Hi All,

Hoping that some of you experienced breeders can give me some ideas.

Our bitch whelped 12 days ago,a litter of twelve,all pups strong and doing well.

This morning she had a temperature of 40.1 and an enlarged hot mammary gland so straight to vets and she is now on Synulox and has had an anti imflammitory jab.

The affected nipple is looking quite dry and raw on the end and the vet thinks this is how an infection could have entered.I n the past i have put an organic ebible aloe vera on any sore nipples or straches which has always helped reduce any soreness but was wondering if any of you have any experiences of anything else to safely cleanse and moiturise the nipples so puppies can still suckle safely?

Just to add all puppies nails have been trimmed to prevent scratching.

Thanks in advance

Ali

I always use aloe vera gel - bitches really enjoy it's soothing qualities, it's a natural product and ok for dogs to eat/lick although I always put on bitches after they've fed so that it can soak in to them.  It's worked wonders on enlarged mammary glands too, although you may find you have to 'milk' that teet as the pups can avoid the ones they really need to suckle.  When I had two litters with one larger pups I actually put a couple of bigger pups onto the smaller bitch (who only had 2 pups) to ease the milk flow and avoid this - if I haven't the pups I usually get some milk off then the pups start to suckle all of them again.

Hi Penny,

Thankyou so much for your reply. I will carry on with the Aloe help any soreness. Strange thing is the vet i saw today,who was not my vet of choice, told me to prevent pups sucking this teat by bandaging it if i had to or hand feeding whole litter and not letting her feed. Now if she was very,very sore or ulcerated i could understand but she only has two slightly sore and a bit dry nipples.....this seemed totally oevr the top to me and when i questioned her  and said 'surely removing pups will make things worse and she will get congested not to mention stressed' she said 'well,yes,you probabaly have more experience than me so see how things go!!'

I have in the past had a bitch with early mastitis that i treated with warm flannels and massage,it was her lethargy and temperature that worried me this morning and today after one injection of antibiotics and anti imflammatories she is very bouncy and hungry again. Her enlarged gland has gone down alot leaving a smaller harder area...was thinking i should massage with a warm flanell?? All milk expressed from this gland is normal colour and consistancy. She is letting them feed very happily from all nipples.....we will plod on....

Again thanks for your reply,it's nice to get experienced advice rather than a vet who has never reared a litter!

Ali

thanks for that info as my bitch isn't experiencing any real issues (no temp no mastitis or swollen glands/nipples) but the front ones are definitely looking a bit red and sore.  Is there any specific type of aloe vera gel?  I'm assuming I want straight aloe vera with nothing else added.  and it's definitely OK if the pups do ingest it?

thanks

(ps sorry to hijack the thread)

Yes it's fine if they ingest, but I would try and prevent it if possible by putting on the bitch after she's fed, as she needs the benefit. I've an adult dog who soon as the cap is turned is there trying to scoff the lot!  You want the full aloe vera gel, I usually buy from H&B or Forever Living (more expensive but excellent quality) if you've a rep near you.  My bitches love the cool soothing nature of it and it's helped scratches and inflamed teets.

I can't believe a vet would say to prevent milk coming from an overloaded teet :-(  He clearly hasn't a clue - even if they're really sore you want to try and get the milk out or it will explode! literally - there've been bitches whose teets have come apart because of too much milk.  I can't believe he said hand feed and leave the poor bitch to carry all that milk - you'd end up with a very poorly bitch :-(

It's a vicious circle, sore teet = pups ignoring it and then it gets worse and worse.  If you can get some of the milk off them - by the pups or yourself, whilst it's sore when you're doing it, they do feel more comfortable after - and aloe vera helps to make it feel better.  Yes I'm sure a warm flannel would be nice for the bitch - sounds like the milks ok and if the pups will feed so much the better, if not, just take a bit more out of it.

I'm so lucky as my vet is a dog breeder herself, so you get a lot better advice - but if it's the younger ones then I usually don't ask the same questions - in fact they usually ask me... ;-)

thanks for that - will try and get some from Holland and Barratt first thing in the morning, and then order from my Forever Living rep (unfortunately not close) to get some on its way.  Silly me, I bought some with MSM and the heat one for myself a few weeks ago - never occurred to me to get the plain...

Thank you :)

and yes, of course I would put it on after feeding, but just wanted to be sure in case someone decided to start up again.  I do know that AloeVera does absorb pretty quickly though which is good.

I just had to come back to say that I cannot believe what a difference that made even just after only one application!!

I've ordered some of the Forever Living and she's got it in the post today, but in the meantime I remembered a friend of mine uses it on her dogs so I borrowed hers late last night and did one application, let it soak in, fed her, just basically gave it time to absorb well.  This morning they already looked a million times better.  Still red and possibly sore looking, but not so raw or dry to touch.

Have done another application on one side while pups were sleeping, but didn't want to turn her over as she had one suckling lower.  I'll do the other when she turns.  But this side was by far the worse affected and I just honestly cannot believe the difference with just one.

This is now a new 'staple' to my whelping kit if I ever breed again.

Wendy - great to hear, yes it's miracle stuff!