From the brink of Death

By Jennifer Stoeckl, MAT - Dire Wolf Project CEO, Feb. 22, 2023
Marina - 2
Marina recovered

Jay peered into the newborn puppy den in our living room a week ago last Wednesday and noticed Marina (little black female) from the Dock of the Bay litter (Essex/Narissa) looked thinner than earlier in the day.

She didn’t move toward mom like the other puppies when it was time to eat.

Instead, she gave a soft, low moan.

Something was wrong.

Jay picked her up to weigh her.

Sure enough…

She was significantly underweight from the previous day.

Something had to be done… and fast!

Jay called me over and instantly I knew we had a pup in need of rehydration therapy.

There was no time to waste.

Jay brought out the lactated ringers (subcutaneous electrolyte solution), the drip tube, and the thick needles we needed while I held the limp body and prayed.

Jay warmed the clear liquid with added vital electrolytes and lactate that the little one would need.

Marina’s head dropped like a limp rag as I adjusted her body to get it warm from the lower hydration she was experiencing.

Sticking a large needle into a one-week-old puppy’s neck is not easy. In fact, it’s quite difficult. It can take more than one person to hold the puppy still so the needle goes in cleanly and does not get pulled out as the puppy struggles to understand just what the heck is going on.

Marina’s little body writhed in pain as the needle pierced her skin, but I was able to hold her head firm. The warmed water flowed quickly into the pocket of air between the skin and her neck muscles causing a hump to form. I massaged the hard mass down the sides in order to move the liquid throughout her body and drench her withered frame. This would also allow me to pump more of the watery substance into her body.

Marina probably had a massive headache from the sudden lack of hydration she was experiencing. I rubbed her temples, which seemed to soothe her. The low moaning disappeared as her body absorbed the most valuable commodity on earth.

In the meantime, Jay readied a batch of replacement milk in order to feed her what her body could no longer do on its own. In her sudden distress, she was no longer capable of suckling from mom with any strength, thus causing more of a serious situation.

Without this intervention, she would have surely succumbed to death’s gliding cover.

Life must end for all of us one day, but it is always the most difficult when a life ends way too soon.

While we do not believe in taking extraordinary measures to save a newborn puppy that fails to thrive, we do feel providing water and food is the least we can do.

I took a small syringe of the natural, homemade milk replacer and put 1 cc (ml) into the right corner pocket of her cheek between her gums. This way, she couldn’t breathe the milk into her lungs, but would be forced to swallow the milky liquid, instead.

She was slow to acknowledge the tiny amount occupying her cheek, but when she woke just a little from her unaware state, her reflexes kicked in and she downed the liquid in one gulp.

At least she would have the glucose she needed from the little bit of Karo syrup in the mixture to give her a boost in her blood stream.

After thirty minutes of our devotion to keeping her warm and fed as much as she would take, she began to dream in a deep sleep. Her legs kicked out and her head twitched as her breathing slowed and lengthened.

Jay and I looked up at each other, finally able to breathe a small sigh of relief, but we knew the next days would be critical to her survival.

We put a schedule together where one of us would sleep and the other would be on constant watch.

Marina would need to be regularly weighed to make sure she was not losing any more weight, and hopefully gaining.

Not all puppies that find themselves in this situation are able to pull through, so we prepared our hearts for the worst, should it arrive.

Each time, Marina would rally after another dose of lactated ringers and milk replacer. We fed her every hour on the hour around the clock. She received three to four doses of lactated ringers over the course of the next four days.

On the fifth day, instead of only 5 cc’s at a time, Marina began drinking 10 cc’s and then 15 cc’s.

The needle gliding under the skin only needed to be done once a day, instead of multiple times a day.

Today, for the first time since last week when her declining health began, Marina has not needed a supplemental electrolyte dose.

She only needed one meal of 15 cc’s of milk replacer.

Today, she only needed reminders to eat when the other puppies did.

And while Jay and I remain on 24/7 around the clock watch, she is much more able to hold her hydration and her weight has gained several ounces from what it was last week.

Instead of being one of the largest puppies in the litter, Marina is not the smallest, but she has a lot of catching up to do bulking up her muscle strength from her time of weakness.

She has learned to coo and snuggle whenever we pick her up. Her little body vibrates with enthusiasm as he moves her head close to mine in a sweet caress on the cheeks.

I lost a black female about a year ago in a very similar situation that was just as sweet and loving. It is so nice to have the opportunity to have given this little one a chance to get back the strength she lost so quickly last week.

Jay and I both agree that she must be quite submissive in nature and was bullied off the milk bar by her more powerful siblings. She didn’t have the fight in her that they had, so she didn’t return, but lay quiet where she was pushed away. After a few hours, she simply no longer had the strength in her to eat. So, when Jay noticed her weight loss not long afterward, she was in dire straits. It doesn’t take long for a newborn puppy to lose body mass like this.

With our care and dedication, she has been able to make a good recovery.

Jay and I will continue to make sure she has every opportunity to get a fair turn at the milk bar in the days ahead.

We are very hopeful, at this point, that she will make a full comeback in a few more days.

The life of a breeder is fraught with emotional ups and downs. It is the nature of the responsibility we undertake when we agree to take care of living, breathing helpless beings.

The joy Marina gives us in her excitement to see us makes the many sleepless nights over the last week worth the effort.

We were going to keep her in the breed before this incident, but since she would have perished in the wild had we not been there to intervene, she can no longer go on to give her genetics to future generations.

We thought she was the only black wolf sable in the litter, until I remembered that the black wolf sable changes color in the presence of the white mask. Anyway, that means that Lock has the black wolf sable coloring in a giant size with superior strength and health that we need to help the breed in future generations.

We shall see what his temperament turns out to be, but at this moment, we have to choose him for the future of the project at this time.

Here is a recent picture of the puppies from the Dock of the Bay litter to make your day complete.

There is nothing like the beauty of a pile of puppies to bring you joy and happiness, especially on a cold and dreary winter’s day.

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.