
If you followed my posts from that Friday to Wednesday, you know that we had the smallest male puppy ever born here at our home in this litter. Peanut was only 4 ounces at birth, and very skinny-you could count his ribs. His white hair actually appeared to be clear at birth-so his face was pink with reddish patches. He didn't like assistance to nurse-he wanted to find his own nipple and latch on himself. He was half the size of the nearest sibling, but he tried to worm his way around the bigger puppies and find a place to nurse that suited him, even if it meant standing on or squeezing next to another puppy. He tired easily, so we attempted supplemental feeds and eventually tube feedings for him. He had several visits to the veterinary clinic for SQ fluid resuscitation when he fell behind in his fluids. While the vets could not identify anything obviously wrong with him on physical examination (i.e. no evidence of cleft palate, heart murmur, diaphragmatic hernia), they could not rule out other issues, such as hydrocephalus or liver shunt, or a myriad collection of other issues that contributed to his small size and easy fatigability.