Not For The Faint Of Heart

Anyone raising puppies experiences heart ache, today is one of those days. Our lovely little girl Flounder had her c-section yesterday and she had 4 FAT GORGEOUS babies, 3 girls and 1 boy. This is her first litter and the sire is AKC CH Daystar's Mr. Bullisitic "Gunner". Unfortunately about 5 am this morning I noticed orange collar girl was bloating and her belly was turning blue, the dreaded blue belly or septicemia had occurred. I did all I know to do to save her (injectable antibiotics and fluids) but my efforts were not rewarded. We know how to care for umbilical stumps and these pups were clamped at birth and dipped in white iodine several times, but poor Flounder had a horrific bout of diarrhea at 2 am and she literally exploded all over her blankets and her babies, she couldn't help it, it happens. At 2 am, just 14 hours old, the puppies got their first bath, by 5 am I could see orange girl was bloated, blue and whining, I suspect that some of the diarrhea got into her umbilical stump as I had seen some of of the poo on her belly and her half dried cord. That is orange girl in the photo, she passed about 3 pm this afternoon, a perfect, fat, healthy baby, it all happened so fast! I am very sad this evening :(

On a brighter note, Flounder looks quite chuffed at her accomplishment and is grinning from ear to ear, I can tell you who WASN'T grinning at 2 am as I scrubbed liquid poo off everything including the new babies. Flounder's puppies have gained a tiny bit of weight today and that is always a relief to have  new babies gain quickly. 

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