My lab had puppies today by c section. We are now experiencing problems with the bitch accepting the puppies. Is this something that will pass with time? We are forcing the bitch to feed by muzzle and brute strength, then taking the puppies away to be safe and giving the bitch time to be free of puppies. Can anyone give me any advice? Can I supplement the puppies? With what? HELP

Hi. One of my westies had a c section and killed one of her two pups as she was coming round and I managed to grab the remaining puppy before she did. She had licked and fed them at the vets and thought "she knew what was going on" but as soon as we got home as I was putting them into the bed with her she just killed this pup in a trice. I think this was shock and after effects of the drugs, in retrospect as things turned out fine in the end though it was tragic to lose one of the two pups - she had forgotten she had had puppies I am sure and was drugged up to the eye balls - though seemed to have completely come round at the vets. The vet advised me to keep the puppy in a cosy box inside a crate next to her so she could see and hear pup but not get to it. Every 2 hours for the next 48 hours (Ugh!) I put the puppy on her to feed , with my elbow gently on her neck so she couldn't hurt her, holding the pup in place as she was quite small.

I had to rub her bottom with damp cotton wool to stimulate her to wee and poo ( the pup) before and after every meal, and "burp" her half way thorugh - they seem full but often have a good burp and are ready for more!! and kept her warm with a hot water bottle in a warm kitchen. Eventually when coming into the kitchen to get pup for her to feed mum was frantic and tried to get into the cage with the pup so I let her lick and sniff it while I held the pup - suddenly she was in love and I sat close while she licked and loved it and supoervised feeding for a couple
more feeds. She made it quite clear on one occasion that I WAS NOT going to take the pup away and from then on nursed and looked after her fine, though having only one pup she dried up earlier than usual.
I would put the pups on her every two hours after the "cotton wool treatment" and if they are feeding well and have a good stuff at midnight or so you could probably get away with every 3 hours at night. Try not to supplement or start bottle feeding unless you have to, its much better for them to feed from her and there is a more of a chance she will accept them after a couple of days if she has a good milk supply, which will be stimulated by the pups feeding from her. If you let her dry up she may never accept them. Has she got plenty of milk? Keep an eye on mums temp twice a day to make sure she is ok, and its not that she's feeling unwell that it making her reject them, though of course she wont be feeling that great for a day or two anyway. Normal is 101.5 , a temp of over 102 should be reported to the vet. Best of luck.

Thank you all for taking the time to advise. I am very new at this and will probably holler help more than once during the next few weeks. I AM SO HAPPY TO SAY that Momma seems to be coming around. She is still a little snappier than we are comfortable with, but she seems to be wanting more control. She is now stimulating their genitals so that their bathroom needs are being met. She chooses not to remain with the pups, but is happier with her humans when the little ones are sleeping.

We have the momma's sister and the father also lives here. We are being cautious about keeping the other dogs away from the brood. I thank you for the advise, every little bit helps. Helping us to understand her, feelings and emotions is very much needed.

We too, agree that the surgery, drugs, and long drive are partially responsible for her mood yesterday. As she is the most even tempered dog, she strives for love. (we purchased her at a year old, she was kennelled for the first year of her life, she now lives in the house and even has been known to sleep on the bed. She becomes distressed when she is confined. )

Just for the record she presented us with 3 yellows and 3 blacks. Even tho she is black and daddy is chocolate we got no chocolates.

AGAIN THANK YOU

Hi, congrats on the pups and glad to hear that mum is settling down now. Have you tried staying with mum and the pups? If she will not stay with them when they sleep you need to be careful that the puppies don't get chilled. You're right to keep the other dogs well away, especially as mum is a bit iffy at the moment. Even the most maternal bitches usually react badly to other dogs near baby pups and may attack the other dog or even kill the pups.

You can get milk from your Vets to supplement with, did they not suggest this when the C Section took place?

You could well be in for a long haul on this, it happened to a friends litter & the bitch still needs muzzling. You can wean very early, but still not totally until 4 or so weeks.

Is there no one local with a smallish litter whose bitch may accept some more pups?

Good Luck

Shame they are labs Sarah as I have a newborn litter of 2 (both girls -hooray) and mum has loads of milk, in fact I have ben milking off spare colostrum. If it was 2 or 3 pups of a smaller breed I am sure she would have obliged and looked after them. Hope the labs do ok, it is hard work - but hey, breeeding dogs is not all fun!!

Hi, glad things are improving. It may well be that some of the puppies have inherited a chocolate gene from dad and if a black puppy ( who HAS inherited the gene) is bred back to a chocolate partner when mature will produce some chocolates in a litter, maybe up to 75%. Both parents have to have the gene for the chocolate colour to produce chocolate puppies. Are you going to keep one? Hope everything continues to improve - not all mums are very maternal, they will do the bare bones of feeding and cleaning up but prefer to spend the rest of the time away from the puppies. As they get bigger and start getting out of their bed make sure she has an escapeway - maybe a plank of wood she can jump over easily and they cant follow - so she can get away from them when she wants to.

Can any one fit me with an "escape plankway" when my kids get too much?
Second thoughts...id never be return!!
He he !

Hi Zoe, when my first baby was a full on toddler I had one of those old fashioned square wooden playpens - I put a comfy armchair in it and had a cuppa unmolested while said toddler roamed the downstairs!! Bliss.

I used to do that as well :D

Fiona
x x x

Hi all...THANK YOU ALL for you wonderful advice. Momma has come around beautifully, she is a doting mom now. The pups are growing like weeds, and are very solid.

She is mending from her c section well, and her cervix has opened allowing the uterin(sp?) fluids to exit. (this was another frantic call to the vet, but seems it is normal), her incision is clean and no infection showing.

To the question am I keeping on. I say no while bobbing my head up and down, LOL. We have two black females now, and a chocolate male. The females are sisters, having the same sire and dam, only a year apart. So as much as I would love to keep a yellow male, we would have to neuter and that isn't in our
plan. We are not here to make money, as we all know that won't happen, but to breed healthy lab pups.

Bunny, whose registered name is, Camino's Whipper Snapper, but she doesn't like it when we tell people, so shussssshhhhhhhhh, it's a secret, gave us 2 males blacks, 1 female, and 2 yellow males, 1 female. All in all a nice litter.

Now for just a question, what is the rule for litters. If the bitch has a c section, can she be rebred. I would not even consider for at least a year, but before I make the decision to spay or not.....

Thanks all
Bev

So glad to hear all is well now, you must be so relieved! As far as breeding from her again it depends on why she had the C section in the first place. If it was primary inertia - where she failed to produce at least one puppy before the C section because of the lack of productive contractions, then I would say no, dont breed her again. If she had the op because a puppy was stuck/poorly presented but tried hard to deliver it, then I would not frown upon trying again. If it was secondry inertia (where some puppies were already born), it may happen again but not necessarily. Make sure she is physically very fit and well muscled before mating. 2 C sections is my limit ( though none has ever had 2 so far) - though the vet said he would do a third, I wouldn't want to risk it as if puppies implant onto the scar tissue from a previous op it may not survive. I have not had a second C section with a bitch, the only one that had a c section from secondry inertia was having her last (3rd) litter anyway, and out of her 2 daughters only one had secondry inertia, again on her 3rd and last litter. With two C sections there will be more scar tissue and less chance of viable pups, and of course I would not want to put the bitch through a third one anyway. Primary Inertia can run in families, so if it was pi, and this was her first litter, I would think also twice about keeping a daughter with view to breeding. I had one bitch that had two puppies presented at once - probably one from each horn travelled up the birth canal together, one backwards and one forwards and were completely wedged together in a head to toe "embrace". She had a C section, pups were fine, and she then had puppies which she whelped normally 18 months later. But I counted my blessings ( she had 8, 7 live pups) and she did not whelp again.