Mothering

• Bitch refuses to feed puppies
• Problems eating after giving birth, and pups born with defects

Bitch refuses to feed puppies

Q: My 11 day old litter dam refuses to feed her puppies. She is 2, her mother was excellent.  She will go in the whelping box, spend less than a minute, and leave. We resorted to holding her down for feeding. We of course took her to our vet who determined all was well. She was engorged and the puppies were expelling milk. I was concerned for a possible cleft palate, but all were fine. She continues to have sufficient milk and will go in the box to lick bottoms but never lay down. She did have eating issues from early in the pregnancy from possibly week 4 she was very spoiled and I would feed her whatever she would eat.  She is mainly on a homemade diet with hamburger, rice, pumpkin, fruit and egg whites. Doesn't eat ice cream and refuses calcium supplements. 

A: We all want our new Mom’s to have excellent mothering skills, and sometimes they simply do not “follow the plan!” It is very hard when you know the right thing to do, but you do not get cooperation! Marginal mothering can be a sign of sub-clinical calcium issues and using Oral-Cal Plus that you squirt in the cheek of your dog, or crush & dissolve Citrical tablets into vanilla yogurt or a raw egg yolk, or even mix it into scrambled eggs has worked for me. Refusing calcium supplementation that they need is simply a no-go at my house, and if none of these suggestions work then I pop that pill down their throat with a yummy treat afterward!

I would also consider starting to transition her back to a more balanced diet, and it sounds like you will have to do that gradually based on her food diet at the moment. 

Problems eating after giving birth, and pups born with defects

Q: My dog just delivered 17 puppies, and this is her first litter. She was exhausted after 12 pups and the vet induced labor 2 times to get the last 5 out, 2 were still born and 1 had the intestines outside his body and was euthanized, 5 were underweight and have passed away despite bottle feeding in between, and then 1 she laid on and smothered. She won't eat, and is throwing up. No fever. Is there anything you recommend to offer her to eat?

A: I hope you have consulted your veterinarian regarding your girl, as it sounds like there could be an underlying issue, perhaps metritis, which is an infection in the uterus that could be causing her to vomit. You need to get to the bottom of that as fast as you can. Once you have the vomiting under control and she is hydrated, you can start food. I find that enticing my girls with high-value foods, like roast chicken and rice, can start them eating again. I also dress their food with yogurt, pumpkin, and other goodies. Even using canned chicken w/rice soup or chicken w/noodle soup on top of the food has worked for me.

I would like to talk about the midline defects, intestines outside the body, as well as the things you can do for underweight puppies. All of my girls get a human-grade B-50 vitamin daily. Once I make the decision to breed them I increase the Folic Acid, or Folate, to 800-1000mcgs. Folic acid has been shown to mitigate the occurrence of midline defects, such as cleft palates and incomplete closure where your intestines are exposed. For underweight puppies you can administer Fresh Frozen Plasma from Hemopet (www.hemopet.org) following their protocol. This can help give them an extra boost. Then, 12hrs after birth once they have gotten the colostrum from their mother, you can supplement them 2-3x a day with a good formula. With 17 puppies, it is often best to divide into 2 groups for the first week or so, rotating time on Mom every 2hrs. Yes, this is a lot of work, but sometimes it is necessary to ensure the litter’s success.