As I write this my Mistress is defrosting some of the formula she has prepared for just such an occasion. Shadow has 6 very hungry puppies and doesn’t seem to have enough milk. Hopefully it is just a short term blip and her milk just needs an hour or two to recover, but she seems to have gone from having an abundance to none – or at least not enough. The sound of hungry puppies searching for, but not finding milk is ear piercing. Shadow seems very well in herself and is still relaxed and willing to lie with them, so it doesn’t look as though we have a situation like the last two years where it was because she was ill and then she got frustrated too. For one thing, my Mistress is concerned that Shadow is not eating enough and that may be part of the problem. She is also worried she is not drinking enough and is looking at how to encourage her to take on more fluid.
We will have a much better picture when we get to the weigh in later. If the gains are too low we will know we have a problem. My Mistress is looking at the total litter gain as well as the figure by puppy. It may just be that the number of puppies is just too many for her to feed without a little help. We’ll let you know more later.
Alfie’s Diary – the Book is available at Amazon UK –https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00583ZGSA
You can find short stories to read at www.alfiedog.com