We are in the middle of what we call a "bad" litter. Not that the puppies are "bad", but usually they are a whole bunch easier. And as easy and wonderful our last litter was, eight wonderfully healthy and bouncy Basset babies who received full marks on their evaluations, it is entirely possible that none of this litter will do so well. But this doesn't mane these are "bad" puppies, or that they will not make "good" pets for families. We have a responsibility to keep our puppy parents, and potential puppy parents informed honestly. So here I am saying the same thing I tell all of our potential new puppy parents the same thing, but with proof that they ought to listen to our advice. Wait to choose your new baby if you can. Here's an analogy . . .
Few people having children would rush out to have them if they knew the baby would become colicky. A word to the wise. None of the parents of a colicky baby loved the experience, except after the baby returned to health and the family to a better life. A colicky baby is nothing but work and nothing about the work is pleasant. By contrast, a normal healthy happy fat little baby is nothing but nice smelling in our memories. So before choosing a puppy from this litter, know what is happening, believe us when we say if a puppy is perfect, and read when I say the puppy needs something to stay perfect.
In this litter, Abba Zabba's last, we have two with serious troubles. Ho Ho was failing to thrive and Ding Dong has developed something that may become more serious.
Ho Ho began wasting a few days after birth. Failure to Thrive is when a puppy fails to become a successful eater. We always weigh the babies at birth and then again a few days later. We weigh them every few weeks to make sure they are growing properly, until we can see the progress and the puppies feeding themselves. Ho Ho never got the hang of eating. He would mess around and not find a nipple. Then, if one of the bigger pups wanted that nipple, Ho Ho would easily get pushed off. Some might call him the "Runt", a term more suited to pigs which usually come out one or two more than there are nipples on the mother. In dogs and Basset Hounds, this is a rare condition and we expect all will have a place at the breakfast table. Ho Ho simply couldn't get the food he needed and so in Failure to Thrive fashion had begun to give up trying. We have seen this before and it usually leads into a sad puppy situation. But weighing and watching in those first few critical weeks give us the opportunity to help out. We arrange feedings, train the puppy to find the food and vigilantly check to make sure things are moving forward as they should. We caught this problem and did some work, the puppy began feeding and things were looking good. But the bottom fell out of the endeavor once more and we had to move the puppy onto the bottle and feed him ourselves. Today he is gaining about a half an ounce a day and is overly energetic when it comes to eating. Only time will tell if he makes it, and how he develops having lost a few critical weeks of progress, but he is easily a third the size of the bulk of the litter (and I mean bulk) . For now he is doing well, but a bit behind the curve.
Ding Dong developed a problem with eating and sleeping a few days ago. It is possible that she was stepped on, or that something natural occurred in the development of her throat. We thought it might be an allergy to mother's milk so we began moving her onto the bottle with her smaller brother. But she cannot swallow well, has no suction, and the process causes her great discomfort. Feeding is a problem, but she is still healthy in other ways with a good body weight to carry her through some short termed troubles. She will go to the Vet today and be checked out. We are staying up with her twenty-four hours a day, working in shifts, to try to get food into her and to keep her comfortable. This morning is an improvement on last night, that's all we can say with certainty.
The balance of the litter is having another issue, but one which is much more manageable and even normal in its own way. They are all quite large. They are being overfed and under worked. We see this every once in a while and have begun training them to walk and to stand properly. In every litter we tell people about "stance". The way a dog stands has quite a bit of meaning in how the puppy will grow and perform through life. Hip and back structures can degrade or fail to develop, so we often say that a dog will need a lot of exercise throughout life to stay healthy in their bones if they have a sub-optimal natural "stance". So, with every litter, at about two weeks, we really become active in checking to see how they are learning to walk and stand. This litter is lazy and so we are beginning to work with each puppy a few times a day to make sure their posture is correct as this is the critical point at which hips and legs are developing. We are not worried about these five large babies, they will be fine, but the time it takes to do the work is being spent on our two troubled babies, so it is lucky for us there is no sleep in our lives these days.
We have been extraordinarily lucky to have had one full marks litter recently, but they are usually a bit rare and this litter is why we do the evaluations every time. And, if it were not always true that we breed a female three times and then retire her, Abba Zabba would never be bred again for the problems of this litter even though her other two litters were easy. We are responsible breeders and care about the breed, the health of the puppy, and the life of every dog we bring into the world.
This litter will likely develop into fine pets and require no special care, but there have been better experiences with the early stages of litters at Creekside Farm. When our puppies feel pain, we feel it too. When we sell a puppy we make sure it is healthy and as happy as we can make it. We don't mean to tell people there are real problems and they ought not look longingly at this litter at all. We only wish to keep everyone informed as to what is really happening as honestly as we can so that they can make an informed decision.
