My bitch had her pups first thing Sunday morning, Sunday evening I noticed her temp had risen from her usual 38.1 to 39.8 and I rang our out of hours vet. He has since been round and given her some anti-biotics as well as a anti-biotic injection. She's only been on them since yesterday and her temp is still quite high (39.5). Anyway, she's been digging. I don't know if its normal? Not constant digging but every so often she will dig for a few seconds. She seems perfectly fine apart from the digging and temp and the pups are doing great. Any advice would be welcomed.

this could be due to after pains plus the mums temp goes higher when her milk is coming in, i had a girl do this but she also strained when she went out ,got her to the vets and a dead stuck pup :( ,all the best

My girl did this too...digging & straining. We took her to our vet who scanned & did blood tests. She had some membrane left inside which caused an infection. She was fine after a 5 day course of Antibiotics. Good luck.

The higher temperature is to be expected, even with a straightforward delivery.  Remember that her body is now working overtime.  She will naturally be in pain, as her uterus will be contracting.  I would also expect her to be panting quite heavily.  Some bitches will continue panting for over a week after the birth.

If she is on antibiotics from your vet, then I assume that he has palpated her, and is happy with the way she feels.  Bitches dig when they are in pain, and she sounds perfectly normal in that aspect.

Hi,

Thanks all for the advice, she has been checked and both the vet and my doggy midwife didn't think there is a pup in there.
JeanSW - It sounds very much like what's happened here, she's panting but eating fine, drinking fine, no discharge and seems happy. She's on 5 days worth of anti-biotics, I wonder if how hot the house is can affect her temp? The house is like a sauna. Her temps at 39.5 and 39.3 today. The digging has stopped.

I guess I am just a little worried, it was a pretty straight forward birth.

very thing sounds good :) youll never feel relaxed till gone and then youll worry all their lifes :) but try to enjoy the peace while you can lol

bluemerlemum
You sound like a normal anxious mother!  :-)  :-)  :-)

Don't worry too much (easy for me to say) if she still has the odd digging fit.  Her temperature sounds just a tad raised one that I would expect in a newly whelped bitch. 

Have you noticed how very easy it is for some of us to give advice when we don't have the worry of litters ourselves?  :-)  I always use a heat pad for pups - if you do, is there enough space for mum to move away from the heat in her whelping box? 

And if the answer is yes, take deep breaths.  Her panting is a perfectly natural state of affairs.  :-)

Hey, thanks for the advice. Her temp is 38.9 today down from the 39.5 of yesterday. So its slowly going down :)
Yes she's only a very medium breed (a small medium if that makes sense) but she's in a 4ft x 4ft whelping box. She has plenty of room the escape the heat pad and there's even enough room in there for me if I need to. :)

I think because the birth was pretty straight forward I am just waiting for something to go wrong. How bad does that sound?
The three pups are doing really well, gaining weight nicely and mummy is doing fab too. Eating LOADS! Haha.