The first episode of this freezing was about 10+ hours after birth. She goes totally stiff, like rigomortis, like she is dead. It lasts for about 20 seconds, and by rubbing her gently she comes back from it. She is now 2 days old

I called my vet, and he thinks low blood sugar or a stomach ache. I know that its not a stomach ache-

I have tried karo syrup, and tried sugar water once.

I seen this one time many years ago, but it only happened one time, and the puppy was fince.

this is a repeat breeding, and there is no epilopsy in the bloodlines.

I had one pup do this in a litter I had that was quite sick at birth because I believe they were premature. He did it at least 5 times a day for about 5 days, lost weight (went from 2.5 lbs at birth, yes my bitch threw very large puppies, down to 14 ozs) and then it suddenly went away, he started gaining weight and by the time he went home he was around 14lbs.

Never did know what caused it, but he is a normal adult dog with no evidence of anything amiss and never has had a seizure or anything that you could related back to his terrible beginning and he is around 5 or so now.

We had eyes on his all the time and every time he went stiff we would rub him, he would relax and then be normal again. One time we thought he had stopped breathing, blew into his mouth and nose and rubbed him vigorously and he came around quickly. That was the last time he had one of those episodes.

I thought I was going to lose him and the rest of the litter, all of whom had some kind of dramatic problem, all different, but they all rallied and went home and are great dogs.

Bonnie

I've had this happen once. It went on for about 5 or 6 days, and we made the decision to have her euthanized. It was like she knew - when my wife was out warming the car she went stiff one final time, then went completely limp and was gone. I'll never forget that feeling. Once it was all over our vet took a really close look and found a hairline fissure on the roof of her mouth. Not sure whether that had anything to do with it, but we were amazed that our regular vet (who is beyond excellent) and the emergency vet had both missed it. It was a Christmas litter, and Tricia had nicknamed all of the puppies after Christmas cookies. She was Oatmeal Lace.... and people think none of this registers with breeders.

thanks for the info.

were any of your puppies who had the frozen stiff episodes nursing; this puppy girl does not nurse, however, I am giving her a formula. her only fault is that she was born with eyes open slighly. she is absolutely gorgeous, i am so devastated, and tired. She is with her mother who is trying to keep her warm.

I thought about putting her on a heating pad, but if i were a puppy, and going to die anyway, I would want to be with my mom vs a box.

Have you checked for cleft pallete? sometimes it is not easily seen if it is in the back part of the mouth.

My puppy would nurse, but if left alone he would go cold and weak. He would suck when I put her in the nipple. At the real end, he had petechiae (Micro hemorrhage)on the skin and bloody diarrhea.

We had a pup with congenital problems at birth. All of the 9 pups were low birth weight but not premature. The bitch who whelped this and a second litter had small weight pups that fattened up very fast.

She was rushed to the vet and the covering decided for us that we could work with her easily, so we did. It was far from easy and we got extremely attached. I won't bother you with the details except we didnt sleep for the first month and the final outcome a year later was what I expected. Vet laid religious guilt on us, he feelings were no animal should be PTS especially a little baby. Yes, that happened.

Pup couldn't nurse off Mum so she was tube and bottle fed ever 90 minutes initially. When she apparentlly didn't get enough even a drop to little milk or sugar, she would stiffen up and looked like you described. When the vet saw it happen there, he said we were right and she seized. They upped her meal amounts.

Outcome was ok for some time, she had some other issues but never seized again once we got her formula correct.

Maybe your pup isn't getting enough and needs to be put on Mum first before the rest of the pack gets on the milk bar oruse a dropper, tube or bottle feeding to suppliment. It's better for her to get Mum's milk given the situation with her. I would let her and another smaller pup if there are nurse together for a good 10 minutes, then put the rest back in with Mum.

I would ask your vet about supplementing but he sounds right about possible low blood sugar.

I have no experience with pups going stiff, but if the puppy was born with its' eyes open - you need to lubricate the eyes with something sterile. I had a pup that at 3 days started to have a crusty eye and the vet said it was not normal. I brought the tiny pup to the opth. and sure enough - he had e-coli in his eye, along with some other bacteria. I had to put drops in his eye every few hours to keep it lubricated, as well as all the antibiotics. I would ask your vet about the eyes and what should be used because at that age, they do not manufacture tears..

I have an adult female who has seized twice in her life, just as you described - it is hypoglycemia b/c as soon as we give Karo corn syrup on gums and tongue she stopped the seizing right away. That is the only way to diagnose low blood sugar without actually drawing blood - if pup responds right away to corn syrup on gums and lips - it's low blood sugar. With our adult, we feed an extra large meal in the morning so all her activity doesn't bring on the hypoglycemia and then less food in the evening. Both of her hypoglycemic seizures where when we were cutting back on food and had fed extra early in the am and gave supper late.

With human babies, they can be neurologically immature and and have seizures which they outgrow - but those are more foaming mouth and flailing seizures, the stiffening is more typical of hypoglycemia (both in humans and in dogs.)

I had this happen with pups in a rescue litter. The first pup to start this died the first day. I had him necropsied, and he had a heart defect. Two other pups did the same thing, and they both died as well. Of course, this was over a Thanksgiving weekend, so the results took awhile to come back. All that showed on the gross pathology was that pup 1's liver was depleted. The vet at the U speculated that while the mother had milk, due to diet or other unknown factors (Mom pulled from the shelter 5 days before the pups were born) the mother's milk might not be properly nourishing the pups. So, I supplemented them around the clock for two weeks only to learn the milk had nothing to do with it.

I have tried everything with this puppy. we have tried sugar water, karo syrup, formula, holding on mom, heating pad, holding puppy on my chest.

She was born with eyes slightly open, but they were closing, the major concern is the freezing ridig episode. when she does this, she can stand up. she looks like rigormortis, or a stuffed toy. then she slowly comes back. This breaks my heart, and I dread taking her to the vet becaue i know they will put her to sleep.

there are no other known problems with this puppy.

Did you try liver water?

How is pup now? With immature infants, irregular blood sugar and seizures are common but they often outgrow this. Hoping and praying same is true for your sweet pup. I certainly wouldn't put her down at this stage! She could outgrow whatever it is. You must be so tired with all her care. Keep us posted.

Sounds like a PDA which is a congenital heart defect. I had this happen many moons ago and the necropsy was PDA. Sorry, but it doesn't sound promising.

Years ago I had a puppy born with the same eye lid malformation and trouble nursing. At about 7 or 8 days she started with the episodes of getting stiff and no breathing but would come around with stimulation. Unfortunately, she died a day or 2 later. The other 2 pups were fine and the mom never had any problems with any pups in later litters. Debbie Darche, DVM

How is the puppy doing now?
Just curious.
Hope there has been a turn-around

I found this info online.

http://leerburg.com/savepup.htm

Wish I had looked sooner as it might be of some use.

Hoping for the best for this little soul!