We have a lovely litter of 7 large breed gundog, who will be 2 weeks old this Saturday. All are doing really well & growing rapidly.

I feel such an idiot as when our food supplier called to arrange delivery, I thought it might be a good idea to change her onto the puppy food that the pups will be weaned on. She has been fed Arden Grange Prestige through the last few weeks of the pregnancy until now with no problems at all. In fact, I was feeling really chuffed that she has been eating so well with no tummy upsets.

Well all that changed two days ago, I had a little Prestige left, enough to last through the change over to the new food. I put a few nuggets of the Puppy food into her breakfast & noticed that she was getting a little windy about 30 minutes after. It didn't take long for her to have to go outside and relieve herself! It can only be the food as there was nothing different eaten. Well after administering Pro-Kolin we didn't have any poos at all yesterday much to my relief, but I'd been giving just chicken and boiled rice. Well this morning we're back to diahorrea and frequent trips into the garden.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do to be honest. She doesn't want to stay away from the puppies, and is content to lie in the box feeding. It never looks like she's got much milk there but I think that the puppies are just feeding regularly and draining her.

What I'm most worried about is that if we don't get this under control, she'll either become dehydrated (have had problems getting her to drink plain water, and have been giving her drinks of Nutrolac/water which she has been loving (With an upset tum she shouldn't really be having milk), or she will lose her milk supply due to the lack of food going in.

Has anyone else had something similar happen? I will obviously take her to the vet if she needs it, but at the moment, she still seems quite happy. Should the vet be giving her something to help stop the runs?

It's such a shame because we've had a trouble free time of it so far - now I know that trouble free litters must be few and far between!

Trying not to be too anxious and hoping someone might have some good advice.
Thanks

sorry you havn't had any answers, are you able to put her back on the food she was on to stabilse her tum ? have you just wormed the pups ? just wondering as is she is still clearing up after pups then it may have had an effect on her ?? pro kaolin is very good, maybe some slippery elm to help her get back to normal or natural yoghurt (probiotic) to settle her gut?

if i have suggested anything wrong then please correct me :)

Could you stick with a basic diet for a few more days and keep up with the prokolin too?  Sometimes I've found it takes a few doses to settle the gut when my dogs have had the poops. Or you could try kaogel/diarsanyl from any of the internet chemists. 

Its a worry when you have the babies to think of too isnt it. 

Hope you can get her sorted quickly.

If she is doing well on the Prestige i would feed this to her and the puppies.  You could mix the existing puppy with the prestige for the pups.

I have used Prestige for weaning and feeding the pups in the past often just getting them onto the puppy before they go.

I had this happen with my first litter. My Vets advice was not to medicate her at all.  I kept her on chicken and rice with some potato in it to dry up the runs.  To get her to drink water I added a little honey and melted it in hot water, then added the cold. She always had plenty of milk for her pups ( she had the runs right after the birth).  She was fine after two or three days. Good luck.

Thanks Barbara, we've just had some more Prestige delivered. I do plan to get her right back onto it as soon as she stops the squits!

Someone on another forum for my breed suggested they always give white fish and rice - so I've just been down to Asda and stocked up on their little packets of cubed white fish. Couldn't believe my luck, normally 99p, down to 50p!! She's just devoured a bowl of the stuff with a spoon of live yoghurt and is now contented and feeding the pups. I've just started another tube of pro Kolin so have enough for a few days yet.

I called the vet this afternoon, but to be honest, my main concerns are around the fact that she's feeding pups more than my ability to deal with an upset tum. My usual procedure works a treat, but starving isn't an option. What's such a shame is that until 2 days ago, we didn't have one loose stool, even after the delivery... and she ate a couple of afterbirths! I am kicking myself big time and will take it as a lesson learned to leave well alone when everything is going so well!!

With the Arden Grange Puppy sack I've just opened, the nutritionalist there has asked me to send in a sample for them to analyse. I have an unopened sack also which is a different batch number, which could be used to wean the pups. I'm more than a bit nervous about using the opened sack for the pups as I'm convinced there could be a problem with it!!

Thanks for the advise folks, fingers crossed we'll have a quiet night :).

Thanks, I'll try putting a bit of honey in the water...

As regards getting her to drink, I do agility and on hot days I struggle to get them to drink enough plain water. What I do is give them home made chicken stock diluted as weak I can and have them still like it. All mine love it and I have to ration it or they'd drink litres of it. I must emphasise the home-made part though, bought stock pots/cubes have salt in. I just boil chicken carcasses or any bones for a couple of hours, sieve the liquid to make sure there isn't any cooked bone in it and done. There will also be a nutritional value in the stock as well if she's not eating.
Good luck!

I have used the cheap fish fillets (usually Pollock) they do them in Sainsbury's Morrisons and Iceland.

Well as luck would have it I boiled the carcase up from the chicken I cooked yesterday for her. Good tip, thanks will try it!!!

Touch wood so far no squits since the meal of fish and rice earlier... lets hope things are on the mend (wishing we had an icon for crossed fingers here...lol!

Thanks again for the advice and tips, all going into the little black book for future reference...!

Tanya

glad to hear she's getting better - pro kaolin is a godsend :)

i think this site is amazing :)