Hi all , my large breed girl has early mastitis and i would appreciate some advice. Her 13 pups are now almost 3 weeks old and have just started being weaned and are doing great. I check Pipers teats every time she comes in from having a wee and wash them down before she gets in with the pups. When i checked them last night just after midnight all was ok , when i checked them this morning about 8 am she had a very hard solid mass in one of the back ones , i rang the vet who told me to bring her in , he checked her over and gave her antibiotics for 5 days and sent us home with the advice that i shouldn't let the pups feed from this teat and it would go down in a day or two.
she is happy in herself , eating and drinking well , feeding pups well etc but i am worried as i know that this can quickly escalate , i have been putting warm cloths on her teat and massaging it but no milk is coming out , am i doing the right thing ?? Is the vets advice to not let the babies suckle from this teat right? i spoke to an older breeder who said the complete opposite so now i am not sure what to do for the best.

Any advice greatly appreciated , this is my first experience of mastitis and don't want to get it wrong.
Lucy

the best thing to do is let the biggst pup suckle from that teat it will help ....wow 3weeks well time is flying by :)
xxxx

I had a small breed with a teat as hard as a bullet, all red and shiny.  The vet expressed a whole lot of milk to ease discomfort (squirted it in my eye!)

My bitch had been laying so that the one teat was difficult access for pups.  I continually turned her over, and latched a pup on to encourage the teat to clear.  It was so nice to see her relief as the hard mass cleared.  So I agree with white lilly - encourage pups to suckle from this one (but still keep up your massage.)

Thanks Jo & Jean , i have tried expressing some milk but none is coming out . The hard mass is all up one side , almost at the top near her tummy , i feel so sorry for her.

> i have tried expressing some milk but none is coming

The pups should have more luck than you.  :-)

My bitch had mastitis too just a few weeks ago, I am no expert, but was helped along by a very experienced breeder. This worked for me: Get the strongest puppy to try and suckle from it, not necessarily the largest as that one is often lazy. We did this every 2 hours night and day and every time after feeding we did warm flannel compresses and massage. Once the lump decreases we went to feeding every 3 hours, then to 4 hours etc.

For us, just as we got rid of one lump another would appear in another breast and this went through all four back ones. Luckily none of the lumps got as hard as the first one as we were so vigilant. It was really hard work and scary, as our bitch was really ill at one point.

This slowed down the weaning process a bit (as our bitch was also at the same stage as yours when it started) but all pups were successfully fully weaned in time for their new homes and are nine weeks old tomorrow.

Good luck, hope you have the happy ending we did.

My bitch had mastitis last year. I was mortified but we caught it early. I will warn you though, it took over 21 days of antibiotics to reduce the swelling, and we had Metacam for a week. Vet was unwilling, thankfully, to allow her more as she was still milking.

With the help/advice from kayc, I used hot flannels, as hot as she'd be able to stand without burning her, and kneaded (not massaged, more a kneading action) the teat, at virtually every opportuntiy possible. I also put the pup that was willing to suck even though no milk came through ... she was a little star :-)

We didn't get milk through that teat again that litter, but nor did we have any 'explosions' and her teats now look normal (8 months on from birth of pups). I am keeping fingers crossed that next litter she will produce milk through that teat.

Personally, I would let pups suck from the teat - bear in mind you might have good vets but what do they know about breeding?! Sorry, yes, I am a little jaded - I have good cause to be :-(

Get a good pup to suck on teat, hopefully you'll have one like my little girly, willing to suck for quite a long time even though nowt was coming through, am sure she knew she was helping her Mum :-)

Hope it sorts itself, but as I said, we were on antibiotics for 21+ days, so don't be alarmed if you are too.

My advice is to listen to your vet, there are different severities of mastitis. The same thing happened to me a few years ago, my vet told me to stop the pups feeding immediately and to hand rear, he recognised that my bitch did not just have 'normal' mastitis.

Now, I had studied breeding for 4 years and had a previous litter, seen and participated in countless bitches whelping thought I knew absolutely everything, had a fantastic experienced mentor and when my vet said to stop the pups feeding, I walked out thinking what does my vet know, everyone I spoke to said my vet was wrong too, that you of course let the pups suckle to help the teat and use hot flannels etc, along with the antibiotics, vets are often wrong about things when it comes to breeding.

I ignored him and did what I and others thought correct, 24 hours later my bitch was rushed in with her teat as large and solid as a jaffa orange, it in fact had turned gangrene and had to be removed, my vet in this inst had been right, continuing to suckle caused continual milk production in the infected teat causing further problems instead of allowing the antibiotics to clear up the problem.

So although I agree with others with 'normal' mastitis this is what you do, perhaps your vet knows best as mine did.

The rule of thumb is that if there is milk flowing,(even if it is only out of one duct or a couple of ducts but only a small amount) then let the pups suckle. If it is discoloured keep a close eye on the pups for health. If the teat is completely blocked and even after firm massage and hot compresses it is still not releasing milk then don't allow the pups to suckle as it causes the teat to carry on producing milk which just becomes trapped.

I would not like to advise you in any way, just let you know of my own experiences. I myself am prone to and suffered from mastitis quite a number of times, and the easiest and safest way to recover was to carry on feeding even when taking antibiotics ( Which are only given in humans in more severe cases of infectious mastitis).Not allowing feeding can cause non infectious mastitis become infectious (full of bacteria)mastitis, or even worse developing into an abscess in the breast. I would probably not try and express any milk from Piper, as if done incorrectly, ( I assume it is quite difficult to do on a dog) it could result in a blocked milk duct, which is non infectious mastitis. I do hope this is some use to you, and good luck with Piper and her brood.

If the teat is completely blocked and even after firm massage and hot compresses it is still not releasing milk then don't allow the pups to suckle as it causes the teat to carry on producing milk which just becomes trapped.

sleepwhatsleep you explained that much better than my vet ever did, which explains why in my case continuing to let my pups try to keep the milk flow going backfired horrendously and just caused the teat to get bigger and harder with no-where for the milk to go.

It sounds as though you have the same blocked teat problem Lucysmith so listen to your vet. :-)