Newborn puppies require a lot of care, most of which will be done by the mother dog, but there are some things that you might have to do like removing the umbilical cords on the newborn puppies. The mother dog will usually remove the umbilical cord of her puppies after their birth using her teeth. Sometimes the mother doesn’t, she may become too busy delivering other puppies or just neglects to do so, in this case you will have to remove it yourself.
A few things you will need for this process are providine solution, clean scissors, and unwaxed dental floss.
- Have all of your supplies ready to go before the mother dog is in labor, put them together in a spot where you can grab them quickly should you need to.
- To remove the umbilical cord, first tie off the cord an inch away from the puppies stomach with the unwaxed dental floss. Do this by tying a tight double knot around the umbilical cord as if you were tying a shoelace.
- Tie another knot with your dental floss a quarter of an inch above the first knot in the same way as the first.
- Cut the section between the floss knots with a clean pair of sharp scissors. You can clean your scissors prior to this with rubbing alcohol.
- Dip the cut end of the umbilical cord, the part that is still attached to the puppy, in the providine solution, or dab it on with a cotton ball.
- The floss that is still tied to the cord can be removed after a few minutes, once the blood has had time to clot and before you put the puppy back with it’s mother, or else she could clean the puppy and end of swallowing the floss.
The umbilical cord stump will dry up and fall of on it’s own after a few days and up to 2 weeks later, just like how it does with newborn human babies. Now the mother will do most of the care of the puppy and you’ll just get to sit back and enjoy the growing puppies.