Day 40 A.M. & P.M.

Kai and Heidi (H Moon Litter) are the same age — both now 8.5+ years. It has been fun to watch this wonderful child grow up, hasn’t it? Thank you to his parents for sharing him — and his brothers — with us.

Maddie from the F Litter is older than both of them — she is closing in on twelve!

Barb reports that Maddie still does walks twice a day and is doing very well. We shall wish all the Wildflowers take after their great-great-auntie Maddie.

Clover

Puppies are not unlike humans — what works for one, doesn’t always work for another — and it can change from day to day. Daisy brought her stuffed (frozen) kong to her puppies — some thought it was interesting and some did not.

I have puppy kongs as well and again, some like them stuffed/frozen (with their homemade food) and some are not impressed.

Stuffed kongs are a wonderful way to feed dogs and keep them entertained while you drink your coffee. My big dogs get one each morning stuffed and frozen with homemade food.

After a breakfast of ground beef, brown rice, spinach, and some goat’s milk to make it puree well in the blender, the Wildflowers moved to the living room play area.

Mariposa and Lupine

Clarkia

We had a tunnel collapse issue — this bothered nobody, including the trapped puppy, and it quickly popped back into shape once puppies were moved.

I change things every day — a different configuration, and/or toys that have been out of rotation for a day or two.

Lupine and Paintbrush

Larkspur

Play now involves leaping at and on each other, lots of growling, and howls of protest when one is too rough.

The puppies are starting to understand those howls as a clue to let go — at first they are upset by the howls of their playmate but do not understand how their actions are related. Like human children (and some adults), action and consequences are not immediately linked in a puppy’s mind.

Puppies do not seem to enjoy hurting each other and so this loud howling feedback mechanism both works well and promotes prosocial behavior. We can use this to our advantage — a very natural OUCH! if a puppy is too rough can be an effective way to help a puppy understand not to bite us.

Sometimes — like a cranky toddler — puppies spin out of control and cannot manage themselves; this is a clue that it is nap time.

The Wildflowers play for a while and then start to wind down.

Mariposa, Buttercup and Paintbrush

Mallow

They cycle in that way — eat-play-sleep-repeat — all day long! HERE is a video of the morning play session.

Have a fantastic Sunday.

EVENING: PHOTOS FROM THE DAY

Sage

Sage and Mallow

Mariposa

Clover

Buttercup

Lupine

Clarkia

Paintbrush

Lupine

Good Night, Friends!

Day 30 A.M & P.M. and A Birthday!

Today we get to celebrate double time — we have the Wildflowers and today is the seventh birthday of the iPups! How is it possible they are seven?!

iPup photos later — worms this mornings. And puppies — they are related.

The standard advice is to worm puppies multiple times before they are about 12 weeks old — some recommend starting at 2 - 3 weeks.

“All puppies have worms” — that is what you will hear.

I walk through life a wee bit skeptical.

How do they know all puppies have worms — have they tested every single puppy? Have large studies been done and found 100% of the puppies had worms?

Answer: No.

Paintbrush

The parasite we most care about at this point is roundworms (Toxocara canis), which can and do pass nicely from mothers to puppies through the placenta and milk.

But they cannot pass if they are not there — so are we to assume 100% of mother dogs have roundworms?

Apparently so, given the recommendation to deworm all puppies multiple times.

Interesting — because that does not seem compatible with the professional literature.

Mariposa doing some interior design

In a study that included results from over a million fecal flotation tests (dogs) from private veterinary clinics in the USA, the incidence of roundworms was 5% (Mohamed, Moore, & Glickman, 2009). Another study (Drake & Carey, 2019) included over 39 million samples over seven years — the prevalence of roundworms was less than 2%.

Nijsse, Ploeger, Wagenaar, & Mughini-Gras (2015) studied dogs in Holland, and reported their “…observed prevalence of 4.6 % of dogs shedding Toxocara eggs is in agreement with previous studies on household dogs” (p. 568). A study of parasites in dogs and pigs in a village in Cambodia found roundworms in 8% of the dogs (Inpankaew et. al, 2015).

Crinkle toys remain a hit

I am absolutely in favor of medical interventions that are necessary and smart!

I am not in favor of medical interventions that are not needed because they represent burden and potential risk on a dog or puppy (or human).

Therefore, I had a conversation with my veterinarian. We LOVE our veterinarian precisely because of that: Conversations.

Clarkia

What she suggested is that we run a fecal sample on Daisy when the puppies were four weeks; that test was done yesterday and it was negative. No evidence of roundworms in Daisy.

She further suggested that if Daisy’s test was negative, we test puppies at eight weeks — and so that is the plan.

This is a new chew — it is EcoKind Pet Treats Gold Yak Dog Chews

This is more expensive, of course, than just giving them dewormer they probably do not need — but it represents, in my mind, a Middle Road approach. I am not pretending roundworms are not a potential concern but neither am I treating for imaginary roundworms in the Wildflowers.

Rather, we have taken a data-informed, veterinarian-approved approach that make sense when one considers the actual incidence of roundworms in household dogs is, in fact, quite low in the United States.

EVENING: PHOTOS FROM THE DAY

The Puppy Socializing Team has arrived!

The iPups are seven — that is a Big Deal in the Life of a Berner. The iPups are such a special litter with a wonderful human community around them. Thank you to every single person who loves an iPup.

Happy Birthday to Tristan…

…and Tag…

…and Kidd…

…and Nikko…

…and Sparkle…

…and Ava (photo soon).

We remember — always and with love — George and Scarlett.

The Wildflowers are related to the iPups. The mother of the iPups — Zoey — is the littermate to Zed, who is the great-grandfather of the Wildflowers. I am not sure what that kind of cousin that makes them all — so we will just say they are related.

THIS is a super quick video of how the Wildflowers reacted to the Boise Socializing Team showing up and jumping right to work.

Good Night, Friends!

Work Cited/Used

Corda, A., Tamponi, C., Meloni, R., Varcasia, A., Parpaglia, M., Gomez-Ochoa, L., & Scala, P. (2019). Ultrasonography for early diagnosis of Toxocara canis infection in puppies. Parasitology Research, 118(3), 873-880.

Drake, J., & Carey, T. (2019). Seasonality and changing prevalence of common canine gastrointestinal nematodes in the USA. Parasites & Vectors, 12(1), 430.

Inpankaew, T., Murrell, K., Pinyopanuwat, D., Chhoun, N., Khov, C., Sem, K., . . . Dalsgaard, S. (2015). A survey for potentially zoonotic gastrointestinal parasites of dogs and pigs in Cambodia. Acta Parasitologica, 60(4), 601-604.

Mohamed AS, Moore GE, Glickman LT (2009) Prevalence of intestinal nematode parasitism among pet dogs in the United States (2003– 2006). J Am Vet Med Assoc 234:631–637.

Nijsse, R., Ploeger, H., Wagenaar, W., & Mughini-Gras, J. (2015). Toxocara canis in household dogs: Prevalence, risk factors and owners’ attitude towards deworming. Parasitology Research, 114(2), 561-569.

Close but No Cigar

The temperature is stable as of 5:30 a.m. and so we are safe to keep cleaning and prepping for another 24 hours.

WHEW.

Daisy on May 20, 2020

In spite of clearly being uncomfortable — and all you moms out there can SO relate — Daisy remains her usual cheerful self. She is very, very hungry but space is clearly limited and so we are now feeding her in five meals per day.

I posted a similar photo to the one above on Facebook and invited guesses for number of puppies. I then did an analysis of those guesses — one of my favorites: “40 pug puppies.”

Oh dear! Daisy would have some explaining to do…

The most frequent guess was nine puppies. Interestingly, the number on either side of nine received an equal number of guesses — both eight puppies and ten puppies were guessed 11 times.

My highly scientific Facebook survey appears to validate my own guess, which has been 8 - 10 puppies, although I suspect closer to ten than eight.

The whelping crew is ready.

Suzanne and I had a whelping strategy meeting yesterday as we walked; Dear Husband will also be involved.

Looking at Daisy, I am starting to wonder if she will make it until Sunday — but I still have hope since that temperature remains up. If it drops today, this post will be revised with the news.

Have a wonderful Thursday!