Here is the brood today. If you double-click the photo and look at the larger size, you can see a bunch of pink toes under Neka's front leg. And check out the yawn in the lower left corner!
Everyone's doing well today - including me. I had a pretty good night's sleep at last thanks to Super Jay taking Neka on most of the poo expeditions during the night. Pups are all growing fat, gaining approximately 10% of their body weight each day. That is, with the exception of one notable bitch (Cross) who looks like she's trying to double her weight by the end of the day. The Suck Monster lost a little weight his first day (my fault for not letting him feed when he wanted to!) but look how he's catching up today.
Weight Update (birth weights in parentheses):
Big Arrow (366) 430
Suck Monster (360) 455
Chew (320) 390
Little Arrow (365) 390
Spot (285) 340
Boots (297) 330
Cross (347) 417
Flash (300) 360
LMP (?) 340
They went in two separate trips to have their hind dew claws removed today. A terribly stressful time for me as I hate the thought of inflicting pain on them, even if it's only for a few moments. But when I think of how Lappies love to race pell-mell through the woods, and looking at the size of those dew claws, they're definitely better off than on. The only thing worse than having them removed now would be to damage one later.
Last litter about half the puppies were born without hind dew claws, or with only one. This time every single puppy had them on both paws. Poor little mites! I'll be bathing the wounds 2 or 3 times a day with salty water until they're fully healed.
The nice thing was that the vet said although he hated removing the dew claws, seeing the puppies had made his day.
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