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Help Needed With Hand Raised Litter


Airedaler
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Hi Everyone,

I'm after some suggestions from people who have hand raised a litter.

Quick background. My niece had a litter of pups last week, delivered by caesarean. Mum totally rejected the pups and was in fact aggressive to them to the extent of killing one and attempting to do further harm when put back with the pups. The bitch has been totally removed from the litter now and they are being fed on divetlac as per the Vet's suggestion.

In 35 years of breeding I was fortunate enough to only need to do one Caesar and that was for one pup after 8 in the litter were born and Mum took over as usual so I have no experience about the above situation.

The pups have now developed diarrhoea and I'm at a loss to know what to advise. Pups are 6 days old. One died yesterday after drinking less and less and started bleeding from the nose and anus.

The instructions on the divetlac tin have been followed. I never used anything but goat milk to raise (supplement) pups and never had any problems with diarrhoea.

Any suggestions would be welcome.

My niece lives in a rural area and is not able to pop down to the supermarket to pick up supplies.

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I have had better success h/r pups on Goat's milk. Maybe give that a try?

If getting to a store is an issue, I doubt anyone will be able to help much.

Sorry.... just read you've used Goat's milk before too.

I am not a fan of divetelact simply as I don't see how one product is supposedly satisfactory nutrition for a multitude of species, Koala, Macropods, Possums, Cats and Dogs. Makes no sense.

Products such as Wombaroo are better as they are species-specific supplements.

Edited by jerojath
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As a vet nurse we have heard nothing but unfavorable things for using divetalac. Wombaroo is MUCH better. May I suggest http://leerburg.com/bottlefeeding.htm

we use this in our large litters all the time with great success.

Thanks for this link underfoot. It makes interesting reading.

The only time I used divetalac (as a supplement) I ended up with dehydrated puppies.

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I have had better success h/r pups on Goat's milk. Maybe give that a try?

If getting to a store is an issue, I doubt anyone will be able to help much.

Sorry.... just read you've used Goat's milk before too.

I am not a fan of divetelact simply as I don't see how one product is supposedly satisfactory nutrition for a multitude of species, Koala, Macropods, Possums, Cats and Dogs. Makes no sense.

Products such as Wombaroo are better as they are species-specific supplements.

I agree it does not make sense does it.

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General advice I have seen with an aggressive bitch is to give her calcium. This has often helped turn them around.

Did pups get any colostrum? If not if the bitch has milk can you aspirate some milk from mum to try and get some in the pups.

I love the Leerburg formula if she is able to put it together: http://leerburg.com/bottlefeeding.htm

Maybe some probiotics added to formula if not. My favourite is protexin soluble. You can order it online. In the absence of that, try any probiotic you have I guess.

Edited by espinay2
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Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your suggestions which I have passed on.

An update on the situation which I'm pleased to say is positive.

The pups have been switched from divetalac to goat milk with some natural yoghurt and are now being fed from a normal baby bottle with a newborn teat. They are feeding well from this and are much more contented. These are rotty pups so I suspect the small animal feeding bottle was just too small for them to get enough feed.

The diarrhoea has cleared up and the pups have pup on a reasonable amount of weight in a week.

While they may not be totally out of the woods yet I think they have at least turned the corner.

Thanks again for your suggestions.

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