Hi Everyone, I have a desperate situation here in Georgia. Hopefully someone near me can help. I have a litter of seven Great Pyrenees puppies. They are 6 days old and are now without a mother to feed them. The brood bitch got out of my fence tonight and was hit by a car. I cannot get these puppies to drink the goat milk and I do not know how to tube feed them. These pups are pure bred and AKC registered and I had big hopes for this litter because it was to be the last litter of my oldest brood bitch before we retired her. Is there anyone on this list that lives near me that has a bitch that can nurse these puppies. I would be willing to pay you $100 per puppy if you could help me. I can be reached online most of the time or you can call me at (706)776-1239. My email address is DixieSpirits@aol.com. Please feel free to crosspost this message to other lists that you are on in the hopes of helping me to find someone that can help. > > Thanks, > Tara Jones > Dixie Spirits Kennel > AKC registered Saint Bernards and Great Pyrenees > Alto, Georgia

-- Tara Jones (DixieSpirits@aol.com), January 13, 2002

Answers

You might try a plastic glove with a hole poked in it. You could fill part of the glove and twist it above the filled part. Or, a twist of towel dipped in the milk, but you cannot tell how much milk the pup is getting from it. This is a large breed: I don't know how large your goats teats are, but can they nurse directly off of her if you distract her? If you have any sort of thing that can act as a nipple you can enlarge the hole if need be: can you go to the store, buy several baby nipples and enlarge the hole? One drawback of that is that those new nipples are pretty stiff: I used to use a steak knife to make an X across the nipple for my youngest who didn't suck very strongly. Sometimes I got the nipple a little loose, so that milk dripped out slowly if I just held the bottle upside down, but that was better than to stiff. He sometimes coughed when he drank but at least he COULD drink! The best nipple of all for my youngest was an old, soft, worn out one. I am really sorry to hear about your faithful bitch getting killed: that's really rough.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), January 13, 2002.

Tara, Sorry to hear about your momma dog. Since the puppies got some of their mom's first milk you could probably switch them to a product called first born. Milk replacer for puppies and kittens. I wonder if the pups suck your finger? If so I'd be very surprised if you couldn't get them to take a bottle. Maybe a playtex nurser for human babies would have a softer nipple or maybe a human Premie bottle with the hole enlarged. If you tried to feed them right after they lost their mom they may not have been very hungry. As time goes on I feel sure that they will nurse from a bottle. I've never seen a pup that wouldn't suck your finger and then a bottle. Be sure to use warm milk and hold the pup the way they would nurse if their mom was still there. Maybe against a warm towel. Be sure to wipe their rear ends with a warm cloth to stimulate their mom licking them so they can go to the bathroom. Enjoy bottle feeding this letter. Linda

-- Linda (jlsam@ccrtc.com), January 13, 2002.

It would cost you consideraly less to call the vet for a farm call and have her teach you to tube! It is not hard to do, the vet can teach you in 5 minutes! The goat milk is the perfect milk! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh TX (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), January 13, 2002.

I agree with Vicki, tube them with goats milk. If your vet is too busy, run down to the office with one pup, and buy the tube, and let them show you there. I bottle fed one from 6 days old, but it takes a long time, like 10 minutes for them to drink, and you'd never get any sleep doing 7 of them.

I have a girl nursing 4 week olds, she could feed yours, but I am up in KY. If you can get them to 3 1/2 weeks old, they can start eating oatmeal and milk.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), January 14, 2002.

Keep trying to bottle feed, if they are normal-healthy pups, they WILL catch on. And goats' milk is the best thing for them...that commercial stuff is way too expensive to try to raise a litter on.

When I have kittens or other little orphans, I find it helpful to wrap them (swaddle) in a towel with just the head sticking out. This tends to calm them somewhat, and avoids flailing claws and squirminess, so they can focus on eating.

-- Shannon at Grateful Acres Animal Sanctuary (gratacres@aol.com), January 14, 2002.

The part about rubbing their bottoms is extremely important. A warm, wet paper towel rubbed on the genitals and anus will cause them to potty right then, a life or death thing. Pups or kittens that aren't pottied can die.

-- melina b. (goatgalmjb1@hotmail.com), January 14, 2002.

How long do you have to stimulate them for bowel movements? ie, at what age will they start to go on their own?

-- Elizabeth (ekfla@aol.com), January 14, 2002.