[happypeaches]

My baby, Peaches and my other baby, Happy, recently had a litter of pups. (sept 18th). She originally had four, but unfortunely, I was at work saving people and was uanble to save 2 of them. I have a couple of questions. They are just a little over a week old and infested w/fleas as are their mom and dad. I was told not to use products on mommy, so Ive been using Dawn on her and misc products on dad, as well as spraying the house and the yard. I have been flea combing these poor pups everyday and I cry right along w/them! This is my 1st time having puppies, so I am clueless to what I am doing! I read that they open their eyes in 1-2wks... they are still not open... not even a little! They are already very active, climbing out of the box, etc and Im worried they are going to get hurt. Plus, there are time I have to make mommy nurse her babies! Most of time, she's great w/them, but when the kids get home from school she wants to play ALL night and ignores the babies! HELP! I do not know what Im doing! I thought being a nurse would help (I did rush help home and save the last baby... as he was stuck and not breathing, etc) but I feel cllueless and all the info online doesn't seem to answer my questions! HELP!!

[labman]

Coming here for help now is not appropriate. If you failed to learn the answer to the questions you are asking long before this, I doubt you learned the answers to whether your dogs were suitable to breed. No end of misery results from people knowing no more than you about breeding dogs. To understand what I am talking about see Woodhaven Labradors Articles I hope you will at least pick up a book and learn proper care of puppies rather than inflict poorly cared for puppies on the unsuspecting.

I would check with your vet on the fleas. Although some vets suggest the Dawn, we recently had a report of a bad reaction to it here.

[Tuscany]

Thank you labman for posting your answer here. I was thinking just that, but did not answer in time. There is nothing more dangerous to the lives of poor puppies than ill informed breeders.

[RubyPitbull]

Yes, it is a lot of work and everything can go wrong if you don't know what you are doing. It sounds like you are overwhelmed and need someone to physically help you manage this, which can't be done online. The best thing you can do for these dogs is to call your vet for help and direction, as labman suggests. Our members who regularly answer questions in this forum are not breeders. I hope the remaining two pups survive. Very sad state of affairs your puppies are in. I guess you need to chalk it up to "lesson learned" and after the two pups are weaned, get your dogs spayed and neutered. They will be fine not having any more pups, and you will be a much happier person not having to go through this again.