Hi

My bitch delivered 9 puppies 11 days ago unfortunately 1 died at 2 days fading puppy syndromw we tried everything but to no avail,
why we were hand feeding this one my husband went to check on the others and she had lay on 2 and smothered them. THe other 6 are now 11 days old feeding and gaining wait eyes open and finding their feet. We are only putting them with mum to feed, and keeping them in a pen. When we are in the room we leave them with her then. This is her first litter she is nearly 2 has this happened to anyone before in this breed i have never come across it. THe vet dd not know when we asked as this is the first breed of this dog they have had their.

one of my girls ia a bit clumsey.... just watch her like a hawk we used to do it in shifts...

My girl has done exactly this yesterday, the puppy wasn't well and we were hand rearing it, putting it back in the whelping box between feeds for mum to clean and toilet.  Yesterday I left the for just a couple of minutes and she laid on one killing it.  My vet said that the bitch will kill any pup she feels isn't 100% so making more food for the remaining healthy pups.

I was devastated, but when my vet explained in our situation it made sense, although not nice.  I watch her constantly now, until the pups are big enough to get out of the way or screach loud enough for her to hear.

Just keep an eye on her and I hope things turn out ok for you.

A bitch of any breed can be clumsy.  That is exactly why most of the breeders I know don't leave their bitches unattended for the first 10 days.  It can happen all too easily and if the pups are given to me alive, then I consider it my responsibilty to keep them that way.
My experience is that is there is something wrong with a puppy, then the dam will push it away to get cold, rather than sit on it.

I agree with val....pushing a sick puppy away is the norm....sitting on it is plain clumsy! I lost one from same clumsiness in my current litter. You can help it by putting pig rails around the edge so at least they cannot get stuck between the bitch & the edge of the box. its disheartening when it happens but it can happen to anyone. As for your vets comments :(...I would seriously consider changing vet if he has not come across this relatively common problem before

I lost one pup to crushing in the first 24 hours in a bitch who had previously been very careful with a large litter,a nd this was a smaller litter.  It is the one and only one though, and she was absolutely worn out (as was I) from a long drawn out whelping.  We both fell asleep.

I totally agree with val, having kept St Bernards for 15 years. We never left a bitch unatended not even for a visit to the loo. we also did shifts so that someone was there at all times. we did this for at least the first four weeks.

I had heard that this is not uncommon with some of the heavy clumsier breeds.  a ldy I met with Clumbers didn't allow her bitch alone with nher pups for a full six weeks, as even at that age smothering and injury had been known.  I hade been told by one Bassett breeder similar.

So ,if your bitch pushes one puupy that is not thriving off to the side, what do you do about it? Let nature take its course or hand raise it?

If the pup is chilled then warming itxhould have Mum accept it, if she still rejects it but is mothering others well I would seriously question it's viability and ask the vet to check it out, as she is likely to be right.  I would not rear a pup that was not going to have a normal life.  Mind you these pups tend to die anyway despite your efforts, other than the chilled ones.

Yes, I think B/less is right. A pup from my first litter kept being pushed away by her mum & I kept putting it back with her. Me nor the vet could see anything wrong with it. On the fifth day I went outside for a couple of hours, the longest I`d left them & when I went back to the kitchen the pup was furthest away from mum & others & had died. She hadn`t been sat on or anything just mum knew better & i shouldn`t have interfered.

Christine, Spain.

Using a double layer(or even treble) of vet bed under the pups will help if they do get laid on and give them some more time.
Amos