My First Litter

My first litter of Poms way back in 1995 was a c-section. This was Embers first litter. She had a sack hanging out and was stuck for an hour this way..so off to the vet we went. She had 2 pups via c-section. When I got home I had a rude awakening as mom wanted nothing to do with puppies at all... she was freaked out and in pain and these "aliens" she just knew created it!!

So I decided to clean up the pups and feed them... I had no idea how hard it was to get the poop plug out of them. It's dark brown to blackish color and you have to really work on the pups to get them to poop. Peeing is no problem I just took a cotton ball wetted it and stimulated (rubbed the vulva or boys winkies) and viola' they pee'd sometimes the first pee takes a couple cotton balls.. but getting them to poop that wax birth poop out is another story. You have to rub really hard on the sides of their tail on top and from the vulva area up short strokes.. once you get the waxy poop plug out the normal color poop is a mustard seedy color. Sometimes it takes the next feeding before you can get the wax plug compeletly out..but make sure it is out otherwise they can't poop and will become toxic.

Mom still wanted nothing to do with the little buggers.. so I would make her lay on her side and hold the pups on her so they could nurse... You do this with Poms every 2 hours for the first two weeks if you have 3 oz and under pups... if the pups are 4 oz you can do 3 hours but don't follow the instructions on the puppy formula box or you'll have dead pups.

After two days of this and becoming a zombie from sleep deprevation mom's hormones finally kicked in and took over and Ember was the most wonderful mom!