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Solo Photos and His First Video

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Tessa and SoloSolo is almost at two pounds, finally. He hit a sort of plateau when he was sick a week ago, but he’s been making up for lost time the last few days. He’s gone from eating just under an ounce per feeding to an ounce and a half and change – and this morning, he ate a full two ounces. Time to re-try the pablum!

Sailor just adores him – well, she adores licking him, at any rate. Tessa has given him a few cursory sniffs, but remains steadfast in her adherence to her “I don’t babysit the great grandkids” policy. Can’t say I blame her – she did her time in the puppy trenches.

Here are some photos of Solo at three weeks —

http://www.flickr.com/photos/frenchbulldogs/sets/72157603694367699/

There are a few in there of Dexter, as well

Solo also has his very first video, mainly consisting of his being adorable and fuzzy.

You can find it on YouTube, or embedded after the cut.

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If it weren't for bad luck…

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I woke up this morning at six am to give Solo his morning feeding, and found him in a state of distress. He was listless, wheezing, and had milk coming out of his nose. A quick inspection indicated his chest sounded congested, and his energy level was depressed. This was a 180° change from his demeanor of last night, and I knew pretty much right away what the problem was – aspiration pneumonia.

Aspiration pneumonia occurs when fluids have gotten into the lungs. In this case, I likely allowed Solo to overeat during his last feeding of the night. He vomited, and some of the fluid got into his lungs. He now faces a chance of developing a bacterial infection from the fluid in his lungs.

I had him into the car, and on his way to our vet office as soon as they were opened. Since I don’t function my best with just five hours sleep, I managed to leave the house without my wallet, which wouldn’t have been an issue if I hadn’t stopped for gas on the way. This was one of those times I was grateful to live in a small town, as they allowed me to leave to go back home and grab my wallet, instead of just calling the cops.

Finally arriving at the Vet’s office, Dr. Gomez did a thorough check on Solo, and confirmed he has ‘wet’ sounding lungs – and that we’d caught it right away, thankfully. Solo was dehydrated, so he received 30 mls of fluid subcutaneously (which he didn’t enjoy in the least). He’s now on Clavamox, to stave off possible infection.

He’s also back on every two hour feeding, with the goal of getting smaller amounts of food into him, more frequently, instead of allowing him to gorge every four hours.

Goodbye, sleep, hello alarm clock.

If he regurgitates again, I’m going to have to take the plunge and start tube feeding him, and tube feeding scares the beejesus out of me. I’ll do it, however, if it will save his life.

I find it ironic that on the same morning I was racing around trying to save my single surviving puppy’s life, someone was sending me the following email:

Can you give me some advice on how I become a French Bull Dog breeder? I want to make some part time money and I really like dogs. I had a litter from my cocker spaniel two years ago and it seems pretty easy.

I haven’t bothered to answer them yet. Some days, answering questions like this can’t be done without copious amounts of swearing and tears.

Here’s a video demonstration of tube feeding, for those who’ve never seen it done.

Carol

A much better morning

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After a very LONG 24 hours of every two hour feedings, the little boy seems much better this morning. He’s gained almost .4 ounces, he feels ‘fuller’ in my hand, and he’s back to being active and wiggly. I plan to keep on bottle feeding him for a few more days, and I’m encouraging him to nurse from Mae as much as possible.

I said this once already, but it bears repeating – thanks SO MUCH to everyone for their support. Sitting there in a cramped whelping room with a sick puppy can seem like the most desolate, isolating experience. Knowing people are out there wishing good thoughts your way really makes all the difference in the world.

Carol

A long night.. with more to come

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I’m starting to think I must be cursed. This boy isn’t gaining ANY weight – in fact, he’s lost weight. I was up all night trying to get him to nurse, but he just drops off the nipple as soon as I let go of him.

Some nutracal perked him up a little bit, and he’s since nursed this morning, but he wears out in no time flat and drops off. Mae seems to have milk, albeit not a ton, so I don’t know what the problem is.

Sean’s going to go out and get some goats milk and yogurt, and if he doesn’t perk up by this afternoon I might try to bottle feed him. The last pup I bottle fed, I lost, so this isn’t the best day of my life.

I have a whole house full of kids + assorted boyfriends/girlfriend due to show up this afternoon, and I am not feeling the holidays, that’s for sure.

Carol

Mae's Pups & a Meditation on Breeding

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Wednesday, when I went to bed at 10 pm, Mae was doing fine. No temperature drop, no funny behavior – just Mae, being Mae and looking happy to see me every time I came into the room to check on her, wiggling her Mae Mae butt and grinning her grin.

At 2 am, I woke up out of a dead sleep, convinced something in the house wasn’t right. I came down to check on Mae, and found her nesting in her bed, panting heavily and discharging signs of lochia in her pee. Despite being two days earlier than our earliest estimated due date, Mae was in labor, and there was no time to wait for our regular clinic to open at 8 am.

The emergency vet was wonderful – she worked fast, she anesthetized lightly, and she had the pups out within 10 minutes of getting Mae under and on the table. Unfortunately, two of them were dead before birth, with obvious signs of first stage decay. It kills me that there was nothing that could be done to try to save them.
The third pup, a little cream boy, is doing well, although he’s rather small. He eats well and vigorously, and Mae is being an attentive mom. The poor little solo puppy looks very small and very alone in that big whelping box, with no company. Mr. Monkey will be joining him for snuggling as soon as I give him a good clean, and we’ll give him lots of snuggling, but it really can’t be a substitute for the company of litter mates.

This has been a hard year for me with pups. I haven’t had a litter in almost seven years, and then two out of my first three have dead pups. I know it’s just all about bad luck and bad timing, but it’s hard not to take it personally. I’ve been lucky when it comes to breeding – until now, I’ve only ever lost three pups at birth, one litter due to veterinary negligence, and one week old pup. That’s pretty good, for almost 18 years of breeding. As I said to Sean, if I’d had this kind of bad luck in my first year of breeding, I doubt I’d still be in Frenchies. This kind of heartache is hard to justify on an ongoing basis.

For now, I’m just going to watch over this little tiny one, and give extra hugs and kisses to Dexter, Izzy, Harley and Delilah. I’m more thankful for them now than ever.

Here are a few pictures I shot yesterday. The rest can be found over on Flickr.