Puppies - 3 weeks old

The puppies are 3 weeks old now! They have all found their little voices. All the growling and barking is precious during the day....but not so cute at 3am! We still have them in the little swimming pool, which is now in the living room! Kinsley doesn't like to lie and nurse the puppies if I am not sitting with her or near her! UGH! Some nights, I literally sit next to her on the floor, and bribe her with Fruit Loops or peanut butter sandwiches. Crazy! She is constantly starving and hangs out in the kitchen waiting for something to fall, or looking at you with those sad Springer eyes, waiting for you to hand her something. But, I guess I would be hungry too burning all those calories to feed 10 puppies!

Last week, she developed a horrible mastitis in one of her tits. It was grotesque! I took her in to the vet and he started her on some antibiotics. But the catch was: she can't nurse the puppies from that tit and to watch for the other tits to develop mastitis, the puppies could die from the infection! Ok, so first of all, you are telling me that they can't nurse from one of her only 7 tits and there are 10 puppies? or secondly, that I might have to bottle feed 10 puppies? You have got to be kidding me!!!! I cried and cried over the ordeal. I tried wrapping her up with coban to cover up the tit. Well, that only worked for a few hours. Then, Lee came to the rescue with duct tape! We taped that thing off and now no one can use it!! Well, by the next night, she was as engorged as a dairy cow! I pulled the tape off, sat with her on the floor for an hour and every puppy was able to get a full belly. She did great and the swelling went way down.

My tactic for a full belly: There are 5 sleepers and 5 feeders.....only 7 tits, remember? I pull 5 out and put them in the box, so they are called the sleepers, cause that is all they do! I leave 5 "feeders" in the pool to nurse. After 15-20 minutes, we rotate the feeders and the sleepers! Works great! Corinne and Claire are huge helpers! They have the routine down pat!

Look how they filled the box!
This is from the day they were born. I move them into here to change out the bedding.

Here they are at 2 weeks old.
Here they are at 3 weeks old, no more room and climbing out!
The puppies did NOT like the cold tile! This is the first time that Kinsley has let Bentley near the puppies without biting his face off!

Look! There are puppies everywhere!



Bentley getting in a little love!
Stay tuned for pictures of the new dog house that Lee and the girls built! Very soon, the puppies will be outside!!!!! I get my house back!