Re: A Stressful Parasitic Accident...
My puppy experience is mostly second hand and from helping my friend who is a rescue doula. She takes in pregnant moms from various humane societies and other rescues, helps the mom as birth and wean the pups and sees them safely to the eight week mark when they go off to other fosters.
Right now she has 22 little squeakers under roof. Two litters have mommas, including a litter of 12 pups. One of the litters, a group of six, came into rescue when momma was killed - run over by a car. They all had to be bottle fed.
Your friend is a saint! I cannot even imagine the amount of her heart and sanity that she gives to every one of the litters she rescues. Even outside the financial burden, the amount of attention healthy litters need is intense, but orphaned litters are a whole new ballgame. I have no idea how she ever finds time to sleep. Out of curiosity, with the orphaned litter, could she split them up and give half to each nursing mother, or would they not be able to provide for so many puppies? Or I guess even accept ones that were not their own?
I do not think a lot of people that romanticize breeding really have an understanding of the time commitment and financial commitment involved in a healthy/easy litter, let alone a litter that they have to bottle feed or that the mother has emergency issues. Even the little things like having to feed a nursing mother 3x their normal daily intake becomes quite expensive then add in milk replacer for weaning, puppy food, vet exams for mother (before and after whelping) and each puppy, health certificates, de- worming every 2 weeks for mother and puppies, vaccinations, bedding, electricity and detergent for doing tons of laundry every day, extra towel/washcloths for keeping everyone clean, small sharp scissors to cut the puppies nails every few days so they don't injure the mother, constructing an appropriate sized whelping area, gauze and a disinfectant incase the puppies or mother gets a cut, disposable lining for when the puppies begin to potty away from their sleeping area (be it paper, puppy pads, or pine large wood chips). I purchased so many little items that really never occurred to me that you would need the closer and closer the whelping got just to cover every contingency. Heck, I left out the ridiculous amount of money I spent on canned wet food to top Betty's kibble each feeding because I want to make sure that she eats all of it since trying to gain weight on a nursing mother seems to be incredibly challenging. Then add in a bulb syringe, a medicine dropper, extra fleece to make sure the whelping area is soft and comfortable, bleach to make sure the floors are cleaned and sanitary around the puppies, baby wipes for when they inevitably roll in their own poo while you have them separated from the mother and cleaning the area. It just keeps adding up.
Granted, maybe I am a bit over prepared, but other than the dental floss, the bentadine and gauze, I have used every single thing in my arsenal at one point or another including the kid's scissors to cut umbilical cords. I would hope that anyone "planning" to breed for one reason or another, that is not a professoinal, really takes a look at the amount of money and time that it takes to whelp a little. Now, I am sure there are people who just throw them in the back yard and see who survives like a horrible episode of naked and afraid, but we will leave that demographic out.
Thankfully we had some money put away in case of an emergency and this was not a financial hardship for us. Now, it was only not a hardship because everything went right. If Betty needed an emergency C-section or hospitalization, then than would have left us with some serious credit card debt and likely a loan. Add on to the situation, we got notice 28 days before our lease ends on Oct. 1st that they were not renewing. So while all the crazy whelping was going on we had to look for a new house to rent, plan movers, cleaners, etc in addition to paying first and security on a new place. Just goes to show, if something will go wrong... it will.
Even with the scariest part over, comes the challenge of finding all the puppies good homes and making sure when I take them in for vaccines they do not pick up any diseases. Oh, yes add another expense in... I purchased an additional medium wire crate to transport the puppies two and from the vet so they never touch the floor. If the litter came down with parvo because lack of sanitation at the vet combined with my lack of precautions, I would just be inconsolable.
I am sitting here thinking about the stress, the cost, the time investment and just shaking my head. This was something that is happening one time for me, but your friend does this all the time. She is a hero, and no amount of thanks or praise will ever come close to what she really deserves.
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