On February 6 2021 we welcomed a litter of 10 Labrador puppies in the middle of the night. We had 7 yellow Labs and 3 chocolate Labs. My dog Jasmine did an amazing job bringing these babies into the world and she cleaned them up and let them nurse right away. I needed to help her a little bit but she soon knew what had to be done.
For two weeks these puppies nursed along and everything was fine. On Friday in the second week, I noticed that Jasmines breast tissue had a lump in it. I took her to the vet and it had to be monitored. By Monday her entire left side was solid as a rock and I called the vet again and asked to be seen that day. Before we made it to the vet's office, one of her breasts had burst open and was oozing liquid. We got to the vet 20 minutes later and left with antibiotics and ointment to treat the mastitis, but also with the note that Jasmine was no longer to feed her pups.
Uh oh.... now what...
I had purchased puppy milk replacer just in case something went wrong, but I surely did not have enough to feed all these 10 puppies! They would need 6 meals a day. Yikes! I started to panic and I ordered more food on Amazon with a 1 day delivery date. I went back to the vet and bought all their milk replacer. I also stopped at Walmart and decided to buy newborn baby bottles, the ones with a flatter nipple, to nurse these babies, because the bottles that the vet gave me, leaked and none of them wanted to latch on.
These puppies were bottle fed for two and a half week before I introduced them to puppy "mush". They were finally able to lap up liquids and I needed a break. I have two kids of my own that I breastfed, but this was a HUGE challenge. Every puppy preferred the bottle a different way and preferred to be held a different way. My hands and arms were scratched up and I've been diagnosed with tennis elbow since. I was tired and exhausted. Now the fun could begin.
Once these pups were able to move around more, eat semi solid food and mom wasn't there anymore to clean up their messes it all fell to me. I had to come up with a solution other than potty pads. Not only was this going to cost me a fortune, I changed the entire pen 4 times a day, but it was also not very friendly to the nose. I decided to check some resources online and came upon this idea to use trays filled with pine litter.
You'd be surprised how fast these little pups learned how to potty in a litter box! What a delight! Less clean up for me (for now) and they would play in a designated area away from the potty mess.
After they were 6 weeks old however the pine litter was a nightmare. I slowly reduced the potty area and increased the play area in their pen, but they would scratch it everywhere! Two times a day I had to do an entire haul over in their potty area. The pine pellets would turn to dust and it would spread everywhere. I kept going however with this method knowing that two weeks from that date they would all be going to their new homes. The end was in sight!
We took them to the vet at 7 weeks of age to get their first check up and shots. The vet also checked them for worms and they got dewormed. All puppies got a clean bill of health and it was a big adventure trying to get all 10 of them into the office. It also started raining pretty hard once we got to the office so it must've looked hilarious seeing us struggle with a large wire crate on a dolly pushing these puppies up the ramp at the vet!
Everyone found a home fairly quick and we still get updates about their growth. A few of them actually moved to a different state! I sure do miss them, but I do not miss their mess.
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