Puppies

Monday 28th April.

The past week has just flown by and it has not been without drama but there is a light at the end of tunnel and with each passing day the puppies become stronger and hopefully less vulnerable.

Last wednesday whilst walking the dogs I noticed that Lela had what seemed to be a large chunk missing from her back. I quickly realised It was quite deep as the muscle could be seen and that It would need suturing. So,much of Wednesday was tied up with her, she required a general anaesthetic and was given a course of antibiotics and of course the wound was sutured. The next morning I was confronted with a dog with a chewed off lampshade (Motsi) and a wound where most of the sutures had been bitten out. Fortunately she had not been able to get the deeper ones so I dressed the wound and now I have a constant battle with her re keeping her bandage on. The wound is gaping but It is clean and I am confident It will heal but It is an added stress I could do without right now.

The weekend was very fraught and once again It was Kasidi and her puppies that caused all of the anxiety. Her puppies developed runny stools on Saturday and she just refused to clean up after them so by 11 am I hd already washed and dried 3 sheepskins and I noticed that Kodak was failing. I have never wormed the puppies as early as 2 weeks, I usually start at 3 weeks but I decided to worm the pups and I commenced supplementing Kodak. He had become too weak to suckle from his mum so I hoped by boosting him I could give him the strength he needed to compete with his rather large littermates. It was quite a stressful time for me and there were times when I thought I was going to experience my first loss but he did get stronger as the day progressed. I set the alarm for 03.30 (although that was wishful thinking as I have yet to get one good nights sleep) and after his feed he was able to nurse from his mother. Yesterday he was doing well but then this morning he seemed to be off a little so I have supplemented him again today and once again he has picked up. I think what is happening is during the night the bigger dogs are pushing him around and he doesn't get to feed. He is a lovely boy, a little smaller at the moment but I will introduce him to raw meat in a couple of days and I know he will catch up with his brothers and sisters.

Ruby is the ultimate perfect mother,she serenely gets on with the job of mothering and I have no concerns over their progress. She keeps her box immaculately clean and her puppies barely make a noise. Her pups are now up on their feet and their teeth are starting to come through. They have also started to play with one with another but keep falling over as they cant quite support themselves for very long. I also wormed Ruby's pups for the first time yesterday.

Things have been a little calmer today so I have tried to catch up with phoning people who are interested in one of the pups. I think I am going to ask for a deposit this time around as I am responding to many enquiries and I need to know who the commited prospective owners are. I always have owners drop out at the last minute and I think by asking for a deposit it shows commitment from both sides.