Hi,

We have a super mum who has 8 fantastic pups aged a little over 5 weeks.
This morning after breakfast mum suddenly developed very swollen eyes, together with a little swelling around her muzzle area. I assumed it was an allergic reaction as the symptoms are identical to those we used to have in another boy who was stung by a wasp.

I quickly gave her two Benadryl and after a couple of hours and constant cold water compresses it started to look better. I rang our emergency vet (why do these things always happen on Sundays??) who told me we had done exactly the right thing and that there was no point taking her in as there was nothing else they could do, but to keep checking for swelling of the throat and tongue.

9 hours later and the swelling is much less but it's still puffy. Her tongue and neck are fine, obviously I'll keep a good eye on her overnight and take her to the vet tomorrow.

Now I've racked my brains to try and come up with something that can have caused this. Food was the same (we feed all raw), she'd not walked anywhere different, the weather is freezing so no insects about, haven't seen a flea in years as we're all hard floors. There has not been any scratching at all, pups are fine and dandy as always...mum is too other than the swelling. She's eating, drinking, playing with the pups, sleeping well (the Benadryl) if it weren't for her poor face you wouldn't think there was anything wrong :(

The only things I have come up with is that she still insists on peeing the pups...not just licking the puddles up but literally pushing her face under their bums/tummies as if they were still tiny. Obviously as they are a large working type and weigh around 4kg each then they do big pees. Do you think this could be a reaction to the urine? I've tried stopping her, telling her off gently but it's so hard with 8 to see what she's doing every minute of every day! She still eats their poo too, the pups started solids at two and a half weeks as they had begun eating some of mums raw food! Usually my mums stop as soon as they start solids! I stalk the place nappy sack in hand picking them up as soon as they do them, but she even cleans up after the mop, I use a Milton solution. I use puppy pee pads but I've even found her licking them after they've been used!! 

The only other thing is that I bathed the pups for the first time last night, but I do them in plain water with a drop literally of baby bath, I then rinsed and dried them well before mum had access, she was snoring anyway at the time. She's still feeding them but only 3 or 4 times a day and not for long, they're on 4 meals a day and lap water well.

Has anyone come across this before or have any other suggestions as to what else it could be please?

Thank you.

Have you been anywhere that has been treated for snow/ice. grit preperations have chemicals added that can disagree with dogs and cats especially if ingested when licking paws

Hope she returns to normal soon.

Thanks for the quick reply, you know I didn't even think of that Rhodach, good thinking!

Hmm not sure sadly as it happened before she went out this morning, and then she only went into our back garden for a good run around as it's quite big. I didn't take her out over the fields today because of her poor face, and she was fine last night.

She's actually much, much better now thank goodness; I spent an hour just washing her face with cold water, changing the water after a few wipes and touch wood she's sleeping peacefully at my feet and her poor face seems much less puffy.

Mind you I don't know how she's managing to sleep, her pups don't seem to be any sleepier as the vet said they would by now lol, tearing around my legs play fighting, little monkeys!

I've also been very careful at not letting her near them until they've relieved themselves after waking and am following them about during play like a stalker, with my mop surgically attached to my right hand and a nappy bag in the other.

Just going to feed them their last meal before I settle them down for the night :) thanks again.

I'd say it could be the Milton, if she is still cleaning up after you clean.  It is after all a chlorine solution, aka bleach.

I too have had a very maternal bitch who would clean up after pups right until they left and it was a case of who got to the poo first, never could stop her getting at the pee.

This happened to my bitch too, but when she was around 4 weeks pregnant. I had changed her food slightly that week to an organic brand that had a few herbs in it so had wondered if it was this, even though my other dog was fine. It was a slight swelling, anyone that didn't know her probably wouldn't have noticed, but myself and family could see it. Of course, because she was potentially pregnant (the scan was a few days later) I couldn't give her anything for it.

I took her to the vets and they examined her - she was totally fine in every other way and by later that evening she was back to normal. I still have no idea what caused it. Needless to say that I stopped the new food, although I'm not convinced it was that - she has always been able to eat nothing with no adverse effect.

It was a one off and hasn't occurred again. Still scratching my head over it. She hadn't been anywhere that she could have picked up up or even something.

Hope your bitch is back to normal again now!