[mlgraves]

I have 2 week old puppies and the last three were born 8 & 9 hours after the others. They were all three males and I have alredy lost two of them and now the other is sick. I live in a small country town and when the first one began to have breathing difficulties we asked the local vet here what to do and he said there wasn't anything that could be done because this was her first litter and she had 7 puppies and that was a lot for a first time mother to take care of. So we tried everything we could and used everything we could think of to try to help him breathe. I have a son that when he gets sick gets a real bad cough and he has a albuterol breathing machine so I even used that to see if it would help. I found a post on here by emberz that sounds exactly like what my puppies are doing but I have yet to find any answers or anything that we can do to help this third puppy stay alive. Any advice is greatly appreciated. Oh and as soon as we noticed a breathing problem with each of the three puppies within an hour the mother rejected them.

[Luv_a_bull098]

I hate to say it, but the mother dog knows when her puppies aren't going to live.

Our rescue exploded with 36 puppies last year. All litters are healthy and plump. However, our youngest and unexperienced mother had some problems. One puppy she laid on. The other she kept pushing away. We took him, bottle fed him. Got him strong. He died at 3 weeks old. He looked like a premature puppy and he was days behind the other puppies in his development. Both my mother and I both agreed that the mother dogs intuition was probably right. Human intervention just sets ourselves up for heartbreak.

We also talked to a vet about the pre-mature puppys state. She claimed that it was just something you have to expect with having puppies. I doubt a vet will be able to help you. He will probably examine the lungs to make sure there is no fluid. And maybe listen to his breathing.

Take them from mom and bottle feed them. Keep an eye on them. It could very well be that mom didn't lick them enough to get them to breath right at birth.

As for human albuterol... I have no idea the effect that would have on little new born puppies. Please consult a vet before continuing it.

I hope they all make it!

[shazamataz]

8 or 9 hours is a long time between pups and unfortunately there could be quite a few things wrong with them.

We had a litter of Great Danes a few years ago (quite a few now) and there was one pup that was struggling to breathe and was more sluggish than the others.
It was unable to feed so we took turns bottle feeding every 2 hours (day and night)
The pup looked like it was out of the woods after a week but unfortunately he didn't make it, it was heart breaking after all the work we put in.

I'm guessing you are already bottle feeding them if they are 2 weeks old and the mother already rejected them?

Hold a pup up to your ear and listen carefully to its breathing, see if you can hear any crackling or gurgling there may be fluid on it's lungs.
If that it the case hold the puppy with it's nose pointing slightly down to the ground and rub it's back and ribs for a few minutes and see if this clears up it's breathing at all.

And definately get the mother spayed as soon as the other puppies are weaned!!