Hi, my friend has a litter of 4 pups, toy breed she has asked me to have a seach on the internet for any tips. The mum was panting a fair bit so she took her to the vets yesterday and was told she was lacking calcium. She was given an injection and a syringe with calcium to give her before bed. She was a lot better through the night but this morning she has started panting again so have phoned the vet and she is going back to the vets tonight and will probably have another injection. My friend wanted to know if there is anything else she can give her to help?

She is being fed on royal canin starter, would you be soaking this with extra fluids?

Also she is not really interested in drinking and so she has added a couple of teaspoons of evaporated milk to a bowl of water to encourage her which is helping, I read on here that some people give goats milk would this be better and how much do you add to the water?

thanks

hi with 1 of my litters mum had to have injection for calcium vet told me to get some calcium tabs for her and i gave her them every day while she was feeding ...i also gave mum goats milk and she loved it , just let her drink as much as she will drink

i got her goats milk off the net ,i carnt remember what its called ? and it tells you how to mix for nursing dog (i think it so nutro goats milk for dogs ?)

A splash of skimmed milk is OK. You can buy Collo-cal D  liquid calcium is good and can be bought on line or from here

http://www.collo-cald.co.uk/stockist_locator.html
http://www.vet-medic.com/pd_Collocal+D+250ml_COLL2.htm

Guidelines on use.

http://www.collo-cald.co.uk/faq.html

> She was a lot better through the night but this morning she has started panting again

There may be more than one problem here. Is the whelping box too hot for the mum? Anxious mum - excessive heat - low calcium all have the effect of a 'panting mother'. Please try to exclude the ones you can.

Hi, thank you for your replies im going to have a look on the links and pass the information on. The heat mat was taken out of the whelping box a few days ago, what heat should it be? and I will get her to check if she has not already.
thanks

How old is the litter?  In the early days after whelping and the milk coming down, mum does pant quite a lot.  Also did the vet do a blood test to check her calcium levels?  I always have a bottle of Collo-Cal D on hand, but I can remember with my very first litter our vet told us to get some Calcium with Vit D capsules from Boots.

Hi SharonM, the litter was born on thursday evening im not sure if the vet did a blood test i will ask her, but the vet did say she was lacking calcium. the collo-cal D is that only available online? or is there any stores that sell it? i'll also tell her about the capsules do they just chew them and how many? just want to make sure im telling her the right way to do things.thanks

put a cup of milk in the freezer until its really cold then give it to her to drink  it gives a boost pretty much right away , worked on one of my girls who was having an episode  ( a tip told me by a breeder of my breed who knows her stuff)

> The mum was panting a fair bit

I find that all my girls pant for quite some time after whelping, so would find that perfectly normal.  Have to be fair, I've never had a calcium deficiency in a bitch.

another great thing  is plain old vanilla ice cream it worked with a girl i have i actually let her lap at this while she was whelping and it was great!!

Its just a thought as there is calcium in that

So it's still very early days and I certainly wouldn't turn off the heat pad yet, the pups are too young to maintain their own body heat.

Yes they just chew the capsules, I was giving two a day.

> another great thing  is plain old vanilla ice cream

Great idea, especially if you're struggling to get them to take anything.

hi, just wanted to say thank you to everyone for your advice I have been and got some capsules for her and going to order the callo-cal D too so she can use when it arrives. I will also get some icecream and drop that into her in the morning. Thanks again