Had 2 litters born last week one on monday morning and one on tuesday morning, everything was going well mum's doing a great job, then disaster struck so to speak, one of my other dogs started having sickness and diareoh, took her to the vet got meds for her but was told not to give the nursing mums the tablets apart from imodium and pro kolin if they caught it, well lucy got it on thursday violently sick and the diareoh pouring from her, very listless i really felt gutted, so took the decision yesterday morning to take her puppies away from her and give them to the other mum to raise, who thankfully at the moment is fine eating well drinking plenty, took her away and put her upstairs with the puppies, so being very carefull not letting anyone into the room only me to look after them and give the other mum a helping hand to clean the 2 small ones from the other litter, she will let them feed but at the moment won't clean them which is fine, but i am so sad , but on the other hand glad theat the other mum and puppies are fine, now i am able to give the other mum the meds that will help her get better, weighed the 2 small ones this morning there weight is still the same , not lost any ,but can see a difference in them from the other day, so iam praying that they all come through it ok.

violet-anne

Hi Violet-anne,

Can't offer any advice but my thoughts are with you and the little ones.

Lilly

I have read posts in the past by people running others down for having two litters at the same time, but personally I think sometimes it does help, as you have found out!  Without your other girl, you would of had the very hard job of hand rearing the whole litter!

Good luck, let us know how things go.

i know what you mean about having 2 litters at the same time, but thankfully i did this time , not something i would usualy do, but glad i did this time. the puppies from the bigger litter are are very strong, but they are a slightly biger breed the other litter with the 2 are toys, and a re tiny compared to the rest, but i will do everything i can to make sure both mums and babies come through it ok, the mum who i had to take the pups from will not drink or eat, so she is having to be fed water through a syringe, and all her wee bottom is red with her being soo loose, i will be happy when the puppies get through the next week or so and that way i will know they should all be fine, and the mum gets her strenght back , can anyone recommend anything else i can give the mum without the pups, i tried some lactol but then went right through her, i think it may have been the milk .

thanks for your concerns

violet-anne

Hi Violet-Anne,

I'm sorry one of your mum's is so poorly.  How long have you starved her for - has she gone at least 24 hours yet?  If so then I'd try her with some lightly poached white fish - a small portion at a time over 12 hours or so and if she's OK on that I'd continue with it for a further 24 hours but steadily increasing the amount.  Then try her with added rice for the next 24 hours.  You should then be able to move her gently and gradually back onto whatever she was eating before her symptoms presented.   Many prefer to use chicken and rice but IME in really severe cases fish is lighter to begin with and puts less stress on the digestive tract.

HTH, keep us posted Teri :)    

Hya vilot-anne.  When pepsi had the trots and was sick on Wed/Thu I gave her scrambled egg.  This seemed to work really quickly and she stopped having the trots within  an hour or so.  I don't know if it was the scrambled egg that did the trick or just coinsidence.

Hi pepsi mum
she won't eat anything but is drinking plenty of fluids, with help the vet said it could be a week or so before i see any improvment, she is getting a lot of TLC, and we are trying to coax her every so often but the main thing is to get her drinking again and hopefully the eating will follow, she eat a small amount of chicken the other day and managed to keep that down but nothing since, she won't eat fish, will try the scrambled egg.

Have you tried offering her some natural youghurt?  It is very good for settiling upset tums.

liberty

If she's not eating but at least drinking for "food" offer her fresh chicken soup.  At least that way you'll get her started off.  When any of mine are refusing food strangely enough tinned carrot and coriander soup goes down a treat - might be worth a try :P  Often it's the getting them re-started on eating that's the tricky bit but when they've got a taste for it again and haven't thrown anything up they pick up quite quickly.

If you can tempt her with something like scrambled eggs (don't add butter or milk) then great but if not at least if her fluid intake is in some way nutritious it's a start :)   You could also add electrolytes to her water or even just some honey and glucose (although don't expect her to lap up a bowl of chicken soup after a big drink of water ;) -  offer the soup before any drinks).

Teri

The down side is how to stop infection passing from one litter to the other.  A friend of mine had one of her pups back to whelp for her new owners at the same time as her dam was having another litter when the dam became ill, try as she did to barrier nurse the two litters it spread and the outcome was not good :(  I really hope it works out, its a gamble I know because bottle-rearing is notoriously difficult but I wonder if passing the poorly bitches pups through to the other litter was the best thing.

in this case i had no choice, yes i could have syringe fed, but i thought the pups would have a better chance getting a bitche's milk. the other puppies are very strong and there is no sign of illness (yet). and i can see an improvment in the 2 other ones the smaller of the 2 is really going for it and the other is stronger aswell. it is just a waiting game now and a lot of praying that they all come through this, the mum with the pups has been taken away and put in a room of her own where no other dogs or people can get in, and is feeding and drinking well and showing no signs of illness, the vet said it may not spread onto the other bitch because she is away on her own, but time will tell.

Yes, I agree you were between the devil and the deep blue sea :) and it does seem you have been lucky as I suspect they would be showing signs of illness by now but I would not like anyone to think having two in whelp was a good idea to provide a buffer for these sort of occasions it is horribly easy to spread these things even with a good understanding of infection control.

It could be possible if she`s eaten any/too many after birth that would cause the upset tums, did the vet do any fecal tests for bugs etc? The bitch from my last litter had upset tum with a lot of dire rear & some vomiting a couple of days after birthing. It was soon sorted keeping her on nourishing liquid diet for a few days which was all she seemed to want anyway. I also added honey to her drinking water

Christine, Spain.

Hi
Update on lucy and the puppies, lucy finally ate some scrambled egg and has been taking small amount of fluids, and also getting extra with the syring to make sure she is getting enough, and seems to have a new lease of life this morning (thank god), must have been all the praying, her puppies are doing fine the smallest one put half an oz on from yesterday and the other one is still the same, the other mum is completely exhausted but doing very well considering she has 7 to feed, i have also been giving the smaller ones some extra milk through the syringe, now i don't know whether to put the 2 back with there mum now that she is stronger or leave the 2 with the other mum, your suggestions would be greatfull, she has had no sickness or the runs, but i don't know what to do for the best.

violet-anne

Christine
The vet said he would do the test if she was to start having blood in her poo, or if it continued, which she hasn't. she only eat one after birth, but it never crossed my mind that's what it could have been, i thought it was the bug because the other dog had it, but as i say she has mad a big improvment , wagging her tail, eating small amounts and looking for lots of attention which is a good sign

I don't know if it will be any help but my grandmothers medicine for really upst stomach was arrowroot, you get it from the chemist, its powder and mix with milk or water, I seem to remember fluid has to be boiling but instructions are on box, can go very thick but just add more water to thin it, put a bit of sugar in it might tempt her to drink it, worked wonders for babies, my first was so ill one time didn't know which end to tend, it was coming all ways at once, spoon fed him the arrowroot quite thick and he was fine within an hour. Should be fine for your bitch I would think. Once gave it to a yorkshire terrier, vet could not believe she was still alive, he expected her to die, had parvo, although she was vaccinated against it.

my staple recipe for upset stomach, both man and dog, is a chinese type recipe called congee. It is the liquid from boiled rice and can stop the trots in its tracks in no time. For humans I add honey and brown sugar for energy. Put some long grain rice in a pan and fill up with 2 parts cold water to 1 one part rice(use finger to measure),  and bring to boil. When water is clouded and before the rice stats to absorb the water, strain off water and leave to cool. When Cool/cold let dog drink th liquid . You can then add chicken or fish to water as food is gradually introduced to diet.