We have had a litter of puppies last Monday. We were sitting with our bitch whilst feeding the puppies cause it's her first litter & she has been a little unsure. We tested her nipples to make sure she had milk when we noticed it was sore which could be Mastitis & have been advised not to let the puppies have milk until she has been checked & treated which now means hand feeding. The pups are big & doing very well but there are mixed reviews on what type of formula - Powder or Not. My mother in law breeds Pugs & used Welpi because it was recommended by the vet to find it didn't agree with the puppies. I have read about the Evaporated Milk/Water & Egg Yolk Formula which is very popular & haven't seen any problem puppies. Any advise would be great to give the pups the best way forward.

Thanks in advance for any comments & help that may be given.

i did the evaporated milk with a litter 6months ago and it gave them very bad runs BUT with my breed they can have sensertive tums? but i do think this way is better then powderd milk.
have you been putting a hot flannel on her hot swollen teat? this will help and massage it to help ,good luck ,it might help if you put 1 of the bigger pups on that nipple to drain the milk from it and make sure when shes feeding them that it gets used every time x

I've used Skinners puppy milk in the past and been pleased with it. My lot have sensitive tums as well but it did seem to agree with them better than the evap mix. At a push I've used Lactol but I do prefer the Skinners.

Thanks for the input. Wondering how much formula is required per feed for ! week old puppies. Some say to keep to 2-4ml per feed every 3 hours & others say by body weight which would mean about 5-6ml per feed every 3 hours. We don't want to under feed or over feed but again different opinions. Without being able to contact the vet we would like to know what is best to cover us until we can get to the vets.

I wouldn't be feeding myself, I would be letting mum feed, and bond with them.

I had a girl last year with an exceptionally red and sore teat.  Obviously took her to the vet, and he drew off so much milk that it squirted me in the eye!  She was so engorged and hard that I thought he would give me antibiotics.

He told me to get the pups on the engorged teat.  I then realised that she always lay down to feed pups in the same position.  And pups just weren't using the red teat.  Once I drew off milk, and plugged the pups on, the swelling went down naturally, and she was so much more comfortable.

Didn't look back after!  :-)

ditto with JeanSW!

However, if you have to supplement then I would recommend welpi NOT evap milk. Welpi is designed especially for pups, evap milk is not and is cows milk which alot of pups cant tolerate at such a young age - can cause nasty upset tums which then results in dehydrated pups not what you want to achieve I'm sure! When the pups are older by all means try the evap milk method if you want to but with such young pups I would stick to something like welpi.

http://www.dog-breeders-net.com/dogbreeding&related%20topics/newbornpuppyformula.htm

I did this for two weeks, all pups healthy and ready to go to new homes

i would only use royal canin milk powder.

I too agree with jean, let mum do it, taking pups off will make her teats even more swollen as they are not being emptied, she will feel more comfortable if the puppies naturally drain her milk.

I have had 2 bitches with mastitis and kept the puppies on the whole time which helps to drain the infected teats and therefore healing quicker, with no ill effects on any of the puppies.

Yes - human mothers don't stop feeding for mastitis or other infections... even if it does gross me out a little :)

my girl just had her first litter 2 weeks ago and she got really bad mastitis in most of her nipples. However i did not stop puppies feeding from mum and she was on antibiotics for the first week. it did take a few days for the antibiotics to kick in and make a diffrence but the puppies suckling was the only thing that gave her some release from the pain. Just stick with her i know its hard when you know shes in pain but well worth it in the end my girl is totaly fine now and puppies are thriving. Good luck to you, your girl, and puppies. scarlet

Ditto arclavie,

Who advised you hun not to let mum feed her pups due to mastitis? There are different degrees of seriousness with mastitis, a little soreness and a little hardening is fine for pups to feed from actually helps, you just use warm flannels and massage, if it becomes more  serious and does not go down and return to normality the teat swells right up and becomes solid like a golf ball or orange, depending on size of dam, then a vet will need to intervene with antibiotics and pain relief. The vet may or may not advise the pups feeding from it depends on the seriousness of it.

But in the early stages it is fine to feed the pups, most mastitis is the mild kind and never needs the pups to be withdrawn.

If I needed to hand rear then I wouldn't touch anything with cows milk in it with a barge poll, I've hand reared one litter and used whelpi and then goats milk with egg yolk, pups were very stocky and healthy, my foundation breeder and everyone else I know in my breed also would not touch cows milk for pups. None of us have ever lost a pup to date. :-)

Best of luck, my advice, gets pups back with mum a.s.a.p.