Puppies dying

Question
Hi there, I hope you can help. We recently got a pregnant beagle, a friend of the familys had bred her before but could not take care of her and the pups during this pregnancy because of his health issues. So we have had her for about 3 weeks now, on the 9th she gave birth to what seemed to be 4 pups, 1 that died within the first 24 hours of being born. This afternoon another pup had died. We called our vet but they said they didn't have any available apointments until next tuesday. The only advice they gave us was to take the pups away from the mother because she may not be producing milk. Her nipples are very swolen/larger than expected. I have been feeding the 2 pups with substitute milk with a syringe and they seem to be taking it fairly well. One of the two seems very small and unhealthy. Is there any advice you can offer? Should we put them back in with the mother?
Thankyou, Fawn Krenisky

Answer
HI Fawn. There is something called the fading puppy syndrome. It's when puppies die without any obvious reasons. If mom isn't producing enough milk, then the pups would be crawling around crying a lot. If the pups are contented, and have round bellies, then mom has enough milk. If this is the case, then I'd put them back with her. There are many different things that can kill a newborn. Their climate being too cold, dehydration (this can happen really fast from diarrhea or not getting enough milk), infection. Never feed a cold puppy. Warm him up to your body temp by sticking him under your shirt and let him warm up slowly. Then, you can try to feed him. I would strongly suggest getting these pups to a different vet. If there's an infection going on, it will only keep killing these pups until it's taken care of. That is the best advice I can give your for now since we really don't know what's going on here. Good luck.