My bitch is very rough with her pups, and does not seem to think they should sleep, just keep feeding, she wakes them up by washing them, at first she just nudged them over to her to make them feed,  but today I heard a lot of noise coming from a pup and rushed over to them, she had the puppy in her mouth wholesale, is this normal?. Puppies were born Monday 23rd. Also if I touch the puppies she thinks I have taken one away, she searches every where as if trying to find it, and seems to get very stressed.

I would be worrying that she may be developing eclampsia.  Trying to bury or hide pups, starign and fretful behaviour are all symptoms.  It is a Calcium deficiency and can kill so a trip to the vets would be my advice to check her blood calcium.

Hi Inca
Sorry not the same Cath.

oh ok ...well hello another cath :)

Have yu had her to the vets or has she settled?

She seems to have settled ok now but have problem with a pup, seems very weak and would not feed, the only one that has not regained his birth weight, phoned vet just before 5.00 clock today, nurse said she would get him to phone me as soon as he arrived, or maybe later on when he had a few minutes free between appointments, but I think she must have forgotten as he is usually very good like that, but unfortunately did not get a call back. Puppy seemed to get really weak about 8.00 clock, and was quite cold, warmed him up by putting him up my jumper, then when warm put him on a hot water bottle, gave him some goats milk, with a  syringe, then on the advice of the breeder who owns sire, gave him some nutrigel, she also said to give him infacol in case he had collic, sent my husband to get that from all night Tesco. Seemed to help a lot he regained the strength to cry after that, tried him on Mother but would not suck, so gave him some more goats milk, he is now sleeping peacefully, and an occasional twitch, so hope thats a good sign, as he was very limp and looked as if he was gasping earlier in evening. Hes still on his own in a little box with hot water bottle, will keep him there till stronger and feed him the goats milk until he will suck again. My little girl is being very good at the moment like mother hen around him, cleans him when I hold him for her and seems to be quite ok about him being in a seperate box. Just decided she would like the goats milk though and  drunk it all the first time I was feeding him, had to warm some more up. She is in with her other 3 pups at the moment feeding them, so I just hope he will get stronger and will be able to go back to her. Looks like another sleepless night for me, thought might be alright for me to get some sleep tonight, but daren't go to sleep as might not wake up to feed pup.

Cath,

Have you tried putting him on one of the really productive teats? (usually the one by the back legs) try getting him on one before the other pups wake up ( it may help to express a little milk so that he can taste it ) and supporting him so that he can feed without being pushed off by other pups, this should give him a good start and would be better for him than goats milk.  If you can do this every few hours for a few days then he should be ok, unless there's something actually wrong with him ;)

Thanks Dill
Tried that on wednesday morning and it seemed to work ok, and he was much better, carried on doing it but he seemed to lose all strength to suck, and today he was very weak, thought I was going to lose him for a while, have got him on welpi when desperate now, but he amazed me tonight, must have suddenly got some strength from somewhere, he has had a really long feed from his mum, sucked for england, and even clung on when mum changed position, also when the two elephants barged him, I just watched to make sure he stayed on, but have been holding him in my hand to feed, up until now as it was such a job to persuade him to latch on, and if he lost it, he didn't seem to go back on. But fingers and everything crossed, he will keep getting stronger, have to put him in his own little box when he comes off mum on a hot water bottle, as he just did not seem to stay warm, even on the heat pad, must go now and make sure he is still warm as left him in with mum and other pups after his last very successful feed.

Poor little pup died at 3.25 am started to move about so tried to latch him on to mum, but just died in my hand. He had just got so thin, just a little bag of bones, poor thing, 3.75 onces at birth but just kept losing weight, was down to 2.5 ounces by thursday and maintained that weight, and  I was really pleased that at least he had not lost any more, although he hadn't gained any. Vet said yesterday that he maybe had something wrong with him, and not a lot he could do. The other 3 pups thank heavens are all putting weight on, the other one that was 3.75 ounces is now 5.25 ounces, and the other 2 were 4.5 ounces and are now both 6.25 ounces

Thank you all for your help.

I'm sorry to hear that, but I've always lost pups where mum has done this no matter how much I've tried to help.  The mothers have a wonderful sixth sense and seem to know when somethings not right even though they look fine to us.  Hope that the rest of the litter do well, keep us up-to-date.

Cath,
So sorry to hear your news but perhaps better to happen now than have a long struggle to live and lose it at a few weeks/months old.  Aren't bitches incredible? they always seem to know better than us when it comes to the pups.
Hope the rest of the litter keep thriving and give you a lot of pleasure.

Regards
Dill