Hi all,

My bitch finally whelped two puppies last night. She strained for about an hour after breaking water sac but the contractions were weak so off to the out of hours vet we went for an x ray and a jab of calcium and oxytocin. Jabs did the trick and 10 minutes later both whelps appeared in quick succession.

However, my poor lady screamed her head off with each pup and now she's a little afraid of them. She'll let them latch on, with some persuasion, but will not help them toilet or even look much at them really.

I remember I had the same issue with her mum but she came around pretty quickly, she had a much larger litter though and was letting the first pups feed between whelps. Its been 12 hours now since these pups were born. Mum and pups have been checked over by the vet since then and all seems fine physically, mum is content, eating plenty and toileting well etc.

So, does anyone have any tips to encourage bonding? The vet seems to think it'll happen in a few days when she's recovered from the shock of what's happened, but if there's anything I can do I'd like to give it a go.

I think you just have to let nature take it's course, and hope she'll settle down to her job.   I'd not be far from where she is with these puppies for now, just in case she really turns on them in which case you'll have to get them off her other than when they need feeding which is going to keep you at it every 2 hours 24/7 so if she can be persuaded to do her job, it would be so much better.

I had one who vocalised when producing her puppies - very upsetting.   I think under the circumstances, it's probably going to be best to do what I did - no more litters for her.   And that one would 'pee' her puppies, but the other was totally beneath her dignity and as a result the poor things were pretty uncomfortable to the point of being constipated.   Despite my best efforts to do the job for her.

Thanks for your thoughts Mamabas. Thankfully you were right, nature did take it's course and she has bonded with the pups now and being a great mum (though your point about cleaning up does apply to her also at this stage - she's not keen on cleaning poo!)

At this stage I am seriously considering spaying. She isn't good with pain and it doesn't seem fair to put her through it again. She has given us two much wanted, very precious pups with a lot of promise and that's more than enough :)

> At this stage I am seriously considering spaying. She isn't good with pain and it doesn't seem fair to put her through it again. She has given us two much wanted, very precious pups with a lot of promise and that's more than enough :)

This is how I approached it - if I got what I wanted from one litter, that was enough.

> At this stage I am seriously considering spaying. She isn't good with pain and it doesn't seem fair to put her through it again.

My Lexi was the first bitch I had ever had that screamed when whelping each pup, and had to be held down as they came, she had 8 (we lost one on day 2).

We had he4r next litter just under two years later and she was fine, grunted but no issue, her third she had first pup easy and went into panic mode 2 hours later, turned out to be a malpresented pup needing a C section for the rest.

As fro cleaning first few days I had to clean them with wet wipes, but eventually with much disgust she took over.

She was an excellent mother after that and for subsequent litters