Lancashire Heelers don't get much tougher than this....
Rocky's story - by Owner Chris Norman
Wednesday 13th October 2004:LouLou delivered 4 pups, one was dead already, two bitches and one dog pup were tiny (3oz) but seemed OK. As the delivery was one week early I took them to the vets for a check over. LouLou had a scan to see if there were any more pups inside as she was very distressed, shaking and scratching the bed up.
A thorough check showed there was nothing physically wrong. By disturbing the bed LouLou upset the pups and made them cry, by crying they seemed to make her worse; getting a manic look in her eyes as if she would like to kill them but her maternal instinct (what there was of it) said she shouldn’t. She scraped them towards her with her front paws and picked them up by the head and carried them around, no way would she let them feed by themselves, only by holding her down was I able to get the pups to suckle for a few minutes.
A heat pad or lamp would not be tolerated, LouLou got very distressed and even more agitated and I was afraid I would lose the pups.
These fears were not unfounded as the smallest bitch died on the 14th October.
All seemed to calm down for a few hours; then I had a phone call that lasted about 20 minutes, I checked the pups who both seemed to be sleeping next to Mum, ten minutes later the little bitch was dead, laid in the middle of the whelping box, still warm but very dead. I don’t know what happened in those few minutes. LouLou seemed to be happy with just the dog pup left but later that night he cried when he suckled and LouLou got upset again and started to scratch up the bed and throw the pup about. I decided to take him away from her and bottle feed him.
My husband was dispatched to Shrewsbury to buy puppy milk post haste.
LouLou was happy with this, as by now her milk had just disappeared! She would “Top & Tail” him before I fed him then lay down as if to say “Over to you!”
At night I slept on the settee with “Rocky” as he was now called (because he was a fighter) tucked down the front of my bra, I knew when he was hungry as he would start to squirm around and whimper.
Rocky fed well and grew in leaps and bounds; then on 29th Oct he started screaming, he had been fed as usual at 11.30am, I then offered him a feed at 3.30pm, he didn’t want it which was unusual. I tried again at 4.30pm which was when he started screaming, a terrible noise which made me feel sick, I thought he was dying. Panic set in, I rushed Rocky to the nearest vet who said it could be bloat, and he gave Rocky an injection of Metoclopramide to calm his gut and suggested I tried ‘Gripe Water.’ This combined with the injection and giving his tummy time to settle seemed to do the trick although it took him until 10.30pm to settle down to anywhere near ‘normal’. At 2am Rocky said he was hungry, I fed a small amount of milk along with a dose of Gripe Water and made sure he was ‘burped.’ Rocky was hungry again at 5.30am so I followed the routine as before, we continued in this way until Sunday 31st when Rocky was standing up asking for food, he wagged his tail and growled at his Mum when she washed his face!
Rocky came everywhere with us, shopping, visiting friends and work, everything went on hold when it was feed time, a flask of hot water warmed up his milk just the same as for a baby.
1st November; Rocky’s eyes opened, I was worried about them as pup’s eyes usually open at around ten – twelve days and this was nineteen days! his eyes seemed fine. Today he had two feeds without Gripe Water and now weighs 15oz.
9th November; Tried Rocky on liquidised food; he woofed it down.
13th November; Rocky doesn’t want a bottle any longer, give him the grub! teeth are coming through now and he sleeps through the night.
Rocky developed as a normal puppy would, played with toys and chewed the furniture. As I had promised him to a lady who desperately wanted a Heeler I reluctantly let him go at 8 weeks old. A few days later the lady rang me to say he was frightening her Cavalier and had bitten her (the lady) on the nose, she said he was vicious. At that I said I would have him back and refund her purchase money, I knew my boy was not vicious.
Rocky arrived home, I was so glad to see him! I said he would never go again and I would have some fun with him at shows, if he won, he won, and if he lost we would do some obedience or agility.
Well, Rocky won! To date he has 7 Best Puppy’s; 11 CCs; 9 with B.O.B, 11RCC’s and 1 Best in Show at a breed show. Not bad for a reject puppy!!
Rocky is now 6 years old he loves to “talk” to people who think he is growling but wagging his tail all the while…..which end do they believe?
