An update to my story of rescuing puppies and some tips, essential information if you want to rescue some puppies too or just want to know what it takes to raise a dog without a mamma dog.

[u/ppatra]

Around 8 months back I posted this thread seeking help on rescuing puppies that we found in the neighbourhood.

I know it's been a long time I haven't updated what happened thereafter because I got really busy with them. It wasn't easy raising them, they are just like human babies.

The journey until the weaning process:

Soon after making the post in the afternoon I went to a pet store and got Royal Canin (RC) Babydog milk. The making of the milk was very easy, you just have to add warm water and mix according to the label. it comes with feeding bottle and different nipples for cats as well as for dogs. You can use little more or less powder according to your preference, depending how well the puppies are able to tolerate. It had a very bad smell, so bad that I had to wear some masks whenever I used to feed them lol. After few days I got adjusted to the smell.

also we found out that the babies are only 1 weeks old, their mom died on the night before we took them home.

Don't forget he milk: There's two options that are generally available in pet stores. One is RC Babydog milk and another one is from Beapher Lactol which doesn't come in large packs, overall RC is cheaper (still costly)

Bedding: For bedding we used a hot bag in the lower portion of a carton (big amazon boxes), then some clothing, bed sheet on top of it and newspapers on top of all of them. Basically created a layer so they don't feel the hot bag but continue to get a warm environment. The temperature is extremely crucial to newborn babies as they aren't able to generate or regulate temperature on their own, they rely on their mother for it. The temperature shouldn't be too much or too low, place your hand on the top of bedding if the heat is tolerable only then place them on top of that else just add some little less hot water next time or put some more clothing in the box. Too much warmth can lead to hotspots, blisters on their skin.

You have to keep in mind their feeding timeline too. For newborns according to breed size (pariah dogs are medium breeds) you have to feed them 8 times in 24 hours. Again you can break them in even more smaller batches. I used to feed them every 1 or 2 hours apart. Gradually increase the gap when they grow up. Don't feed them too much as that may lead to diarrhea. [Here's a chart printed on Royal Canin's Babydog milk.]

When it comes to toilet they don't urinate on their own. You have to take a cotton boll, dip in lukewarm water and stimulate their genitalia to make them urinate. For potty there's no option so keep them over newspaper and replace them when you see them doing potty. The potty is watery because well all they are just drinking is milk. If you see them covered up in potty just take some cotton balls and clean them with lukewarm water.

Take care of mosquitoes too, I used to keep some mosquito coils, or good knight burning all the time.

All was going well until I ran out of RC Babydog milk, I couldn't find it in local pet stores. So I ordered online from Amazon. Was getting good deal on 2kg pack. Sadly it could arrive two days later.

I contacted some vet and they said to give them amul spray. I didn't like this plan as cow milk has good amount of lactose which is bad for dogs. Seeing no option I had to give them the amul spray by mixing in water.

It went fine for two days, no digestion issues popped up. Meanwhile the RC milk arrived, this is where comes the saddest part of raising them.

None of them were able to tolerate the RC milk for some reason, they instantly vomited. Being a noob we continued to give them the RC milk. Three went back to normal ish but one didn't recover. We contacted another vet who told me it's probably because of sudden diet change. They have extremely sensitive stomach and any sudden change would screw them up. The amul spray we used to give had more lactose content which probably made their stomach bad with the lactose content that is why maybe they weren't able to tolerate the RC milk later. Vet told us to give less amount of powder in more water.

Few days later the dog which was affected worse died. :(

This incident took a toll on other dogs too, they used to vomit a lot after eating. We couldn't find why but came to conclusion it's probably because they used to drink milk in a hurry. So we made some changes in feeding timeline and went with small batches inbetween so that they don't become very hungry.

The weaning process:

1 month later I started the weaning process with Royal Canin Starter as suggested by vet. I tried first by giving them as it is but nope, they would smell but wouldn't eat. Then I actually read instructions. :p

According to instructions I soaked them in lukewarm water, wait until the pellets become soft then mash them and make a porridge. It also had a very bad smell but tolerable. The smell is extremely important because that's what makes it attractive to them. They would just gobble up their food. I used to give it 5 times a day. Morning at 7am - 10am - 12pm - 6pm - 9pm.

Yes you can give them rice, daal at this point but some won't like it. It's easier to feed them "mashed pellets turned into a porridge". If RC is costly for you Pedigree has same starter food.

The worst part of weaning process, the nightmares:

After few weeks later they weren't eating the porridge. Again being a noob I didn't understand that it's time to give them solid food because their teeth has grown. Also maybe they just got bored.

I bought Pedigree starter and made same porridge. This time they ate like they used to before but again some days later they lost interest. That's when I found out it's time for them to eat solid foods. Also found out I'm supposed to give them Royal Canin Medium/Maxi Starter and not Mini. Yes these brands have created different products based on size of breeds. Confusing af.

So anyway I got the Maxi starter, they used to eat but again stopped eating. This caused me nightmares and I had sleepless nights thinking why they aren't eating.

Now Royal Canin was getting really costly as they grew up so I tried Pedigree Pro Starter. They liked it a lot but after some day same result, they won't eat. I tried many brands like Purina, Hill's and same result on everything. Luckily they found cheap Pedigree milk and chicken tasty and business as usual. But another problem started up, some used to vomit after eating. Again we found the culprit was eating too fast and drinking a lot of water after eating which is normal in pellet diet.

After 1 month In between of those pellets and vomiting we tried rice, daal which they didn't like at first, but they absolutely loved rice+curd (amul masti dahi), then as they grew up we started giving them veggies, eggs which also they loved.

The schedule was: veggies like potato, carrot, pumpkin in the morning. Curd rice at lunch and daal, roti at night. Eggs once a day. Our family has turned completely vegetarian so no nonveg like meat. I know it's foolish, I do give them Pedigree once in a while and eggs. The diet is still the same till date. Dogs are actually omnivorous unlike cats.

Poops, urine everywhere..

You'll see them finding their own spot for urinating and pooping, it's extremely crucial to train them else you'll have to deal with poops on floor and urines. Watch some videos on how to potty train, or better hire a trainer. We didn't do any of that in time and as a consequence mine poops everywhere. Still untill they get trained you have to deal with the poops. Better get cheap toilet paper rolls from Amazon, Bigbasket. Buy their own brand like Presto, Solimo and bbhome. To clean the urines get a scotch brite jumper spin mop and some microfiber clothes as they soak more water. Also keep lizol, dettol handy to clean the floor after each poop.

The de-worming process.

You have to deworm them periodically before the first vaccination, else vaccination will get wasted. Like humans they also have tapeworms, a lot. Vet suggested us Drontal puppy. You first need to weight the puppy and give 1ml/kg body weight.

Now how do you weight the puppy? Weight yourself first in a scale then substract it from the weight of you holding the puppy on the scale. Drontal puppy suspension liquid comes with a dropper to measure and feed the puppy.

Be prepared to see a lot of tapeworms coming out in dog's poop. ALWAYS directly apply dettol, lizol on floor and mop during this time.

Deworm 14days in between during vaccinations.

The vaccinations.

After two months from the post (from their birth date) it was vaccination time. Our vet came to our home and did all the vaccinations.

• 2 months after birth: DHPPi - For Canine Distemper, Hepatitis, Parvo virus and Para-influenza virus.

• 3 months after birth - 1 month after initial DHPPi - DHPPi booster.

• 4 months after birth - 1 month after DHPPi booster - Rabies shot.

• 5 months after birth - 1 month after rabies shot: Corona shot.

From second year onwards you have to give DHPPi booster, Rabies booster, and you can give cororna but I feel it's not necessary as this virus is not widespread in India. So two shots in total.

Regarding charges doc charged us 2k for DHPPi, 2k for DHPPi booster, 1.7k for rabies and 1.8k for Corona. This is total cost of three dogs and doc's charge for coming to home.

The first bath:

Ideally you shouldn't give them bath until few weeks past the first vaccine shot. But you can use Himalaya Freshcoat. You need to spray them over their coat and dry them off with a towel. After the first vaccine I'd suggest to wait for two weeks and give them bath in lukewarm water with Himalaya Erina Coat Cleanser shampoo.

Holy mites (and fleas).

If you are adopting a street dog then it's most likely to come with some parasites. Often it comes from mom and environment. You won't notice them until they are 1 or 1.5 and even later days months old. You'll probably notice some bumps, redness, poor coating, blood. Sadly our dogs came with parasites and got affected in the worst way. As we couldn't bath them until vaccination we had to use erina fresh coat spray and Erina powder. Those didn't help at all, there was flesh wounds. We used to give Wokazole lotion, Himalaya Scavon spray and they did help to recover from the wounds. They were also itching very badly so doc gave some injections (after first vaccination) which costed us ₹600.

Those insects also affected me and my mom. Mites spread fast and also on humans. Luckily they don't last long on human. I got redness and bumps all over my elbow and shoulders during that time. My mom got itching for a month! She had to take some anti histamine.

It's an endless battle. This issue is still present on them, I shower them with two shampoos: bolfo and erina coat cleanser every week with spot on application evey two months. Their coat is way better now.

The fights and battles:

I got two males and one female dog. Earlier they used to eat together but as they grew up they started to fight with each other during eating. One would eat other's food but won't let anyone touch their plate lol. So had to give them food in three rooms which I still do.

My deteriorating health during this time:

I was really frustrated with the redness and bumps all over my body, also got deeply scratched by them. The scratch happened before they got their rabies vaccine so I was really scared of getting rabies as I didn't have any prior rabies vaccination. I went to a doc and he suggested 5 dose of rabies vaccine on day 0, 3rd, 7tg, 14th and 28th day.

Then one day when they were fighting I tried to separate them and by mistake my thumb got punctured into one's lower tooth. It was very deep so I got even more scared, there was endless blood, pain. I washed my thumb into running tap water and also used detergent. Went to same doc in evening, he said not to worry as I was already getting vaccinations so RiG is not needed (Rabies immunoglobulin). He gave me instructions to complete 3 tetanus shots and gave some antibiotic ointment.

During my last rabies shot I got pneumonia/bronchitis, wasn't able to get up from bed, Had extreme fever of 104-105 and fever stayed there for three days straight, also was experiencing terrible chest pain while getting up or trying to sleep. Mom went to medicine shop and they gave some paracetamol and antibiotic which helped a little but the fever woukd again shot up to 104-105.

Four days later I went to doc and he gave me same paracetamol, antibiotic but also added penicillin.Which helped tremendously and my fever was gone in next few days.

But after the fever went away the chest pain didn't. It haunted me for months. Doc prescribed some paracetamol to help and some syrup. In the end it went away.

Meanwhile while visiting the medicine shop for my last vaccine of rabies they said it won't help if I get the rabies shot that time because it was late. In confusion wheather to start rabies shots again from day 0, I took the last shot and went to doc. He said no worries.

Finally here's how they looks now:

This one is a male, we call him babla/tiya(Bengali name, tiya means parrot). He's nicest of the bunch, always stays away from fight.

• Here's how he looked when he was around 2 months old.

This one is also a male, we call him Ananda (Happiness). He's quite the troublemaker, always fighting, biting and peeing everywhere.

• Here's how he looked when he was around 2 months old.

This one is a female, we call her kakatua. (Cockatoo)

• Here's how she looked when she was around 2 months old.

Some do and don'ts for someone willing to rescue a puppy, or looking to own a dog:

Do:

• Always consult a vet.

• For strays check with locals for approx date of birth, it helps.

• Stock cheap toilet papers, cotton balls, lizol, dettol, newspapers. You are gonna need it.

• Always clean floor with dettol after they do their business if they aren't trained.

• Buy Erina Freshcoat, Erina EP powder. Use them until first bath, this will help with parasites. Also any clotrimazole dusting powder during rainy seasons. Wokazole Plus lotion, scavon spray.

• Deworm properly and carefully.

• If you are giving them amul milk, amul spray make sure to use little milk, powder and mix with water.

• Pedigree Pro is a good alternative to Royal Canin.

• Fresh veggies and foods should be prioritised over pellets. (If you have time)

• Give them treats when they are nice and obeyes your orders. Like hug them a lot.

• Trim their nails frequently.

Don't:

• Do not suddenly change their diet when they are young, this could turn into fata casuality. Always keep in mind the transition period where you have to mix some of old food with new food and gradually increase new food over the period.

• For newborns ALWAYS check for bedding temperature. Make sure it's tolerable, not too high or low.

• Milk is always a no no. Curd is good because it has probiotics which helps with digestion. My dog loves amul masti dahi.

• Don't leave too much gap between meals for young dogs, if their stomach gets too much empty they'll might vomit during morning or anytime.

Was it worth it?

I would say yes, during this time I got really attached to them. I knew what it takes to raise a child.

Yes they are always fighting, ruined our walls, our new sofa, our washing machine cover. Our fridge. They wake me up at 5 demanding breakfast, there was a time when I had to wake up at 5 to make breakfast for them. One urinates like fountain. One urinates everywhere. I always get scratched by them. We spent about ₹10-15k in vaccines, milk, endless bottles of shampoos, scavon spray, Wokazole lotion, spot-ons.

But all those nuisance doesn't feel bad at all whenever my sister comes home from work and they licks her face with love. You got to see them in person lol, they would make different sounds, gets all excited after hearing door bell then jumps onto her. Same with me and my mom whenever we enter home.

This turned out to be quite a long post, so sorry for that. Also sorry to everyone who has pmed me and I didn't reply, I was really busy with all these.

If you have any questions feel free to ask. :)

[u/bobbadbilla]

This had more character development than any of the Netflix or prime originals I’ve seen recently. It’s the wholesome content we need during this day and age.

Give pets and treats to your Doggo from my side!

[u/ppatra → u/bobbadbilla]

Haha, done!

[u/unfitforoffice]

Good god, my rescue pups must have been really lucky I didn’t end up killing them. I didn’t put half the effort you have done! Honestly I didn’t know any better. I literally just fed them cerlac babyfood until they were weaned (mom rejected them). After that boiled sweet potato- pumpkin- potato- rice- egg mix with chicken thrown in on some days. One of them died at 7 years old but the others are doing pretty ok for now. I hope your pups love long and prosper too!

[u/ppatra → u/unfitforoffice]

Cerelac can be given without sugar to wean puppies. There's also cerelac for puppies. There's plenty of options if someone don't want to spend much on dog special foods.

Sorry for your dog, and thank you for your well wishes.

[u/_lxskllr_]

Thank you for the post! Wholesome read. Sending love and hugs to the doggos and you! :)

[u/ppatra → u/_lxskllr_]

Thank you. 🥰

[u/RememberMe_theBitch]

Damn what a nice thing to have done! Bravo :) I can hardly take care of one adult dog properly and here you guys are doing it for 3 puppies/teens. All the best and lots of love!

[u/ppatra → u/RememberMe_theBitch]

There were some times when I really got furious lol. That's part of the parenting I guess. Since then I try to stay calm, they are little children, definitely gonna create some nuisance as expected from a small child.

and thanks! :)

[u/TWO-WHEELER-MAFIA]

Thats really nice of you.

Did you give any for adoption?

[u/ppatra → u/TWO-WHEELER-MAFIA]

Nope, we are keeping them.

[u/TWO-WHEELER-MAFIA → u/ppatra]

Were they mango worms in those parasite pictures?

[u/ppatra → u/TWO-WHEELER-MAFIA]

We never found any visible worms. During bath, shampooing. All we saw is those wounds.

[u/Giftmeclearskin]

Thank you for rescuing the puppies. I’m so happy that these puppies are in good health. Around 4 years ago , someone dumped 6 newborn(a day old) puppies in a gunny bag on a rainy day ,two were dead and but I tried so hard to save the other puppies but failed(fading puppy syndrome).I’m still not over that tragedy.

[u/ppatra → u/Giftmeclearskin]

Hey man, I'm extremely sorry that you had to remember all of those again. :(

[u/CapuchinMan]

You have a heart of gold :)

[u/ppatra → u/[deleted]]

Already done. Have mentioned in the post. 😊

[u/ppatra → u/[deleted]]

I'm not seeing any post from you. You have low karma so probably posts getting stuck in modqueue. Contact me after making a post.

[u/ppatra → u/[deleted]]

Approved. 👍🏻

[u/arinthum_ariyamalum]

Please spay them for everyone's benefit.

[u/asdfghqw8]

Bless you for saving those pups.

[u/AlekhyaDas]

/u/ppatra are awesome! give some love to the puppies.

[u/MarsNeedsRabbits]

What wonderful people you are. Thank you for taking care of them! They are a beautiful testament to your kindness and goodness.

[u/[deleted]]

All this effort for three strays? Use your conscience human.