I have a tiny rat terrier puppy that is left an orphan. He was born 9/12, and weighs about 6 ounces. I have been feeding him evaporated milk mixed with a little water, and he is taking it greedily, but I suspect he could use a little better stuff. I cannot afford to buy the canned powdered milk replacer as it runs about $20/can here. If I can keep him alive a few more days, I think he will be able to start eating from a bowl instead of me feeding him with a syringe. Any help would be appreciated.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), September 30, 2001

Answers

Hi Green, did your little orphan get any colostrum from his momma? I sell my goats milk, and colostrum to the veterinary for the orphans. Do you have anyone near you with dairy goats? What about calling your local vet to see if he has any goats milk? I would think, if worse came to worse, you can use store bought goats milk also, although, it would be rather expensive over time. In His Grace, Sissy

-- Sissy Sylvester-Barth (iblong2Him@ilovejesus.net), September 30, 2001.

Your evaporated milk is a good base to start with. You may wish to start gradually adding egg yolk. I've raised orphaned critters on that. Do you have access to fresh goat milk? Goat yogurt and egg yolk worked real well for the orphans.

-- Laura (LadybugWrangler@hotmail.com), September 30, 2001.

Another option you might consider is lamb's milk replacer, which we used to buy by the pound at the local feed co-op, fairly inexpensively.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), September 30, 2001.

Thanks. I don't know anyone here that has milk goats, and the feed store here doesn't sell sheep milk replacer, or sheep anything for that matter. People don't raise them here. Too many predators. The puppy's mother just died Saturday. She had always been little and sickly, and wasn't supposed to breed but came into heat before anyone noticed this time. She only had two puppies and the other one died last week. This puppy is pretty strong, and has begun to lick a little milk from my hand. I think maybe, just maybe if I can keep him alive until his eyes open and he can see what he is doing he might learn to drink from a bowl and can then be moved on to solid food. I hope. I'd hate for little Molly Dolls to have died for nothing. She was such a sweet little dog and never was much trouble. I really don't know what went wrong with her. She seemed to have a heart attack, but was only 3 years old.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), October 01, 2001.

So sorry for the loss of your little dog. Best wishes with pup.

-- mary (marylgarcia@aol.com), October 01, 2001.

The wife says that evaporated milk from the grocery store is about the same as the $20 can stuff from the vet. She adds a little corn syrup to make it more palatable for the pups. Our Chihuahua pups are doing fine and they had this in their diets for about 3 weeks.

Hope that helps.

-- K & S (healthywizard@earthlink.net), October 01, 2001.

Try to get to a large grocrie store and get some "acidophlis" milk, ask the dairy clerk, its pasturized and then the benifical bacteria is put back in; a necessity for all young creatures in that it stableizes their digestion, prevents loose bowels, and work on kids too.

-- mitch hearn (moopups@citlink.net), October 02, 2001.

Green, Try going to a livestoack auction and getting to know someone who buys a lot of goats. They will probably give you some milk for your puppy. Your dog probably died of Calcium deficiency. It is very easy for a small dog to suffer from this. Always Always keep injectable calcium on hand for momma doggies. Another help is to feed your momma dog goats milk everyday. Hope your puppy is alright.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little Bit Farm (littleBit@compworldnet.com), October 02, 2001.

The puppy basically stopped eating Monday night. He died Tuesday morning. He looked perfect. He wasn't dehydrated, didn't make any noises when breathing, etc. I don't know what happened to him either. His mother had given birth to a total of four puppies, two in each of two litters. None of the puppies ever lived to be grown. Maybe it was something genetic, as we had to baby Molly along to get her to live. We had hand fed her, let her sleep in the covers with us in winter, etc. She was never very strong. Thank you all for the help. Ava

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), October 04, 2001.