Jerry Green Dog Rescue looking for support in bid to help Martha and her Rottweiler cross puppies

In their latest column, the team from Jerry Green Dog Rescue calls for help for poor Martha and her Rottweiler cross puppies...

It already looks like 2023 is carrying on where 2022 left off. The first emergency intake of the year for our North Lincolnshire centre only took four days, and with more on the way, the tide doesn’t look to be turning any time soon.

First let us make it clear that this article is not intended as a criticism of the owner of these dogs. The last thing we would ever want to do would be to make people more hesitant to come forward when they are struggling. If you need help maintaining your dog’s welfare, for whatever reason, please come forward and seek help. We will not judge you, we will help.

Poor, emaciated, exhausted Martha arrived into our care with her ten small, underweight, itchy and worm infested puppies. Martha had actually birthed an astonishing 16 puppies in this litter, with six tragically passing away before we met her, through unknown circumstances.

The images below may be distressing, as this intake was for our team, but they are the reality of what we are currently facing at Jerry Green Dog Rescue, unwanted litter after unwanted litter, crisis after crisis.

This huge litter of puppies, as is plainly obvious in these images, has taken a huge physical toll on Martha. Every bone protrudes, every rib and vertebrae is visible, even lying down to nurse her hungry puppies is painful, and they have been taking every ounce of the little strength she has.

The puppies are believed to be about six weeks old, they are small for their breed (Rottweiler cross), and very hungry.

Miraculously, after a few good meals, the puppies are bright, energetic and eating well, a testament to lovely Martha. Although they are underweight and seemingly quite itchy, only one was quite visibly poorly on arrival and required immediate veterinary care, being a lot smaller than his siblings and quite weak.

Thankfully, he appears to be improving after emergency fluids and electrolytes, though not out of the woods yet. He is receiving around the clock care and is starting to show some feisty personality. Small but mighty!

Despite all she has been through, Martha is friendly, sweet and eager to please. All the team are so in love with her already and determined to give her the happy life she deserves. At just three years old herself, she deserves so much more than this. Martha simply cannot recover if the huge strain of feeding so many puppies continues. As the puppies are six weeks old and all eating solid food well, we have made the decision to slowly separate Martha from the pups, gradually, to give her a chance to gain the weight she so desperately needs for her own health and wellbeing as soon as possible. Both she and the pups are coping extremely well so far.

Martha and her puppies are safe with us now and we will give them all the care they need. Please note – neither Martha nor her puppies are yet available for adoption. We will update our website when they are ready to find their forever homes.

Martha and her pups will need huge amounts of care, at a big cost. Going by current trends - and the volume of desperate calls we are receiving every day - there will likely be another tragic case following close behind them. If you can support us to get all eleven of these beautiful dogs healthy, happy and ready to find their forever homes, please donate - as little as £1 can make all the difference to their future. We need to always be able to be there when dogs like Martha and her puppies need us.

To donate £1, text MARTHA to 70201

To donate £3, text MARTHA to 70331

To donate £5, text MARTHA to 70970

To donate £10, text MARTHA to 70191

Fundraising, payments and donations will be processed and administered by the National Funding Scheme (Charity No: 1149800), operating as DONATE. Texts will be charged at your standard network rate, plus your chosen donation amount. For Terms & Conditions, see www.easydonate.org

Alternatively, you can donate via our website if you prefer - visit www.jerrygreendogs.org.uk

If you donate via text, you will receive a message asking if you would like to make this donation monthly. If you are able to do so, please, please consider this. This regular, sustainable income is vital to us, and allows us to step in when needed and help this poor mother and her pups, and all those who will follow them. Even £1 per month, given by many, makes a huge difference to how many dogs we can help. Any surplus funds raised above the care of Martha and her puppies, will be spent caring for all of our Jerry Green rescue dogs.