Hello. We adopted a shih tzu in march from a rescue. She had been preggers, and had just weaned her pups a day before we got her. Her nipples were quite large, and since have gone down some, but they are still quite pronounced. Originally, we thought she had eight nipples, but we now know she has ten. The first two are small, flat, the remaining eight are large, still distended.

Questions.

1). How many nipples should a shih tzu have?

2). If 10 is too many, what would cause this?

3). Will the eight nipples ever go down and return to normal?  Are they painful the way they are? 

Thank you.

She is a WONDERFUL dog, as close to perfect as a dog can get!!!  We are truly blessed to have her.

10 is not an abnormal amount of nipples, not all nipples will be functional or nor will all provide an equal amount of milk though - bitches can have between six and ten nipples and she will have had them all from birth.

The nipples should go down if shes kept fit and healthy, but they won't return to as small as the two flat ones are.

If they look swollen/red/angry then see a vet as there could be an infection or tumour but if they are a normal colour, not swollen, hot, nor leaking anything, they should be fine - but do see a vet if you are worried.

What concerns me is that the rescue didn't tell you anything about what would be normal in a bitch who had weaned pups recently (and to rehome a bitch who has JUST weaned pups... thats odd indeed).

10 is the usual number, though I have had some with with 9 and one transposed non functional one next to the opposite rear one.  One of mine has just 8 evenly paired with the two smallest front ones near the armpits missing.

It's also not unusual in some large breeds to have more, often small non functioning ones.

If a litter is small not all nipples may be used, or used little and remain small, but might come into use if there is larger litter another time.

If she hasn't been spayed it is best to get this done about 12 weeks after the pups were born so that it is not too close to when her next season is due (when there is increased blood supply in the area making spaying less straightforward), but long enough for milk to dry up fully.

EDIT:

Just realised you have had her since march so pups would have been born January and her season would have been in November, so she will have had a season since with you (May onwards)?  Or was she spayed when you got her?  If she was not spayed mid cycle, it might explain why her glands are taking a long time to return to normal as spaying during a time when a bitch still has milk can prolong things.  If your talking just the nipples, they will never be pre pregnancy size again but should reduce in size often becoming flatter with time, and reduction in female hormones.

You may find thsi article interesting: http://classes.ansci.illinois.edu/ansc438/Lactation/catsdogs.html
"The number of teats in the dog varies from 8 to 12, with 4 to 6 gland complexes on each side of the midline. Ten is the most common number in larger breeds, four pairs are more common in the smaller breeds. In bitches with ten normal teats, the pattern is two pairs thoracic teats, two pairs abdominal teats, and one pair of inguinal teats."

My bitch has ten, five equally on each side, but her daughter who has ten has normal one side, then on the other there's what I can only call a double nipple and a gap where it should have ended up! Freaked me out a bit at first but it doesn't seem to bother her.

One of mine has an odd number I think, only 9!

>then on the other there's what I can only call a double nipple and a gap where it should have ended up

That's how tthree of mine have been so that's 30% of the bitches I have owned. in each case it was the one on their right side that was missign and the remaining ones were no longer evenly paired.

One of my girls had 1 litter and her nipples have went HUGE! I'm not exaggerating, the are like wine corks and she is a smaller gundog.  She has her summer coat at the minute which is lighter and her nipples are totally obvious all the time.  My OH jokes about making her wear the daisys to cover them up! If she had been showlines(she's working) I would have stopped showing just because it is that bad.

There is NO usual number & can vary from 8-10...

My girl has 9 too, 4 spaced nicely on one side, and 5 spaced nicely on the other, none match up in pairs!  She's the first bitch I've had like this, all others had 8 perfectly spaced in pairs :) 

My girls have all had 10 [4 so far] evenly spaced, the one who had pups they all got used despite there only being 3/4 pups, I have seen dachsies with only 5 or 6, one gave birth to 9pups[very unusual] so they had to be rotated or else the big ones pushed the small ones out of the way.

I am shocked that the dam was taken away from the pups so early as her job includes more than just feeding and toileting the pups.

My bitch has nine. After her first litter they were huge and only went a bit smaller. She is a working gundoh and have to be careful when she goes through heavy cover, and especially over high fences as her nipples can 'drag'.

She has just had her second litter and they are even bigger, like the earlier poster says, 'wine corks'. Hope they go down a lot this time.