WHEN PUPPIES NEED HELP
How It Was Done In The Old Days
When at birth the navel string can be tied with ordinary white cotton thread and the afterbirth cut off with knife and scissors. This should be burned, for the mother begins licking her puppies immediately and is sure to eat it if she is not restrained.
You should let the mother care for her puppies in her own way. With smaller dogs, it is advisable that a comfortable oval basket bed be furnished with plenty of cloths laid in the bottom. The bed should be large enough for the mother to lie down comfortably, as this is preferable to a large box where there is an excess of room, since the mother is more apt to lie upon and kill her puppies when she has a large bed than when it is just big enough.
When the mother does not seem to have sufficient milk for her puppies, the milk flow can often be restored by giving the following formula three times daily: Mammary substance and placenta substance each two grains and made into a capsule. These are powdered preparations of the substance of the udder and placenta of cattle and sheep and should be procured fresh through the druggist.
If this treatment fails, the puppies should be fed artificially by the following formula: One teaspoonful of lime water, one teaspoonful of Eagle brand condensed milk, eight teaspoonful of sterile water, put in a doll’s nursing bottle equipped with a small rubber nipple, feeding every one and one-half hours for the first week, every two hours the second week and every three hours for the third week. The milk should be given warm, not hot, and arrangements should be made for frequent night feedings as well as those during the day.
Sometimes the mother becomes extremely nervous a few hours or even a few days after birth to her puppies. This condition is augmented when there is a large litter of puppies constantly nursing her. She begins to pant continually and show unnatural restlessness, which finally ends in convulsions.
It is also necessary to give a sedative, the most reliable one for first aid treatment being luminal sodium. One grain in one teaspoonful of water for a Boston or wire hair terrier, three grains to three teaspoonful of water for an Irish terrier, five grains to one tablespoonful of water for a collie or police dog. These doses will usually make the mother very sleepy, but if they do not suffice, the doctor should be summoned to give a hypodermic of morphine or other sedatives, the puppies being taken away from the mother at once and fed artificially. If the puppies are returned to her, a repetition of the trouble is certain to result.
