Day 27

Today was a big day for the little guy. He went shopping with us (in a purse) for most of the day. Then tonight he growled for the first time! It was adorable!!! I didn't catch it on video, the video is just of how well he is doing with his walking. He is also starting to get some teeth!

Day 26

This is me waking the Treble up to eat. Usually as soon as I start talking to him he hops up and starts running around the box. He must have been extra tired right then, notice what he does when I mention eating! To understand just how awesome it is you have to know what the vet told us waaaaaay back when he was a day old. The first thing she told us was that he couldnt nurse therefore he couldn't live. She said that tubefeeding ALWAYS killed puppies and that she had tried to raise a litter of cleft puppies while she was in college and had to euthenize them later. Then she said that the cranium and the kidneys develop at the same time so his kidneys probably didn't work, he chose that moment to pee on her. She said it was because he had been born less than 24 hours before. Trust me, his kidneys are still going strong. Yesterday he pee'd on two different people. Next she said his toungue was too big, it wasn't shaped right, it was clearly deformed... his toungue looks fine to me. If it is a little bit big it helps with forming a little suction since his lips can't. The final thing we had to wait to find out about was his hearing, she said that because he was white he would probably be deaf. If you watch the video you can tell that there is NO way that he is deaf. She ended by saying that there was probably a whole bunch of things wrong with him, but he was so strong it would be a shame to put him down. Her suggestion? let him go home and try to nurse and since he couldn't after a day or two he would get weak and mom would push him away and then we should take him back to her and they would give him a little gas. I am so glad that we disregarded everything she said, instead he came home with me and at 3 1/2 weeks he is going strong. We are not out of the woods yet, but if something happens from here out it probably will not be his kidneys, his toungue or his hearing.

Belated end of day 24

We have reached day 25! But not much has happened yet today so we will focus on day 24. Treble went and spent some time with his mom and littermates. He really liked it, but he was a LOT smaller than them. When they were born they were all around the same size. He also hadn't had any weight gain in about a week. So we adjusted his formula some to add more fat. Before we used 5 oz condensed goats milk and added 5 oz water, then 1 cup whole fat yogurt, a teaspoon of caro syrup and an egg yolk. This time we added 10 oz condensed goats milk, 4 oz liver water, 1 cup whole fat yogurt, 1 tablespoon mayonaise, a teaspoon of caro syrup and an egg yolk. I made up the formula last night and fed him every 45 minutes or so until I went to bed. He had been just barely flashing 5 5/8 all day but when I went to bed he was holding a steady 5 5/8. I slept through one of my alarms last night though and so he went almost 5 hours in between feedings, he seems to have handled the deprivation pretty well.... I've got to try to not do that again.

Day 23

I wanted to share some of the nicknames that Treble has accumulated over the last few weeks. There are the basics- baby, little boy, baby boy, puppy. Then the ones he has gotten from his looks, Stuart Little, Yoda, and one of his latest: Brat Rat, a 6 year old friend of mine dubbed him that because he looks like a rat and cries like a brat. Anyways, everything is going well. He is at 5 3/8 today. Tomorrow he is going to go play with his littermates. This will be the first time he has seen then since he was 4 days old. They are around a pound, we will hopefully have some good pictures.

End of Day 21

Excellent news! This morning he pooped all on his own!! and then a few hours later he did it again! Lets hope that he keeps it up. We are just a few hours away from three weeks old. He is at 5 3/8 oz tonight. He is spending tomorrow with a friend so I can get some stuff done. I will try and get some new pictures for tomorrow night. Better go feed him, he is scratching around in his box.

Mid Day 20

I know, I know. Im a horrible blogger! But Ive been busy and tired and there really hasn't been a whole lot to say. He is still figuring out how to get up on his feet, he tumbles a little less now. We are stilll struggling with making sure he is getting enought out of the bottle, its very hit and miss, one time he gets 4 cc's and the next time you do exactly the same thing and he only gets .5 cc's. And we are still struggling with getting him to poop, he has started to pee on his own and sometimes he looks like he is trying to poop. But he hasn't been able to poop without assistance since he was a week old, I have no idea why. He hasn't made it past 5 1/4 oz. He reached 5 1/4 oz briefly on day 14 and since then he keeps fluctuating from 5 to 5 1/8 to 5 1/4 to 5 3/8. Right now he seems to be holding steady at 5 1/4 but I really want to see that number grow! I think he might be able to hear because today when I walked up to the box and said hey little baby he hopped up and started squirming around. But it could have been one of his other senses, maybe he smelled me, or saw me. So in the picture he is on my hand and the pic is taken from my arm, so thats my wrist you see. He is geting so active that it is hard to get a good picture of him!

2 Weeks Old

Its pretty late and I already fed Trebble for the last time before I go to bed so I will keep the post brief. His other eye is partially open now :) he is still at 5 oz. and we ended up having to give him another enema tonight after 2 1/2 days of him not pooping... But tonight Treble did the cutest thing ever. While I was turning the water on and getting a paper towel ready to wash him off a little he curled up and fell asleep in my hand. He hasn't done that since he was just a couple of days old. (I've gotten a couple hand pics but it was just a lucky snap of the camera, he wasn't fast asleep) It was a pretty awesome feeling to see him sleeping in the palm of my hand completely relaxed. He started to wake up after about ten minutes so I put my other hand out and he settled back down and went back to sleep.  I couldn't pick a picture so I decided to put them both up. I already had gotten the video from a little earlier. He is starting to use his back legs a lot more to walk around. Well, so much for brief! not too long though... goodnight!

Mid/End of Day 14

Just a few more hours until Treble is 2 weeks old! He opened one eye this afternoon! So he looks kid of like he is always winking. The other eye looks like it is very close to opening. He has been doing pretty well on his new bottle, the gas drops seem to have done their job also. The only problem is that the bottle takes a LOT longer, at night I was up for 30-45 minutes each feeding, but he is doing so well I might try every 3 hours tonight. Also, he made it to 5 oz!

Mid day 13

I  know, I've been getting more and more tardy in my posts. Anyways! we are just starting to see a tiny speck of sparkle at the corner of Trebles eyes. AND I think we have discovered the source of his potty problems. Today when It was time for his 1:30 feeding he was really bloated again, so we got out the enema supplies agaiiiiin. But this time he didn't poop very much, but he did pass gas quite a bit and that deflated him! So, either its not consitpation, its gas, or its constipation caused by gas. Either way I think that if we solve the gas problem, we solve the poop problem. I think I know what is causing the gas problem, we are  feeding him with a dropper, so I think he is sucking down quite a bit of air with his formula, causing the gas. The plan is to go and get some gas drops, and to look at the slow flow preemie bottles. If it looks like they are small enough to fit into his mouth we will get one as I have read that they work pretty well. He just cannot seem to get the hang of the puppy bottle that we have.
Isn't he getting cuter??

Belated end of day 11

I fell asleep on the couch before I posted last night, I woke up at 11 and fed Treble and then went to bed. last night and this morning im noticing that his face is looking more like a chihuahua, it has just looked like any newborn puppy. The faint spots on his nose are much darker, but there aren't any new ones... and one half of his mouth is dark black, the other half is still pink. No sign of his eyes opening yet. Any day now! He isn't pooping (again!) So we are back focused on that... on a good note he is up to 4 7/8 oz!

End of day 10

After my last post I went to work at the doggy day care and I didn't want to expose treble to all of those germs so mom watched him while I was at there. I didn't get home until 8:00 so i've only been back with him for a couple hours. I know that he has been eating good all afternoon. We had to give him another enema tonight as he went all day without pooping again, apparently it is a fairly common problem for hand raised puppies. (he has grown more than the picture makes it seem. and now he has whiskers and eyelashes!)

Belated end of day 9/ Beginning of day 10

       I was sooooo tired last night that I didn't post anything, and a lot has happened. Yesterday morning I noticed that Treble has a small sore on his nose/lip area. I think it must be from the hard plastic of the syringe tip. So we stopped using the syringe to feed him. He was having a little success with the bottle by putting on the GIANT nipple. It looks like there is no way it should fit into his mouth, but it does! But he it was really slow, and he was using up a lot of energy for a little food. By last night we could tell he hadn't been getting enough formula and he was slowing down. It was VERY frusterating, I was not going to lose to a sore the size of a period! Then we came up with the idea to us a 5 ml dropper and tried that. We have to put a drop of formula on his toungue at a time but it works and he is actually eating more now than with the syringe.
     Meanwhile, Treble hadn't pooped since Wed. at noon. We waited until 9 and he still hadnt gone. While we were trying to decide what to do about that he started shaking- which really freaked me out. What we think it was is low blood sugar, so we gave him some nutrical and caro syrup (which is also supposed to help with constipation) by then the shaking had stopped. Then we decided to give Treble another enema (did I forget to mention we gave him an enema last time he was constipated? That's probably because last time it didn't work). Giving a 4 oz. puppy an enema is actually not as horrible as it sounds, and this time it worked. Now that we had solved the eating problem, the shaking problem, and the pooping problem, he was good to go. 
Day 9 Weight- 4 1/2 oz,

     That brings us to this morning, Day 10. We are almost halfway through week 2 already. During the feedings last night Treble was up to eating 3-4 CC and this morning he weighed in at 4 3/4 oz. which means he has officially gained an entire ounce since he was born. He is at work with me now, at my dads office.

      Oh! I almost forgot as of wednesday night (after my post) Treble has upgraded from a shoe box to a VCR box. He was getting to active for the shoe box, he would go round and round in the little shoebox. He still does it in the VCR box but he has more room, he has to grow those muscles! I'll try to post a video of it soon.

End of day 8/ Treble is one week old!

Everything was steady today, going well. He is getting so strong, sometimes we look over and the lid of his shoe box is moving! I'm headed to bed early tonight so mom can take care of him for a few hours before she goes to bed and that way I can get a few solid hours of sleep.

End of day 7

Trebble has continued to do well throughout the day. =D he is eating a full 2 cc's every meal now. I'm going to try letting him go 2 hours between feedings tonight since he is just a couple hours away from being a week old. If he is too hungry after the first time we will go back to an hour and a half.

Beginning of Day 7

Treble will be one week old in 17 hours. This morning he FINALLY pooped, and then he pooped every hour for a couple of hours. Poor guy really had to go. I have never been so happy to see dog poop. So now that we have that worry out of the way he is doing great! He loves his new formula and has been weighing in at 4 3/8 oz. all morning. During one of his late night feedings as I was watching him eat I noticed that he had gotten some tiny faint dark spots on his nose! I can't wait to see how he continues growing.

End of Day 6

Im actually a bit puzzled about how Treble is doing tonight. He is eating well, is up to 4 1/8 oz, he is active and if you just look at him he seems like a healthy newborn. The problem is that he hasn't pooped since he came back. His people said that he last pooped at noon on sunday. Which was 34 hours ago. The Vet said he should be pooping 2-3 times per day. But he isnt showing any of the signs of being constipated. Because of this we have switched him to a homemade formula that is goat milk based. He seems to like it. Hopefully a more definite update tomorrow!
Day 6 Weight- 4 1/8 oz.

Day 5

Treble is back with me now, he looks great! his ears are and toes are getting more fuzzy and he is up to a steady 4 oz. For feeding his family has been using the nipple from the bottle with the syringe inside of it and that seems to be working very well. They also have still kept him on little globs of nutrical after feedings. This picture is of him cuddlng with his adoptive mom, a stuffed giraffe. He also has a little stuffed rottweiler puppy thats just a tad bigger than him for a sibling.

End of day 4

I haven't seen Treble today, he his other family. I've missed him but I did enjoy the full night of sleep last night. He is coming back tomorrow afternoon (his moms owners work during the week). It sounds like he has been doing really well.

Day 4 Weight- 3 4/5 oz (yesterdays weight was right after a big feeding so im really not worried that it looks like his weight has gone down)

End of day 3

We had a scare this morning, Treble lost 1/4 of an ounce. But after a day of working with him he gained it back and this evening weighed in at 4 oz! He is actually back with mom and his littermates for the weekend, we were worried his mom might not take him back after a couple days on formula and with different people but it went well. He will still have to be bottle fed as he cant nurse but mom can take over some other duties. We did get some nutrical and he was sucking little globs off of moms finger. Everyone is getting really attached to him.
Day 3 Weight- 4 Oz

End of day 2

Today went well. Treble is sucking on my little finger as I try to type with one hand. This evening he finally seemed to master the bottle so we are (hopefully) off of syringes. He didn't gain any weight today, but he didn't lose any either so we will count that as a win. Im going to try and get him on antibiotics tomorrow to prevent pneumonia, and try and pick up some nutrical to add to his formula. I would really like to see his weight go up to 4 oz. tomorrow. He pooped a little more regularly today and its getting softer (yay) He is a cute little guy, hes fighting to live with everything he has!

Day 2- Weight 3 3/4 Oz.

The first night

Treble has made it through his first night fantastically. He squirms and kicks and navigates all around his shoe box. I fed him and pottied him every hour to hour and a half during the night, each time one syringe full of formula. The vet had told us that she didnt think his kidneys would function properly because the cranium and the kidneys develop at the same time but they seem to be working fine. His urine is a very light yellow and he pees every time he eats. He isnt pooping as often as it seems like he should at its very hard, maybe because he couldnt get much milk from mom before I got him. Hopefully that will improve today. We will see how day 2 goes...

Trebles first day

This is Treble. He was born at 2:00 AM, Wednesay November, 2011. Right after he was born it was noticed that had a cleft palate, as you can see in the picture. His family all works every day and so I offered to try and give this guy a shot at life. Today he went to the vet, she was not overly optimistic about his prognosis. But he has managed to stay strong through the day and we are now heading into our first night.
Day 1
Weight- 3 3/4 oz.