I've never raised a singleton. We have a C-section scheduled in two days for a bitch whose x-ray shows 1 pup. Any advice on raising a solo pup is much appreciated. Thanks.
I recently raised a singleton with no problems at all. I didn't do anything different. Once he got on his feet, he was allowed to intermingle with the rest of the gang. He is perfectly normal, except he is a devil, but has a great personality.
She had one boy, it took the vets a lot of effort to get him going. He then lived 1/2 hour without issue, sneezed, and died. Nothing they did the second time helped. This mom had a singleton 2 years ago which died before section was done. I had hoped to have one pup to keep from her. Because her uterus had so many adhesions to her bladder and we've had so much trouble even getting her pregnant, we spayed with the singleton section (not a huge risk with only one pup per vet).
Wish we had the beautiful boy to raise alone. Mom is sad, I don't think it's all surgery or pain related. I think she knows somehow deep inside that there should have been pups :( One more little fresh grave under the 'dog tree' by the creek.
We had our first singleton this summer. She is the happiest puppy we've ever had (we kept her). When she was in the whelping box, I gave her a heartbeat lab puppy and it was her favorite toy all the way up to 6 weeks. I also placed stuffed lab toys in with her for companionship and to get exercise as she had to crawl over them. She was bigger in size than any other litter we've had, up to 5th week and then her weight stabilized and was on par with past litters. When she was 4 weeks, I placed her in an xpen in our kitchen, where our table would normally be so that she could be part of everything. The other dogs in our house interacted with her through the xpen walls by mouthing and pawing each other. I gave her lots of interactive toys inside and outside on the deck. She used the litter box right away and was good 99% of the time. She is such a sweet and happy girl, loves playing with the other dogs but just as content to play by herself if need be. Her tail never stops wagging and she is my husband's heart dog! Wish you the best!
