wondering if somebody can help.

my friends dam i was helping whelp delivered her puppies two days ago. puppies are healthy, robust toy puppies and it was a self whelping litter.

the pups have been gaining between 0.3 - 0.6 oz per day so far which seems to be a normal amount for the breed average. They are active, gittery, at times vocal and are feeding very well - open all hours at the milk bar.

Mum has a LOT of milk and it is a small litter of 3.

However, the pups have very lose, yellow stools. i have read somewhere regarding stools that look like yellow mustard (without the seeds) and having seen the pups i would say this is an accurate description. the dam was wormed with milbemax during pregnancy.

The dam has been checked by the vet and is clear of retained placenta or pup ext. she is perfectly fine in herself - very well in fact. she is being fed her usual kibble, with the addition of some goat dairy i.e cottage cheese, chicken breast and is reguarly drinking fresh water in abundance however during the labour she did have nutri-drops.

her mentor feels something has upset the dams system (she isn't used to cottage cheese/goat dairy) and possibly transferred to the pups. she says she has seen it once, but it cleared up within a few days. however reading myself, it looks this may be a symptom of over-feeding on behalf of the dam. it does not seem inclusive of fading syndrome as the pups are steadily gaining weight and are otherwise very healthy pups.

any experience/help appreciated.
thanks for all your help as always.

If they are pups only feeding from mum, I would expect loose poo, they aren't taking in any solids yet.

They will only have loose poo - no new born pup has formed stools!  All perfectly normal to me.

I would expect very young pups to have poos that look like soft scrambled eggs whilst having only mums milk, very like a totally breastfed baby ;-)     Certainly I would expect nothing firmer than soft toothpaste, but still of a similar colour to scrambled eggs.

However, I've always had to be very quick to actually see young puppy poos, apparently my bitches think they are nectar from the gods  :-D

I would expect them to be soft and yellow at this stage.

Mum is well and the pups too, only 3 in the litter so loads of milk, it all sounds perfectly normal to me. Have fun :)

Yes as has been said it is unusual to see the poo at this stage. My box has beem so incredibly clean - they are 2 weeks on Monday.

Thanks all for your responses. Mum is attentive but can be clumsy and therefore requires constant supervision .
She noticed the yellow pooh as it seemed to be continually leaking from the pups bottoms (bit she was concerned about) when the dam was sleeping. Pups still doing well and vets aren't too concerned. Maybe it's just their colour ??

> Maybe it's just their colour ??

There is nothing wrong with the colour!

puppy poo is yellow and seeds can mean undigested milk if bottle feeding as well( if you were), pinch back of neck see if dehydrated due to slightly sloppier than they should be.  but everything sounds ok. maybe researching before mating would have saved worry

A lot of research was done before this mating - and i don't know of many people who don't worry about their newborn puppies however well their health is. All the recommended health tests as proposed by the breed specific club were carried out at great expense and had sought out an equally health tested male who has excelled at show. which is a lot more than most 'breeders' do in the breed i can tell you. As i said i am a novice, by no means an expert. I had no experience of this, maybe because my girls have always been so attentive and i have never had messy bedding. When a quick chat to receptionist at the vets, she was put straight onto the head vet who seemed a bit dumb-founded the information she had given re the 'leakage'. Pups are doing very well and are continuing to progress as hoped - stools have now 'hardened' up and are no longer foamy/running constantly. It was not the colour she was worried about so much per se, just the fact it seemed to be continually 'leaking' without the pups being stimulated to toilet and dirtied bedding despite mum doing her best to toilet them and keep them clean. Having asked the stud dog owner, (who has been in the breed a long time) and her saying she had not much experience of this other than when vets thought mum was carry a low-grade infection and was put on anti-biotics but was a slightly different situation. it was then she started to worry and ask me to post on here. shes not very technical, still writes all in capitals and needs her glasses to send a text lol.

maybe i didn't make the above clear in original posting.

I had this and lost puppie despite being in and out of vets, rehydration under skin etc so I would say you friend was right to worry, my babies were only a day old and it did not take much for them to go down hill. The ones who got it 24h later to the first pulled through.

thanks noora. it is always a worry isn't it when you have pups, especially if something seems off the norm. i know i worry constantly. the breed we are in we are seeing more and more poorly bred dogs bred for profit and quantity. its shocking the lack of care/knowledge behind some of the matings we are seeing more frequently. the breed club is very concerned about the amount of unregistered colours being kc'd too - that are being imported into the uk from abroad with foreign pedigrees and questionable parentage. steering a bit off course i think but for me its refreshing to see a healthy, well thought out litter. i'm glad all the pups are ok and its so great to get experience from other breeders who have experienced it and not just read it in a text book. :)

editted to say so sorry to hear about baby pup x :(