The homemade puppy forumla has done the job. Hope has had normal bowel movements for the last 24 hours and boy does she feel a heck of a lot better! She is sustaining her birth weight – the weight we finally got back up to yesterday.
Any guess what? Hope is crawling all over the whelping box and is full of energy! She actually almost crawled over the side and out of the whelping box last night – Rather impressive for such a young pup!
I figured since we are talkin’ poop today, I would share exactly how to get a young puppy to relieve itself. Until a puppy is about three weeks old, it must be stimulated. The mother uses its tongue and licks in the rear end to get it to poop and pee after it nurses. If for any reason that the mother is unable or unwilling to tend to this need, you will need to step in and stimulate the puppy after you feed it.
I have found that if you dampen a texture paper towel with warm water and then rub it onto the puppy’s rear end, you will almost immediately see them urine. To get them to defecate, it usually takes a bit longer. I have also used dampened cotton balls that work just as well – I prefer the paper towels since I have a larger target for the poop.
Granted, for Hope, I am very fortunate to have a mommy that is very attentive. Suri takes care of that job for me but I often times get the ball rolling for her but stimulating the urine after each feeding