It’s been an emotional rollercoaster!!!

Lola had 9 borgi pups 16th Sept, all very different sizes, with the biggest being almost twice the size of the smallest!

When this happens, we need to step in, split the feedings, make sure the smallest get fed first, so they don’t get bullied off the nipples. It’s hard work! Every 2-3 hrs, around the clock!

About 4 days after giving birth, Lola started neglecting her pups and stopped eating. I monitored her closely over the next few days, she seemed fine in herself, no lethargy, normal temperature, she’d eat only a bit of chicken or cheese if I hand fed her, I had to start supplementing the pups and stimulating them to toilet.

After 3 or 4 days of Lola not eating, she started showing signs of dehydration and her milk supply was reducing so I took her into the emergency vets. The puppies were also going downhill rapidly, they all developed diarrhea and I was struggling to get enough fluids into them, and having to tube feed the smallest ones that had become too weak to suckle.

The vet couldn’t find anything noticeably wrong with Lola, we had a full blood panel done, everything seemed normal. She was prescribed antibiotics in case she had metritis developing (infection in the uterus) and all the pups were given a subcutaneous injection of fluids to help with dehydration.

Thankfully, Lola completely fully recovered within 24 hrs after starting antibiotics, her appetite back to normal and she started taking good care of the pups again, though 4 of them were still too weak to suckle and needed continued tube feeding

Over the next couple of days, the weak pups started to regain their strength enough to start suckling again and all started to make a great recovery except for the smallest one. He seemed to be strong, I’d been tube feeding him with oral aid and supplementing with liquid glucose but he looked like he was in pain. He was moving about constantly, wouldn’t settle/sleep and seemed to be breathing rapidly and just wouldn’t latch on to mum, he started to develop pustules on his belly, a couple of small sacs of pus. So, another emergency trip to the vet!! They suspected he’d developed sepsis, probably got a bacterial infection through mum’s milk, the other pups would have been getting the antibiotics in mum’s milk when she was treated, but because he wasn’t feeding from her, and being tube fed, the infection had taken hold. He was given an injection of antibiotics and antibiotics to bring home.

Within about 12 hrs, there was a noticeable difference in him, he started settling more, and sleeping well, breathing seemed normal. Pustules soon disappeared. It took a couple of days of tube feeding for him to regain the strength to suckle.

Today, after what seems like a long battle and lots of sleep deprivation, all pups are now suckling from mum, and mum is doing a great job looking after them. I feel like crying with relief, I honestly thought they wouldn’t all make it. The pup which developed sepsis is third from the left in the video below and middle pup in the pic above, he’s still underweight, he hasn’t been gaining weight for a while, not since he’s been poorly, but now he’s regained the strength to suckle, he’s a little fighter and hopefully he’ll soon make up for it