hi , everyone. i have a wondeful bitch (large breed) who has just had a litter of puppies. they are now a week old. she had 6 puppies. one little girl died after 3 days despite all our attempts , yesterday mum lay on a large healthy pup and killed her and we have also been at the vets all night having another puppies groin stitched after mum stood on her while getting out of the box. we now have 4 puppies and one now has started to sniffle and has a little milk coming from his nose. i am now a totally paranoid nervous wreck. i have shed more tears over the last few days than i thought i had. this sniffle is not continuous just happens evey couple of hours or so usually during feeding. could anyone give me a little advice please before the vet bans me from his practice.

hi
I'm sorry about your problems. Have you checked the roof of the mouth carefully on the pup who has milk coming out of the nose? It could be a symptom of a small cleft palate -sometimes all you get is a little hole.

This is the trouble with large breeds because of their weight they are prone to squashing or standing on their pups .You will need to watch them 24 hours a day and night to prevent it happening. It sounds like a symptom of cleft pallet as Goldmali says and that pup needs to be seen by your vet.

paxo

Mine are not a large breed but I don't leave pups unattended until they have their eyes open and are almost on their legs.
Snuffly pup could just be a gready pup who hasn't learned to co-ordinate sucking and breathing, but as you are inexperienced, then it would be wise to get your Vet to check its chest and palette.

hi again. thanks for the advice. as you can probably tell this is my first litter (and probably the last). one of the pups now has diarroeah , he is a large boy. can this happen or is there likely to be something wrong. i thought i had done all my homework , bred from a healthy and outstanding female , spent a fortune to try and do everything right and was looking forward to the miracle of birth , while trying to add to the development of the breed i love. Ha....all i can say is let this be a warning to anyone considering breeding. it can be expensive , exhausting , and heartbreaking. To all you breeders out there..you are really underestimated....i take my hat off to you all

All young pups have very soft poo (only milk goes in s nothing much solid can come out), but the thing is you hardly ever SEE it at this age as the mum cleans them up and makes them poo. So if you see something it might indicate the bitch isnt looking after this pup properly?

Bless you!  Obviously your heart's in the right place but this is why we try to dissuade ..........  Fingers crossed for you. )