Singleton Litters - Top Tips for Brood and Bub

 EXPERT TIP

Singleton litters can be a little confusing to care for and monitor. One might assume that there will be less workload for both the brood and the breeder, but there is a complex equation that needs to be carefully balanced in order for things to progress smoothly. 

Snapshot

I’d like to share with you “5 Quick Tips” if you find yourself with a singleton puppy – whether it be as a result of puppies lost during whelping, or if the brood only conceived or carried one puppy through to her whelp date.

We have a singleton litter (gorgeous little Golden Retriever girl) on the service dog breeding program I founded - Career Dogs Australia - at the moment! So, it is the perfect time to talk you through the care of a singleton puppy😊

The 5 Quick Tips I think are most important when approaching the care of a singleton litter are these:

1. Delivery of a singleton puppy
2. Mammary Management of the Brood
3. Nutritional Management of the Brood
4. Potential for the pup to become a “Swimmer” (Swimmer Puppy Syndrome)
5. Social development of the puppy

Why Is This Important? 

Delivery of a Singleton puppy

Research shows that natural delivery of a singleton puppy is very rare and almost all need to be delivered by c section.

Now, I am definitely one to aim for as natural an approach as possible with our breeding program, however in this case things can become very complicated for the brood and the puppy, and extremely confusing for the dog owner if it is decided that a natural whelping will be pursued.

There is a complex equation that involves hormonal signalling from the foetus/uterus that is not triggered as we have come to expect in larger sized litters (larger than one puppy😊). Singleton puppies also have access to its mothers’ entire bank of resources, so they often (almost always) grow to be large in size and heavy in birth weight. Another reason that natural whelping can become complicated for a brood carrying a singleton pup.

Rather than summarise and report on research papers – which I believe there is only one! … trust that after nearly two decades of breeding service dogs I have not known, or had it reported, that a singleton delivery has happened naturally without intervention in a statistically significant number of cases.

I can tell you the approach we decided to take with our recent singleton litter at Career Dogs Australia…

• We booked our brood in for a full-term pregnancy ultrasound 4 days before her due date (this is not our usual protocol, so was an additional appointment for our brood). This confirmed that she indeed had a singleton on board, which supported what we saw on ultrasound at 28 days. The uterus looked empty and healthy around the singleton and the puppy was very developed, had complete development of the intestinal tract at “minus 4 days” and was large!
• We took our girl home and monitored her as we would normally observe our broods in the last week of pregnancy – checking for indicators of the onset of labour, drop in rectal temperature, increased vulval discharge, presence of lactation, reduced appetite, nausea, increased nesting coupled with long rest periods etc. We saw nothing – except onset of lactation (colostrum evident in the mammary glands). To not see the usual progress towards onset of natural labour is not at all uncommon with broods carrying singleton litters. This is where breeders may become confused if they have educated themselves in correct observation of a pregnant brood😊

• We booked her in for an elective c section on her due date.

• On the morning of her due date we did a pregnancy ultrasound again, to check the heart rate of the puppy before surgery. Now, my canine reproductive specialist has some darn fancy equipment! A whizz-bang ultrasound machine worth multiple hundreds of 1,000’s. I am very lucky and I do understand that this technology may not be available to all – but I will share with you the wonder of what this technology can show us in real time – because it’s simply very cool! We were able to see the puppies heart rate was normal (around 200 – 210) and then it would drop down to 140 or so in a rhythmic fashion as we stood and observed. The change in heart rate in this rhythmic way informed us that the puppy was periodically being compressed by uterine contractions (remember you cannot see uterine contractions…you can only observe abdominal contractions). This gave us all the information we needed to go to surgery. The brood had not given any indication that onset of labour had begun – but we were watching her uterus in real time trying to deliver her pup.

Quick side note about this!

If you are observing your brood and see no indication she is ready to deliver her singleton puppy by her due date, and you are tempted to wait until the follow day to see “if anything happens”….understand that for the next 24 hours her puppy (and it’s heart rate) will be slowly affected, in a negative way, by those constant uterine contractions that you are not able to observe. You are running the risk of loosing that puppy as a stillborn while you sit and observe your brood do absolutely nothing. Sleeping soundly in most cases! Scary right? Take my word – actively observe your brood. Do not passively observe her. What I mean by that is – spend a little extra $$ to check the puppy via ultrasound a few times in the days leading up to the due date.

• Into surgery we go. Beautiful female pup weighing in at 620gm on arrival (WHAT??!!) and a healthy, bright and alert mother.

Mammary Management of the Brood

Managing your brood’s mammary glands is very different with a singleton puppy. A focus on ample supply is not required. Naturally, with a singleton pup, your brood is likely to feed sitting up on her shoulder. There will be less incentive to lie flat in the whelp box to accommodate a large litter who are all trying access 10 glands at once😊

Her puppy does not need to feed from all her glands. It is preferable that it doesn’t. I allow the pup to progress naturally to the glands that are exposed most often – R3 & 4 and L3 & 4 (the 3^rd and 4^th glands on each side). Glands 1,2 and 5 on each side will naturally be hidden by her ribcage or thighs if they are not in demand from a large litter.

Effectively, allow the pup to control the demand for milk based on what it can easily access. DO NOT move the pup along all the glands with the expectation that the pup needs to drain all 10 glands. All this will do is send the message to those 10 glands that they ALL need to produce milk for the 10 mouths that just fed from them! You will run the risk of mastitis if you take this approach with your brood.

The glands that are not frequently used may produce a little milk, but not an excessive volume. There is no need for you to express the milk…again, you will be sending a message to the glands that they need to replace what has been used. This is not your goal.

For example – our current singleton is almost exclusively feeding from her mothers L3L4 and R3R4 and is still gaining 80-90gms every day. More than ample daily growth (we’ll talk about swimmer syndrome a little later which can be impacted by a gorging pup with rapid weight gain).

Allow your singleton pup to feed from the 4 glands exposed in the loin and monitor the health of the other glands via palpation multiple time a day to check for thickenings in the tissue. If any of the dormant glands become engorged, simply check the colour of the milk each day and assess for mastitis, but do not be tempted to relieve the pressure in the gland initially. They will likely engorge for just a day or so and then soften when they realise there is no demand for milk in that area.

If you need support monitoring your brood for mastitis, please help yourself to this free resource

Nutritional Management of the Brood

When it comes to managing the nutrition of a brood with a singleton you need to be careful not to overendulge. Remember, there is only one tiny mouth to feed and providing the brood with large quantities of nutrient rich food will encourage lactation beyond the pups needs.

Assuming that your brood has good condition on her body at the time of the pup’s delivery you may only need to feed two nutritious meals a day, as opposed to 3 or 4 meals if she were to have a large litter. This will differ depending on the breed of dog and how your brood holds condition (whether she is a good “doer”😊).

My current approach with our girl 'Fallon' who is raising her singleton on our service dog program, is to feed her two fresh, nutritious meals a day and to assess her appetite at lunch. If she is demanding food in the middle of the day, we will offer her a small meal. If she sleeps through lunch or is disinterested in food, we will wait for her dinner.

Our service dog program feeds our breeding dogs and pups a fresh raw food diet. If you require more information regarding nutrition and approaches to feeding breeding dogs, please keep an eye on our website and blog, as we share more of our experience and processes with you.

The key to managing the dam of a singleton, is to offer her excellent quality food, but not huge volume😊

Potential for the Pup to Become a Swimmer (Swimmer Puppy Syndrome)

On this topic I am only able to comment on my own experience with swimmer pups. Throughout my career working for Guide Dog organisations, and now managing my own service dog breeding program, I have overseen the care of possibly 30 or more swimmer pups.

I will preface what I am about to say with this – every swimmer pup I have observed or assisted with in its recuperation has recovered 100% in a timely fashion when assisted correctly. I have had the luxury of these pups growing up on closely monitored programs with thorough health and orthopaedic assessment and I cannot recall one swimmer puppy that has had ongoing health issues. Many are working dogs or have had long working careers prior to retirement.

I have read many things within the online forum on the “swimmer” condition and some of the information is misleading, and some is simply untrue. I have read some reports that it is an inherited condition. I have also listened to professionals who are paid to give advice on television programs, describe this condition as tragic and fatal..and often implying the condition arises due to poor lines or poor breeding decisions? I believe this to be an irresponsible comment.

I encourage you to keep an open mind and commit to (literally) helping a swimmer pup get back on its feet. NEVER give up on a swimmer puppy. In my broad experience they are all normal pups. Being a qualified geneticist who is naturally curious about all trends within colonies, particular tredns that appear to have an inherited basis, I have never seen a evidence in the data I keep that would suggest there is any familial trend with swimmer puppy syndrome. 

The rationale I lay down for you now will help you understand why this is my belief, and why you need to be proactive in caring for a pup who starts to "swim"...

There is a higher risk of a puppy becoming a swimmer if it is:

• A singleton pup
• From a small litter (less than 4 pups)
• Gorges on milk frequently and is particularly inactive (a big lazy baby!)
• Is orphaned and overfed via handfeeding (in this case aspiration pneumonia is more likely to take the pups life before swimmer syndrome has an impact, sadly)
• Has little competition at feeding time (pups in large litters need to be physcially conpetitive if they want to get to a good gland before its 8 or 9 siblings!)
• Is being raised in a whelp box with poor traction/bedding underfoot or a very hard surface as flooring of the whelp box (that makes the puppy slide or slip)

In my experience, swimmer syndrome is most common from 12-28 days and almost always occurs when a puppy drinks very well (gorges), has high body weight, will feed and fall sleep immediately with little activity or competition at feeding time (e.g. not having to wrestle with other pups to find nipples to feed from etc), or who sleeps frequently on their tummy rather than on their side.

Infant puppy rib cages are very soft and pliable. When a puppy sleeps on its side, it allows for side pressure on the ribcage and encourages the oval shape of the ribcage, with the sternum dropping down to the elbow.

If, however, the puppy sleeps constantly on its tummy and is of heavy weight, the pliable ribcage will slowly flatten against the floor and will develop angulation at the edges of the ribcage. If you are not yet able to picture the effect, imagine a soft ball on the floor and you apply pressure with your foot….to the left and right of your foot you will see the ball produce a flatter, sharper edge to it. If the puppy continues to sleep in this prostrate position (on its tummy) it will lose the ability to roll on to its side due to its misshapen ribcage and the issue will become worse. It now MUST sleep on its tummy, because it cannot roll. 

As the ribcage continues to flatten while the puppy continues to grow and gain weight…the widening ribcage now pushes the front legs to the side of the puppy because the flattened ribcage or sternum no longer allows the front legs to fall in a natural position under the pups chest.

The natural progression for pup movement and ultimately walking, is for the pup to pull itself up on its front legs and then drag its back legs under its body to propel it forward. If it cannot pull itself up on it’s front, it will not be able to walk.

Now, the MAIN GOAL is to prevent this situation from getting underway😊

So, with our current singleton pup, I monitor her and make sure she is getting rest time lying on her side, so her ribcage is getting some side pressure and her weight is not concentrated on her sternum. It doesn’t matter what side the pup lies on and you do not need to be concerned about rotating the pup to lie on both sides. Side pressure on the ribcage from either the floor or gravity will allow the ribcage to maintain its correct oval shape.

I have been monitoring the pups sleeping preferences from day one because she was 620gms at birth and has had large daily weight gains.

Thankfully, she likes to sleep on her side. I did start to feel her flatten out over a 2 day period when she was 10 days old and I simply assisted her in to a “side sleep” on two occasions that day and it was enough to relax her ribcage and correct it.

Never be persuaded by the thought that the pups body is developing this way because it was born with a deformity. The shape of the pups ribcage is not predetermined by genetics in this case - it can be directly influenced by it's environment - which includes the floor, and you! I have seen many breeders stand by and watch a puppy sleep on its sternum for weeks, allow its ribcage to become misshapen and then describe the pup as being born with an anatomical deformity? So frustrating! Poor baby...

It is important with any pup in a litter of any size, that you take a second when weighing the pup to feel the shape of its ribcage. If you tip the pup slightly on its side, you will also see a slight flattening of the sternum if it is becoming affected, where a nice deep rounded shape should otherwise be.

I have recuperated some severe swimmer pups. In years gone by I have experimented with what is called “hobbling” a puppy. This is where you tie opposite front and back legs (left and right) together with a soft tie to allow the pup to get some traction under the body and lift itself off the ground. I found it to be successful with some pups, but very labour intensive and would at times exhaust or stress the pup depending on its age. There is also the risk of the tie becoming a tourniquet if not supervised carefully. I found this approach to be successful with older aged pups (say, 3-4 weeks) rather than infants in the whelp box (12-20 days).

Some people recommend physio – but after using this approach in years gone by, I concluded this: doing physio with the legs of a pup gets you nowhere unless you are working to correct the shape of the ribcage. It can be helpful to keep the ligaments around the shoulder flexible, so gentle stretching of the tendons and ligaments on top of the shoulder can assist with this. However, the reason the legs are oriented laterally is because the misshapen ribcage does not allow then to fall in a natural orientation under the body. So, you MUST focus on correcting the ribcage…. legs will follow.  

I will not go into the technical aspect of hobbling or physio with a puppy because I no longer use this approach (you can google instructional videos online if you are desperately looking for assistance). As with all husbandry practices, I like to get ahead of the 8 ball and identify the issue early and prevent the condition from developing.

At this stage, I identify the leading causes (as I mentioned above). I then check regularly for sleep preferences and chest shape. If I feel a flattening of the sternum, I allocate time to sit with the puppy and give it time resting on its side (lateral recumbent position). If the pup is sleepy, and if the brood allows, I might keep it in position with a rolled towel behind its back. I will check frequently over a 30-minute period that it is still sleeping on its side.

If the brood does not allow this in the whelp box, I will bring the puppy to where I am (sometimes the couch in the evening or my office desk!) and I will set it up to rest on its side with me. With its back against a couch cushion is perfect – make sure you don’t walk away and leave it unsupervised!

It doesn’t matter how you approach this. Just concentrate on achieving some lateral pressure on the ribcage. It is soft like cartilage and will spring back in to place if you offer this as frequently as you can over a few days.

One last important tip about swimmers!

Your whelp box needs a surface under the pup that provides excellent traction. “Dry bed”, “Vet Bed” or “Profleece” are ideal. They are essentially all the same concept.

I cut the puppies front nails but leave the back nails long until they are walking well. Allow their nails to hook into the deep pile of the Vet Bed and this will give them excellent traction to lift their bodies up and off the ground.

Hard or slippery whelp box surfaces will contribute to the risk of swimmer syndrome. I avoid flat sheets, newspaper or the like.

Deep pile towels would be a second choice to Vet Bed in my opinion, but they do slide around and encourage the brood to nest, so if you are using towels, try to ensure they are large and you can pin them under the walls of your whelp box to prevent movement of the towels around the box.

Another quick tip (again, if your brood allows it!) is to leave some rolled up towels or low-lying soft toys in the whelp box around your singleton puppy (or small litter). This will encourage your puppy to move up and over or around the items in the whelp box. All of this can aid in developing their motor skills and strength. It will encourage them to do more than drink milk and go in to loooong milk comas while lying on their tummies!!

Social Development of the Pup

Like any puppy, for the first 3 weeks or so it is simply important for the pup to be with its mother as it learns to be a canine. The best you can do for your puppy is to care well for her mother during this time. Keep the whelp box environment stress free, do not allow too many visitors (most certainly do not allow visitors that the brood does not know in the early weeks), do not overhandle the pup yourself and ensure that you are providing care for the pup simply to maintain it's welfare (weighing with a quick health check).

Following this, now that it's eyes and ears are well and truly open and it has absorbed and understood the whelp box environment, it is important to expose a singleton to social trends - such as household noises, air flow, change in temperatures, change of surfaces etc. If you are able to introduce sensible children at this point or some calm handling, do so. Your singleton does not have siblings to navigate in the puppy pen so introduce large and small soft toys for it to snuggle up to at rest time...or to play with. Make sure it has moving objects in the puppy run (such as hard balls) so it can develop it's natural hunting and play skills. This is important for coordination and for developing its ability to learn and be experimental. In a perfect world its mother will be interactive and playful but this cannot be guaranteed.

Depending on your circumstances, it would be ideal for your pup to have a friend or adoptive sibling it's own age. In our situation, with an active service dog breeding program, we will often have other puppies that we could mix with a singleton for play sessions. In the case with our current singleton, we do not sadly. The closest litter in age to her will be 4 weeks younger than her. So we intend to use some of our designated "aunties and uncles" to expose her to dog interaction other than her mother. Not quite the same as having puppy friends, but we have some special adult dogs who are incredibly playful with our pups and this is a good substitute.

Obviously when she is old enough, we will begin our usual handling and basic training regime that all our pups are exposed to with our staff. 

If you’d like to know more about raising a well-adjusted  litter – even if it’s a singleton pup – keep an eye on our Learn With Me section. We will be launching a course detailing how we rear and prepare our service dog litters for placement.