Hi a friend of mine has 3, 3week old pups . She sent me a message today .

Morning Sal.

Wonder if you could help........  Pepper has an infection in her milk & suddenly we cant feed pups anymore, so we have been trying all yesterday & during the night to feed them with
bottle  / sauce / fingers  & they are really not interested.  !!!!

Is there a web site you know of that could help   ??

I am not sure what a milk infection is , or wether it could be a mammary problem,perhaps engorged teats ?
I understand the problem of feeding from a bottle at this late stage , would you suggest a puppy porridge made thinly for them to lap ?

Many Thanks Sally

I'm not a breeder but I do know that my breeder starts weening by 3 weeks of age, so yes the puppy porridge would be a good idea, as for getting more milk into them, has she tried syringe feeding? Other than that i'm not sure. You will have to wait for someone with more experience!! hope everything turns out ok for your friend! By the way if it is mastitis she has  surely she could carry on feeding? I know humans do when they have it

I have just spoken to her .
Her bitch was given injections yesterday of antibiotic and one to dry up the milk , which was a brown colour tinged with blood .
Obviously now there is no way to feed the pups with mum now !
The pups have been tried with puppy formula via teat and saucer individually but shy away .
I suggested she tries to make a thin puppy porridge , put it in a shallow dish and let all 3 of them at it together .They will make a mess but mine ended up licking it off each others faces and paws and soon got the hang of it . Then lapping water and milk will surely come with practice .
Thanks Emz77 for the reply

Hi, tell your friend not to panic they can happily be weaned at this age, you don't need to syringe feed which would have been my first suggestion if a little younger, they will not take to a bottle after feeding from mum all this time. Just make a big bowl of the milk for the pups to lap at, they will lap at this age so that is not a problem, lay a plastic mat under the bowl the milk will go everywhere!  You can make up some pasturised goats milk with egg yolks either lightly warmed which is just as good.

Either soak and mash a good complete food, or give little tiny bits of fresh mince. They may just happily have the milk if on the nearer side to three weeks than four.

And feed them at least every 4 hours day and night, because it'll take them a while to get the hang of it and you don't want to risk dehydration.