Hi all,  im here again with another concern! my bitch whelped on friday afternoon/evening although he lost alot of weight from her abdomen when the puppies arrived, i was looking at her today and realised that she is still quite large and still firm, could this just be due to the amount of food she is consuming, again dont remember my this in my last bitch she seemed to loose all her weight as soon as she whelped, she stopped contracting last night after her 8th puppy  so assumed she had finished. Could she still have more that are posibly dead (hope not).
to add i cannot get her away from the pups and she has only had 1 poo since.

>still quite large and still firm
>she has only had 1 poo since

Could this be related I am wondering.  Perhaps a greater amount of persuasion to the garden is necessary.

However I don't breed so someone better equipped to answer will probably be along soon.
Anna

When my bitches have whelped I've had to put a collar and lead on them and literally force them outside four times a day to relieve themselves, for their health and comfort - sometimes it's taken two people to carry them out! As soon as they've wee-ed and pooed the collar's off and they can dash back to their babies. After a couple of days they accept the new routine and come a lot more willingly.

Has the vet come out to check that she's finished?

No I have never had the vet out this soon before but im prety sure she has, i have just forced her to go out and she had good wee for munutes i think thats whats bunging her up, i dont fancy getting bitten (call me a wimp) but i guess thats what i am going to have to do for her sake, thanks for the advise appreciate it.

I too have always had to put collar and lead on my girls several times a day for the first 3 days at least and then they dash back to their babies.

I'm too inexpereinced to offer any advice. I did get the vet out the morning after my bitch had whelped though, to check her and pups over thoroughly. I woudl continue to do this in future, I think. It only cost about £70, which compared to all the other costs, isn't that much, especially for the peace of mind it gave me. I had checked for cleft palates etc myself, but having never had to do it before, wasn't that sure, and my mentor lives 1 1/2 hours away!

Also, I let my bitch eat some of the placentas, which caused slight 'runs' and meant she had a poo the next morning. Having given birth myself, I know how dreadful it is to use the toilet afterwards, so I am pretty sure that must have helped her along. (Sorry if that's too much informatrion!!!)

My bitches eat all the afterbirths etc.  Mine have never had the runs, though do have dark softer poo for the next day.

I guess that's what I meant, not totally runny, but softer than usual, and darker.

Thanks for all the advise is is invaluble as usuall, she did eat the placentas which resulted in a very dark poo the following day, but last night was back to the normal colour, im going to try to get her out now so fingers crossed.

Is she alright in herself? She might be a still a little uncomfortable, but she should be mostly curled up contentedly with them if she had them 2 days ago. And yes, being reluctant to leave them to poo is very normal. I took my girl to the vet the following day to check all was well, just in case we had cleft palates or stuck puppies etc, but everything was fine. Congratulations! :-)

Yes she is fine in herself, she is just very reluctant to leave them at all, she seems to have slimmed down dramaticly over night probably due to the gigantic wee i forced her to have last night. she is normally an extremely friendly girl and have never herd her growl before so it took me a bit by surprise when she started to growl when i approached to box, i guess this is normal for some bitches just not experienced it before in any of my other girls.

Sorry I'm so slow to respond to your post.  Your lab girl is probably back to her slim self.  I had a similar experience with our lab with her last litter but I watched her visibly expand as she drank a gallon of water.  She just ballooned up, it was really frightening the first time she did it.  We had to stop her going to the outside water because she was just hoovering & there was no stopping her even though we tried to give her water whilst in with the pups.   She really did look like she was carrying 9 pups at 9 weeks.  Eventually she worked out that we wouldn't steal or drown her babies so she drank regularly & went out for comfort breaks!

Hope your girl is now happier leaving her pups.