orphaned puppy needs your advice!!
I am a new employee at a local kennel that breeds and trains German Shepherds. One of the bitches gave birth to 9 puppies 5 days ago. Problem is, she only has 8 nipples. We found an obvious runt in the litter the day after birth and he was cold and on his 'death bed', I brought him in the office and warmed him up and got fluids down. You would think that with 20 years of experience this kennel and its owner and employees would be more educated when it comes to dealing with this type of thing...well, they aren't. Before I came they would just let 'nature take its course' and in this circumstance they would have put the puppy back with his mother and if that would have happened, he would have died. I don't think anything is wrong with this little guy besides the fact that he's half the size of his siblings and is unable to nurse due to a shortage of nipples. Under normal circumstances I realize that I could rotate the puppies on the nipple so he gets his turn, but I'm not at work 24 hours a day in order to do so. I took this little guy home and I've been feeding him high quality puppy formula about every 1-2 hours. Basically any chance I get while he is awake. I took him to the vet a couple of days ago and the vet said he's still dehydrated and he told me to feed him more. My response was that I was feeding him as often as I possibly could including throughout the night(seems to be every hour at night!) No other advice was given. He is still scrawny and dehydrated in spite of my efforts. He will only drink a few ml's during feeding. Does anyone else have ANY advice as to what can be done to help this puppy thrive? I just want to make sure I'm giving him the best possible chance to live and that I'm doing everything for him...any advice would be greatly appreciated!
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