Hi. I apologize if this is a long one. I have a situation I need help with. I have a litter of pups that were born last sunday. The last pup whelped was not breathing and it took me a good 20 minutes or so to get him back but I did. He seemed to be doing fine. I did notice however that the mom has not been taking very good care of them and they were not gaining weight so i've been supplementing. the started to put on weight and things were looking better. Then all of a sudden last night I heard a strange "cry". I ran to the whelping box and the little one I had revived was blue. I picked him up and did what I could but he had no heart beat and just kept making that awful noise!! I didn't want to do CPR on him for fear that he may have something contagious and I have another litter that was whelped the week before. I live in a small town and there are no vets available and I would have to drive 2 hours or so to find an emergency vet so...Not knowing if it was congenital(sp) or contagious or something wrong with the dam and her milk??? I am afraid of losing the rest of the pups in both litters. I know everyone says to expect to lose a few but 6 days later out of the blue? No warning? Does this seem like it is something that I need to be worried about?? I will take the pups to the vet on Wednesday but until then I'm not sure what to do. Your input is greatly appreciated. Thx.

It sounds to me like the little runt just might not have been meant to live. Some animals just fail to thrive.
If the mother is refusing to nurse all of the puppies that will be a huge problem for you. If your bitch has not been out wandering around loose or mingling with unknown dogs she should not have any diseases that you don't know about. She should have been taken to the vet for a check-up and a screening for genetic disorders before her breeding career began...so if nothing was wrong with her then nothing should be wrong with her now and that means the pups can't have any diseases to spread around.
If this is her first time whelping she might not know what to do with the pups. It seems odd, but for a variety of reasons some animals just don't seem to ever catch on to how to care for their own young. On the other hand if she has had other litters and cared for them, but is refusing this litter, she needs to see a vet. My friend had a coonhound who had had several litters before but then suddenly refused to nurse and when they looked her over carefully they saw that she had wounded herself trying to climb her fence. She needed stitches along her belly and my friend had to hand raise her pups while the wound healed.
Good luck!

Hi All. Thanks for all the positive comments. I haven't lost any more pups thankfully. I did end up taking the mom from the pups. She became aggresive and jumped out of the whelping box and bit my 18 month old on the face. She was also not letting me get to the pups without a fight and they were not gaining weight with her. We adopted her from someone else that used to bred her and we thought we'd have one last litter. She was always a good mom or so i was told. I don't know what went wrong this time. The pups are gaining great now!! They still have not doubled yet but on their way there!! It has been a LONG Christmas season for me. The first liiter I ever whelped was on Sept.29th. All went well with those and it was a first time mom. Then on Dec 11th I had another new mom whelp 9 pups. Her and the pups are doing excellent!!!! And then this last litter of 6(now 5) was whelped by my oldest most experienced female on Dec 17th. Busy, Busy, Busy!! (AndThanksgiving and X-mas on top of that!!) I think I've finally got the hang of the feeding and pottying and that. The pups do seem to want to "guzzle" their milk and consume way more than they should. I think they miss the sucklingon mom. I need to invent a puppy pacifier. lol. I am having some trouble keeping their box clean. It seems that when i try to "relieve and clean" them they won't go but after I put them back in the box they all go and get it all over each other and the bedding. I have tried to get the other mom interested in them but she just sniffs them looks around and then turns her head. She knows they are not her's. I don't want to push the issue and have her get aggresssive with them(though she is a very nice calm dog you just can't be to safe) I thought maybe when her's are weaning she'd be more accepting?? Until then it's sleepless nights(and days) and LOADS of laundry for me I guess!! lol. It's worth it though.

Good luck! Hopefully you can get your kids or husband interested in helping to feed the puppies. My friend had to get her entire family in on it, caring for nine tiny puppies was a lot of work. Probably the bitch's last owner was not exactly honest with you about her mothering style. Ha.
I'm glad you have not lost anymore pups.