From Fragile to Fearless: How Tiny Dachshund Puppies Beat the Odds

‘Duncan and Evelyn’s owners reached out for help when they were less than two days old. Unfortunately, their mum rejected them at birth, prompting their owners to seek advice from their vets. Tragically, within 24 hours, their litter went from six puppies down to two… leaving only Duncan and Evelyn.

I was contacted to try and save these Miniature Dachshund puppies. At the time of receiving the call, I was working at another vet practice. Given the urgency of their situation, I suggested the puppies were brought to my place of work. Thankfully I had my portable Vetario T30 unit in the car for such emergencies. These poor puppies arrived incredibly weak and SGA (small for gestational age). Evelyn being the smaller of the two weighed just 95 grams.

Upon closer examination they were also suffering from multiple infections; neonatal opthalmia (eye infection), skin pyoderma (skin infection), aspiration pneumonia (infected fluid on the lungs), heavy worm burden, secondary gastrointestinal infection and to make matters worse, they appeared to be developing sepsis.

In addition to this, the puppies also had dangerously low body temperatures despite their owners providing them with additional heat support.

I worked with the vets to get them the antibiotics they desperately needed along with supportive treatment to stabilise their condition. This included use of my trusty Vetario T30, and later the TM40 as the puppies grew which also facilitated nebuliser treatments to aid their respiratory health. I firmly believe that without these incubators,  the puppies would have perished, as they needed significantly higher environmental temperatures to maintain thermoregulation. This is something which requires careful adjustment and monitoring to prevent organ damage. I was able to adjust the incubator temperature in 0.1c increments in correlation with checking the puppies temperatures until the incubator reached the perfect conditions for them.

After 3 and a half weeks of being in the safety of their incubator, Duncan and Evelyn were able to graduate to life outside of their warm bubble. After another couple of weeks, Duncan and Evelyn were given a clean bill of health and ready to return home where they now continue to live with their mum.’

Jessie Blyth RVN, APVN (Wildlife)