Post Whelping

[jules77]

Any ideas - my friends bitch, not first litter, never had a problem last time, whelped four days ago. Difficult birth, had four lots of oxytocin to get puppies out, one died at vets, and have since lost another two. Only one remaining, mothers milk has more or less dried up, not a problem as now hand feeding little one, but mother is still totally stressed out. She is absolutely exhausted, and has little or no sleep. She is breathing quite quickly and panting a lot, and her tongue is a dark red, sort of liver colour. She is having plenty of calcium tablets and we dont think she has eclampsia. She is eating and drinking ok. Live out in North Wales and not totally confident of vets in surrounding area, as she has tried them all over last few years.

[jules77]

bitch seems a lot better, puppy was gaining weight, but got problems getting teet in her mouth, dont suppose anyone has a bitch who has just whelped as a surrogate??!!

[lankeela]

Why on earth did they not do a caesarian after the first oxytocin jab did not work? Careful with the calcium as if she is not feeding puppies then she should not be using up too much, and you may be overdosing. They don't usually get eclampsia until about two or three weeks after the pups are born.

I suspect she was just thoroughly exhausted by the difficult birth and also worried about her pups, making her restless.

Hope she is soon back to normal, and able to give a hand in rearing the pup. Certainly the cleaning up bit!

[jules77]

thanks lankeela, it has been a living nightmare, I wasnt present at the vets, so dont know what happened re the C section, pup was 5 ozs born, went up to 8 ozs, then back down to 5.5ozs - she decided she didnt like the teets and it has been extremely difficult, have a larger supply of teets than boots now! Feeding her with a syringe every 15 minutes or so now, and she has gained half an oz in 8 hours, and showing more interest in actually opening her mouth, such a stubborn little puppy. Still not out of the woods she will be a week old tomorrow, so need to get her up to 12 ozs and two weeks old. She seems calm though, and hasnt cried once. We think the large puppy that got stuck, was from the first mating, and the smaller puppies from the second, and they werent big enough to push the big one out.

[lankeela]

Sounds like its a little fighter, fingers crossed for the next week to go ok.