Oh flipping marvelous!!!
Hubby and a few other people have been taking the mick and having a go at me because I am watching mum and pups like a hawk and am only sleeping betwwn 6pm and 9pm when hubby gets home from work and before he goes to bed. I am sick of explaining why so just gave up eventually but if hubby says one more time "just get your head down for a couple of hrs during the night" I swear I will deposit him naked and hungry on the moors!!!

Yes I may have been a little OTT this time around but last time this girl had a litter she developed gangrenous mastitis virtually overnight. From a slight fullness and warmth to a solid mass took 24hrs despite hot compresses and massage. The teat burst and she was left with a gaping hole the size of an orange. Well I have been taking her temp 4 times a day and thoroughly inspecting the milk bar and expressing a little bit of milk from each one to check for discolouration each time. At the 11am check her temp was 38.6C but I had noticed that over the past few hrs he hadn't wanted to spend as much time with her 17 day old pups and was prefering to lie on the cool kitchen floor in the next room. Her coat looked a little bit starker and dry so I took her out for a quick walk outside and she was back to being all silly and playful but it still didn't put my mind at rest. At 3pm her temp was 39.4C so straight to the vets. Her undercarriage was firm but not hard all the way along running the length of the milk bar and 3 teats had 1 individual duct each with very slight off-white discolouration to the milk. We got to the vets and she tried to make me look like I was over-reacting by bouncing around and wanting to play with everybody but I knew something was brewing. 2 jabs later and we are back home and I'm a nervous wreck.  Just proves that I know her better than she knows herself.

My girl has to have the easiest whelping on record as she just spits them out but afterwards is just a timebomb. I can't believe I'm saying this but I can't wait for these pups to go to their new homes so I can have my girl spayed. I'm so worried.

:( :( poor girl hows she feeling now? will pups still feed from them? might this help to get the milk down? and male feel more relaxed ,hope she will be ok ,but its true we do know our girls dont we! xxx

That sounds horrendous and very worrying. One of my girls recently developed mastitis in what seemed a matter of hours. Two days running she refused all contact with the pups and on inspection was empty, and the next day in the afternoon she was rock hard so was down the vets on New Years Eve.  Her temperature was normal and after the 2nd day of AB's she was back to normal.  It seemed that every lady that I spoke to during that time from the vet nurse to puppy owners had also had it and said how painful it was.

yes its very painfull :(:(

That is interesting as when Jozi had mastitis as you say within a couple of hours on Boxing day 2006, the next day at my own Vets two ladies there had had ti and said it felt like bad flu.

I usually get my sleep at 6-9pm but with going to the vets got it at 7-10pm and hubby has been keeping an eye on her. Fat lot of good that does!!!! All he does is make sure she goes in with pups but he does take her temp / watch breathing or movement / watch how much she eats and drinks / checks if all pups are feeding and toileting / check milkbar and eyes and gums  or even stay by the pen in case she squashes one which she does on a regular basis!! I put her back in with pups and she was there for 1 and a half hrs but has now gone to lie in her bed in the dining room. Going to have a brew and a bite to eat and do my check. Its like living a nightmare in slow motion. I just want these pups weaned so I can dry her milk up. Ive worked so hard round the clock to make sure nothing happens...or at least I catch it at the first sign, which I know I have but why does she insist that she has a hundred pups to feed and spout milk everywhere she goes. They just can't drink it fast enough. She was lay on the laminate floor this morning for an hr and when she got up there was a huge puddle of milk and her side was soaking!!!

Theres good and bab sides to it all having a good milk surply! isnt there,im trying to get my girls better lol but wouldnt want mastitis for her ive had it with 1 of my childern and the pain plus like Brainless says its like flu with a massive high temp i was even sick afew times with it the pain is so horrible i do hope she starts to feel better soon, have you started weaning them yet? xxx

No not yet. Their eyes have been open roughly 5 days now and they are doing that wobbly "night on the town" walk. Hopefully by weekend they will be more stable as they will be 3 weeks on Friday So I will start offering on Sunday. I will have to be very careful and I don't usually "start" to wean them as I like mum to do it herself. If I try to wean them before she is ready her milk supply will overload and make matters worse. She was still feeding twice a day until the pups were 7 weeks last time. Even though mine are a large heavy breed I keep them very fit and once the pups are taking to solids if I start taking her for a couple of hrs hike on the moors away from the pups and exert her quite a lot it should hopefully dry her milk up like it did last time. My heart is pounding, I'm popping migraine pills like sweeties to keep it at bay and my brain hurts from the concentration of continually assessing her every time she moves. My mind was already made up to have her spayed when the litter arrived as last time she had 14 and this time she had 13 (last 2 couldn't be saved and we lost 1 at 11 days old). I'm not going through this again with any girl.

does she drink alot then? or she just makes so much milk ,1 of my girls had a litter of 13 we lost 4 so was left with 9 pups mum drank loads and her milk was plentyful never had a problem with mastitis so wonder if their prone to it and would always get it with every litter they were to have like your girl ,she got it last litter too xxx

She is drinking a good amount for a lactating bitch, not too much and not too little. She isn't dehydrated so she is getting enough but obviously I can't resistrict her drinking if she wants it. My breed is a nightmare where mastitis is concerned with apparently a third of bitches suffering from it. The only thing I am thinking is that my dogs have a portion of raw chicken and beef everyday so maybe cut her red meat down by half just to take the edge of her milk production, but I think she is just one of those bitches that will produce gallons no matter what.

yes sounds like it bless her ,ive just started giveing red meat to mist and she finaly drining lactol milk mixed with more water then it says :) ive not had to top the pups up now since thismorning and all are settled :) im tired tho and have a massive headache like you,i can hear my hubby soreing upstairs Grrr LOL xxx

That made me laugh as I'm in the lounge under our bedroom and the ceiling is vibrating with hubby and 2 dogs snoring upstairs. Our daughter is only 5 mths old so still sleeps in our room....I don't know how she manages to sleep through it. But saying that I could sleep through an earthquake and tornado all at once!!! So glad you don't need to top up anymore, hopefully if they can stay on her for 48hrs it should give her production a boost and things will even out.

now dont shoot me down in flames - i know you have soooo much to do at the minute WL and i'm just offering something that may help with pain that your girl may be experienceing - i recently read that cabbage leaves (boiled) are very good for helping soothe womens breasts when they are tender (pmt etc) as warm as you can stand and you just place them on the breast and leave them to cool, i know this is going to be difficult with a bitch and not even sure if this would work but i thought it worth mentioning.

As i said dont shoot me down.

BANG BANG!!!!!  Only joking!!!!

My neighbour is at this very moment on a mercy mission to Morrisons. It's a good job my girl lets you do anything to her.

Hi, l remember hearing.....many years ago..... something similar to what  claire_41 has said. It was said to be an old Aborigine cure and it entailed massaging the teats with RAW, green, cabbage leaves, ( the Spring green type). I have used this myself in the past with good results, BUT, l don't know if it was the  cabbage leaves or the massaging,  that did the trick.

:) :)

we'll do anything for our babies wont we :)

its were all the prep work has come in isn't it allowing you to handle them and pretty much as you say do anything. we try to srill into all our puppy class that they need to be able to handle dogs all over in case of emergency, i wonder how many listen ........

jaycee thats good to know :) i was in agony a few weeks back (pmt) and couldn't even put a bra on without tears in my eyes. its worth trying either really if you have a whole cabbage isn't it :)

We used to use some stuff called 'Uddermint' (I think) for the cows - it seemed to help - guess you can still  get it - had a lovely fresh smell

Jo

jaycee thats good to know  i was in agony a few weeks back (pmt) and couldn't even put a bra on without tears in my eyes. its worth trying either really if you have a whole cabbage isn't it 

Hi Claire, l didn't mean on myself LOL. I'm nearly 70, so it has been many years since l would have had need of this remedy. Thanks for the titter tho', it made  for a great start to the day.

ooops lol :) given me a laugh now :)

Awwww poor girl, just a quickie though, i had mastitis with one of my boys, cabbage leaf straight out the fridge, popped in the bra, worked wonders relieving the horrible pain, i wonder if that would work on your girl???

I think the cold cabbage leaves act similar to a cold compress, whilst hot cabbage I believe releases a natural antifungal antibiotic.

I was very upset when my girl got mastitis, I think we caught it early on, but it still took 3 weeks on antibiotics to clear up. I didn't use the cabbage poultice, as didn't know about it then, but she was kneaded very regularly with a hot flannel, and the hardest sucking puppy was put onto the teat to try to keep milk flowing (teat blocked in the end). I had little warning anything was wrong, temperature ok, but one day she was a little bit listless then I noticed the hardness. Typically on a Sunday evening ... but thanks to CD I had a couple of excellent ladies on the late night shift giving advice :-)

Hope your girl is ok.

hows your girl today ??? x

We went back last night for a check-up, 24hrs after initial consultation. Temp was still at 39.3C but she was showing no adverse effects of it. She was bouncing around desperate for a cuddle from the receptionist and vet like she always does. The 2nd and 3rd teat on her left side and 2 teat on her right side were showing slight discouration and thickening of the milk in one duct each even though I had been massaging, expressing and pups on them. The vet has prescribed a 10 day course of Clavaseptin (same as last time she had mastitis) and also a 7 day course of Metacam for temperature/ discomfort. I was a bit concerned about the Metacam as I know from previous use on my old lady (RIP) that it says not to be used in pregnant or lactating bitches so I researched it last night and the reason it says that is that they have no clinical evaluations done on pregnant or lactating bitches so I am still going to use it for this short period of time. However had it have been for any longer I wouldn't have done as it can interfere with metabolism with puppies under 6mths of age.
I am confused though as last time my girl had mastitis (and it was a much more severe episode) my vet recommended to get the pups on constantly to get them to drain the milk. However this time he had reservations and checked if they were old enough to wean. When I said that they were still at the drunken walk stage and was going to start them on Sunday once they are 3 weeks and 2 days old and walking better he accepted that it would be ok to leave them on mum until them. Last time she had Clavaseptin but not Metacam so this was possibly the reason why. I meant to ask him but got side-tracked asking something else so I will phone him this afternoon.

My girl was put onto Metacam for a short period, I think 5 days as the vet was concerned if she was on too much longer, any possible affects on the pups. Hope all goes well.