If your dog is pregnant and you have already read everything about pregnancy in the dog and about the possible problems in the delivery of the dog, you need to know everything about resuscitation of newborn puppies In this article we are going to tell you how to help your dog and her new puppies if a serious problem arises.
If we have decided to raise and deliver the bitch at home, we may find that we have to intervene when a problem occurs during delivery, among which there is the possibility that our dog does not know how to act very safely or that it is a caesarean section and therefore the dog cannot care for her puppies as soon as they are born. Read on and find out how to fix these issues in this article on our site.
How to perform neonatal resuscitation?
When our dog is unwilling to perform the procedure of helping her puppies to breathe for the first time, we must do it ourselves. As always, we remember that these cases are better supervised by a veterinarian. The basic idea is to do what the mother does in nature and that is to stimulate breathing in the puppies by massaging, cleaning and warming them.
The steps to follow to help our puppies breathe for the first time are as follows:
- Release the pup from the fetal casings. Break the bag with your fingers or blunt-tipped scissors and carefully remove the puppy.
- Cut the umbilical cord in the area of constriction. We must place a special clamp or a silk thread in the umbilical cord between the puppy's abdomen and the point where we are going to cut it. When the tie is already secured, we will cut and remove the residues, leaving the clamp for a few seconds or a few minutes to ensure the coagulation of the wound.
- Clear and clear the airway with an enema bulb, suction bulb, syringe, or by properly shaking the puppy upside down as explained later.
- Provoke the first inspiration by rubbing the rib cage. With a towel we will quickly rub the puppy's thorax to stimulate breathing in the same way that the mother would do with her tongue and snout.
- If there is no prompt response, we should administer drops of a respiratory stimulant with, for example, doxapram base on the tongue and/or in the nasal cavities.
- If we still don't have a reaction from the puppy, we will make alternate movements of rocking up and down, which stretch and compress the diaphragm.
- Massage the area of the groove between the nostrils called the philtrum to stimulate breathing.
- Finally, if everything else hasn't worked or we suspect breathing difficulties that we can already hear, we'll resuscitate with oxygen. We can do this with a machine or ourselves, surrounding the puppy's mouth with ours and carefully blowing small puffs of air, bearing in mind that his lungs are very small. In addition, we must perform a small massage by pressing the heart area, which we will find on the left side of the chest, with a couple of fingers and without exerting great pressure, being aware of the tiny size and fragility of the newborn puppy.
Once the newborn puppy is breathing we must continue to ensure its well-being and before returning it to its mother we will do the following:
- Dry the puppy well with towels gently, massaging it and always keep it at a temperature between 32-36°C.
- Disinfect the umbilical cord with povidone-iodine.
- Get the puppy to suck the colostrum from its mother as soon as possible. Colostrum is the first breast milk which provides all the antibodies you need at that time, in addition to basic and essential nutrition with a high percentage of fat.
How to perform airway clearance and emptying correctly?
This is something very delicate and we must be very careful not to hurt the puppy during the procedure. As we have commented before we will need some material like:
- A syringe, enema bulb, or suction bulb to suction out remaining amniotic fluid in the airways.
- Paper and towels, to clean and dry the puppy, especially its snout.
- Latex gloves to maintain adequate hygiene and avoid problems for the puppy.
We will follow the next steps with the idea of freeing the respiratory tract of residual amniotic fluid so that our puppy begins to breathe on its own:
We will clean the puppy's head and snout with paper or a towel very carefully. In addition to massaging the chest while we clean it to stimulate breathing
Using one of the aforementioned materials to suck up liquids, open the puppy's mouth a little and insert the syringe or pear and extract the liquid. We will do the same with the two nostrils, trying to clean all the airways as soon as possible. We will repeat the process until we see that there are clearly no liquid residues left in our puppy's airways and that he is breathing correctly
If we still see that there are difficulties for the puppy to start breathing, we should hold it firmly in our hands, if possible wrapped in a small towel with its head out, holding its head very well between our fingers and we will shake it carefully downwards with the idea of moving the remaining liquid that may remain in the lines that will gradually come out and it will be easier for us to suck it with the syringe or the pear if the puppy has not been able to finish removing it by himself with this maneuver
We will continue to clean the snout well and the remains that come out and we will also continue massaging the puppy's chest, thus stimulating good breathing and helping to raise the temperature
First of all responsibility
It is preferable that all this is carried out directly by our trusted veterinarian and if possible in his clinic instead of at home. In addition, we want to remember from our site the responsibility of bringing more puppies into the world.
We must be very clear of a dignified and responsible fate for these puppies before encouraging our dog to become pregnant. If this is not the case, it will be preferable that we do not embark on this adventure and thus avoid suffering and problems.
We must also think that it may be that for various reasons, such as lack of practice, a not very high maternal instinct, not coping with the number of puppies and other various problems, our dog does not attend to all the puppies as it would be necessary for them to get ahead. Then we will have to take care of them ourselves with all that this entails, above all a great responsibility.
We recommend that in order to offer the best to your new puppiesyou read other articles that you will find on this website, such as For example, how to feed a newborn puppy, how to properly socialize a puppy, find out about puppy canine teeth, how to train a puppy to relieve itself outside the house and, in general, everything about caring for puppies.
