My apologies to each of you who where anxiously waiting to welcome your pups into your homes today. And for one of you, yesterday.
As you know we got the red light due to a case of Coccidia
My return appointment is scheduled coming Monday at 9:45 and I hope to be home by around 1pm. With health certificates in hand. I'll be speaking with each of you following the appointment to confirm or set up a time that works for all to come get your pups.
Disappointing for sure, and a bit surprising as none of the pups are symptomatic. Generally coccidia is considered if pups have loose to liquid stools. But that's not been the case here. In fact... this has likely been the cleanest litter I've raised to date. Large but formed stools and not particularly frequent as far as pups go.... I'm a bit perplexed to say the least.
But life goes on and we're making the best of it. Had a great day today. Glad to see the return of some pretty decent weather. Got the pups fed early followed by their standard post crop antibiotics and pain medications. Antibiotics twice daily and pain med once. My little assembly line. Next up I got my kennels straightened up from my own dogs rather extended day out yesterday. Also managed to do some leaf blowing while the pups took a snooze and let their food settle.
By noon we were all out enjoying the day. First some play on the porch with the pups and the toys I picked out for them a few weeks back.... toys that up till now have have seen little use. Either too wet or too cold. Hopefully they'll see a bit more use this week. Seems, from the forecast they will. So far the pups have more interest in chewing on plants, dragging moss and carrying little twigs around that they find. They especially enjoy the game of keep away. Mine, mine, mine!!! I did witness a few battles of tug with the toys, but I expect to see more of that develop throughout the week. Today it became apparent little Miss Zahara (white) has gained some competition for the tether tug. Most, if not all gave it a go... also in a form of keep away for the most part. I thought they'd wear each other out pretty quickly but they were still going strong after a couple hours. Had to cut it short... obviously they thought so. Mid day I got their Anti-Coccidia med in them... didn't want to give everything at once this morning. Also wanted it to sit in a fairly empty stomach. Each got a dose and immediately into the little outdoor kennel. That's when it became apparent they weren't overjoyed with having their playtime cut short. A couple of them can belt it out pretty strong! But as always they settle pretty quickly.
Then it was a late lunch on the porch... Seemed the pups were all filling out pretty well but again this morning looked thin. Doesn't take long for these guys to show it and they went over 24 hours yesterday with just a small snack administered by the vet after each woke from surgery. They're always excited to eat but last night they were manics about their food when I set them to it. Ate well today too which is great. Sometimes their appetite goes off a bit due to the antibiotics but we've still got some food competition going since they remain together. And fortunately while they begin to look thin quickly they also plump back up fairly quickly.
I had my camera out off and on with them today and managed to get some pretty cute pics of a few of them. It's fairly rare they go solo and stand for a shot when together but it happens occasionally. The group shots are challenging. Most often a blur or some pups clear and others in the group a blur. But I'll post some anyway. It's pretty apparent the crop doesn't set them back much... if any. They get home rearing to go! Actually they go into the crate rearing to go when I pick them up.
So far their ear-ware is holding up well and I hope that trend continues. I had the doc skip the bridge that he normally places from ear tip to ear tip. I've found it problematic in the past with multiple pups together and told him I'd place the bridge when each was ready to go home. In hind sight, it was a great decision and my plan is to leave them un-bridged Pups seem to be managing their ears well. And no legs or heads can get caught up between bridge and top of head of another.
Well, I guess that's about it for now.... tomorrow's another day. then the next.... and the next and next. :-)