Hi I'm debating breeding one of my bitches who last whelped a year and half ago with three puppies. However I could only get the pups feeding on the two bottom teats. No matter what I tried they wouldn't feed on the others. I'm worrired unless she had a couple of more puppies as how would I get them drinking. If there were more puppies would some more teats produce more because there were more puppies to feed.

Thanks for any help

p.s its a toy bitch

not sure about toy breeds but mum will normally produce what milk is needed and if pups only sucked on the back ones hats propley why she only had milk in them x

Agree with white lilly.

Your bitch will make more milk if she has a bigger litter.  All to do with supply and demand!  :-)

Hi yes they would only succkle on bottom two and as a result they got very engorged and swollen. The others were tiny and hardly had any milk. Would you recommend breeding a bitch like this? If so would be advisable to stop the bottom two with a plaster for a while to get them using the others? Thanks for all the help

If any get engorged it is always those back ones as they tend to be the most productive and in your bitches case there wasn't enough pups to really drain them well.

With a larger litter I would expect more glands to be utilised.

It also does seem that some pups have a distinct preference for some teats,a dn with many of mien it has been the small ones neared Mums head.  Maybe these are Mummy's boys and girls ;)

This should really have no bearing on your decision to breed from her, which should be based on what your trying to achieve in your breeding program.

> If so would be advisable to stop the bottom two with a plaster

NO!

no plasters ,pups will feed from all of them ,you might get more pups this time and they will all need to use all the teats...every litter is different even from same bitch x

Thankyou for all your advise. I was just a little worried as last time we had to hand rear them because the vet said he needed to give her medication for the engorged teats as they wernt going down and the medication would be toxic to the pups. The vet said not to let her lay with them or even be in the same room. it devistated her doing it to her and I really felt for her.

How long (if engorged and pups not draining it) should it be left before consulting the vet?
Also one vet said it was mastitis another said it was engorged, what is the difference?

> because the vet said he needed to give her medication for the engorged teats as they wernt going down and the medication would be toxic to the pups.

That was very poor advice from your vet.

I have had a bitch with mastitis (poison in the gland) and she carried on feeding even though she was on strong antibiotics.

The vet just has to ensure they are safe ones for the pups.

> The vet said not to let her lay with them or even be in the same room.

Thought about changing your vet?

There is no reason at all to distress a bitch by removing her pups.  How cruel!  There are plenty of safe antibiotics that can be taken by a nursing bitch.

The vet said that if she was laying with them she would produce more milk and become more engorged. I ignored the vets advice after 3 days but she was never the same with the pups. I did question this at the time with 2 seperate vets but they said if I didn't the swelling would have got worse. I am currently in the process of changing vets but the other surgery is tiny has hardly no machines such as ultrasound or xray. And at night the emergancy service goes back to my old vets. My bitch recovered quick and that's the reason I'm worried about breeding her again incase that negative infulance has had a impact on future littersm