Four Day Old Puppies

As we are making our way through the first week of the puppies lives, I almost feel like celebrating… ALMOST! That first week is so criticial for the puppies; I feel like we are “watching them” constantly! And mom too!

First the puppies:

All are gaining weight each day; a very good sign!
All are very mobile moving all around the whelping box (and have no problem finding the “milk bar” when mom is in the box with them
And all survived having dew claws removed yesterday (day 3); sites look great today!

And then there is mom, Deja:

It is hot here, Deja is panting constantly (the “up side” of this is that the puppies are definitely NOT chilled!) We have the AC on for Deja but are making sure pups are not in any drafts. Regardless, I have now removed the heating pad in the whelping box… Pups are all spread out indicating they are definitely NOT cold!
Deja’s incision looks good; is healing well. We did pull out 4 staples that were “falling out” but the incision where these staples were has healed; is looking good.
Milk has “come in” as evidence by the puppies all gaining weight.
The “bad news” is Deja has Hot Spots on both thighs and her groin. More shaving for Deja, drying out of these areas, and treating the area w/ topical medication. Poor mama! We are keeping a very close eye on these areas!

New Families:

Thanks for all touching base with me!
I will be putting together “puppy packets” that I will send to everyone via email (in the next few weeks). This will give everyone a chance to read over info and get questions asked/answered long before puppies go to their new homes!
The “theme” for this litter’s registered names will be names that signify a journey (because it certainly has been a journey for us!) Preceding this name will be our kennel name, “Jema”. The “call name” for your puppy can be anything you want and what you will call your puppy/dog on a daily basis. An example of what I’m talking about will be one of the boy’s names: Jema’s Journey To The River; call name: “Fischer” (I hope I got that right, Terri?!) It is nice if you want to have the call name be part of the registered name but you do not have to do this. Coming up with names is a fun, family activity we usually play on long car rides or when anticipating puppy’s arrival.
As always, if you have any questions of me, please don’t hesitate to ask 🙂