyspy has learned to hang on and try to hold on to her nipple, she is so much smaller that she can get knocked off.

So we are at day five now, and things are still going well for Gypsy.  In fact, she's now doubled her birth weight!!!!  I am still sleeping right next to the box, making sure she gets lots of feedings.  I am still holding my breath a bit, but overall I am feeling much more optimistic about her.