While Lasya's newborn pups began growing up we had a few scares in the first two weeks. From what I had seen and heard of this crucial stage of whelping, entire litters of pups could be lost due to an infection or some unknown reasons. With a big litter of six pups I was on a 24/7 vigil, constantly watching for any symptoms of sickness or a pup not getting enough feed. At each feed-time there were pups being jostled and pushed around as the stronger or hungrier ones tried to hog Lasya's teats. And then she would tire quickly and walk away from them, invariably leaving a couple of them still hungry and crying.
Lasya's breast milk also dried up quickly which meant I had to shift them to a supplement after they went hungry for almost two days as the Vet wanted to keep them on breast milk for as long as possible. Although it was probably stress working on the new mother. As soon as she saw that I had an alternative resource she did her best to give them at least 4 to 5 feeds a day.
Pictured above are Michewa (on the extreme right with a blue ribbon) and Tashi in the middle (pink ribbon). Tashi was the youngest or runt of the litter and I was worried about losing her but this little girl turned out to be a tough fighter, to my delight. Michewa was the second last in whelping and gave the most frightful moments. In the first week little Mishi developed colic and wouldn't take her feed; she'd blindly race around the bed in circles and if I put her onto Lasya's teat she'd still climb over her mother.
Then in the second week I decided to add to Lasya's diet of boiled chicken with cottage cheese/paneer which turned out to be a really bad idea. The calcium being added to her breast milk was too much for the pups to digest and they all got a bad case of Diarrhea. They had to be put on medication and to avoid any chances of infections picked up at the clinic the Vet had to make a midnight home visit when Diki (the fourth pup) was suddenly looking dangerously limp.
Fortunately, Diki responded to dropper feeds of glucose water and was on the mend quickly but the Vet wasn't happy with Michewa's condition and warned me to watch her for the next 48 hours. Little Mishi turned out fine eventually though I had to make sure she got enough feed, but with the birth weight loss and further weight loss during the first couple of weeks saw to it that she remained smaller than the other pups. Her overall development was also much slower which meant a delay in muscle mass gain as well.
As they grew bigger the six tiny pups roaming around in circles in their little round bed quickly learned to find things to hide under. There were old towels and bedsheets lining the bed, in the hope of keeping it clean and these became hiding corners for the critters. But the highlight of the day was when Rehaan came home from school and dropped in to meet his little friends. The pup Yeshe was always the first to fly across the bed to leap up at Rehaan when he heard him and the others were quick to follow as they flocked around for attention.
Lasya's breast milk also dried up quickly which meant I had to shift them to a supplement after they went hungry for almost two days as the Vet wanted to keep them on breast milk for as long as possible. Although it was probably stress working on the new mother. As soon as she saw that I had an alternative resource she did her best to give them at least 4 to 5 feeds a day.
Pictured above are Michewa (on the extreme right with a blue ribbon) and Tashi in the middle (pink ribbon). Tashi was the youngest or runt of the litter and I was worried about losing her but this little girl turned out to be a tough fighter, to my delight. Michewa was the second last in whelping and gave the most frightful moments. In the first week little Mishi developed colic and wouldn't take her feed; she'd blindly race around the bed in circles and if I put her onto Lasya's teat she'd still climb over her mother.
Then in the second week I decided to add to Lasya's diet of boiled chicken with cottage cheese/paneer which turned out to be a really bad idea. The calcium being added to her breast milk was too much for the pups to digest and they all got a bad case of Diarrhea. They had to be put on medication and to avoid any chances of infections picked up at the clinic the Vet had to make a midnight home visit when Diki (the fourth pup) was suddenly looking dangerously limp.
Fortunately, Diki responded to dropper feeds of glucose water and was on the mend quickly but the Vet wasn't happy with Michewa's condition and warned me to watch her for the next 48 hours. Little Mishi turned out fine eventually though I had to make sure she got enough feed, but with the birth weight loss and further weight loss during the first couple of weeks saw to it that she remained smaller than the other pups. Her overall development was also much slower which meant a delay in muscle mass gain as well.
As they grew bigger the six tiny pups roaming around in circles in their little round bed quickly learned to find things to hide under. There were old towels and bedsheets lining the bed, in the hope of keeping it clean and these became hiding corners for the critters. But the highlight of the day was when Rehaan came home from school and dropped in to meet his little friends. The pup Yeshe was always the first to fly across the bed to leap up at Rehaan when he heard him and the others were quick to follow as they flocked around for attention.
Then came the day when Rinchen finally began crawling out of the bed with the others following him over the sides. Their Sire - Simba has always had a problem with unpredictable actions (Lhasa Apso sires are not always known to be very friendly to their pups) and I had to keep the adult male away from the little pups. So the balcony got converted into a small DogRun for the pups, which gave them lots of room to move around as they grew bigger. But playtime was always in my living room, which in turn meant that my furniture was being destroyed by six little teething pups!
Notice the wall in the background with wallpaper chewed off! The shoes didn't fare any better and neither did the dining table legs...
Most of the meal-times turned into playtime as well and being woken at 4am by six playful pups and their mother joining in guaranteed that I'd be dozing at work during the day!
Born on Monday 2nd August 2010 the pups are soon going to be a year old. I have kept back two of them while the other four have all gone to pefect homes with the most loving families I could hope for!
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