Hi, We have a litter now 6 and a half weeks old. I noticed on one of mums teats had gone a little hard, phoned the vet and asked for advice and they said to keep a close eye on her and express a little bit of the milk off to ease it for her, which we could see she must have an infection as a little puss come out. The vet said if I was not happy call them in the morning. Mum was just standing and wouldn't lie down and I could clearly see she was in discomfort so rushed her to the vets.

She was given injections and Antibiotics for a week, She was a lot better and back to normal, the vet was also happy and did not continue any more medication. A few days later it all started again in another teat, so rushed back to the vet, she had a high temperature and given a different course of medication for 5 days, last night I checked her and she was very swollen but okay in herself, but looking very bruised called the vet again. They said to bring her in first thing in the morning.

This morning it has split open and she has an open wound, the vet said to continue with the medication already given and gave us more sterile cleaner and another 5 days of the midication (baytril, and metacam). She is fine in her self but the wound looks awful. The vet also said she may need to have the gland removed after the course of medication as they need to kill off the infection first.

I wondered if anyone else has been through this? I'm so worried about her.

Hi
We had to bitch go through exactly the same thing, although her puppies (litter of 2)  were just coming up for 3 weeks old, so we took mum away to give her a bit of peace and quiet and give her time to rest and recover......she really didn't want the puppies near her as she was in so much pain and very uncomfortable.....she still saw her puppies daily and when the pups were about 6.5 weeks old and mum was feeling better she started to teach them some manners :), the wound was awful, it ended up a huge hole, but she didn't need to have the gland removed and 2 years later she had another litter (this time 6 pups) and had no problem with mastitis.....

The moment you said bruising I knew you had an abscess there -and it bursting outwards is the best thing that could have happened. Had it burst inwards the bitch could have died from the internal infection. Now it is open and will be able to heal. When it happened to one of mine my vet gave me Intrasite gel to put straight into the hole (it was golfball sized -I took photos of it even) as this helps the wound to heal from the inside and out, which it needs to do to not abscess again. My bitch had one teat hanging on just a bit of skin, pups were young so still sucking from it, it LOOKED awful but no harm was done, she healed perfectly, certainly didn't need to lose any teats. I don't think it would have worked without the Intrasite though. Years later I had a dog with a big bite wound that would not heal, it got infected, the stitches had split open etc, nothing the vet (different one) gave us worked. So I used Intrasite again (it is not prescription, sold for people) and within days the wound was healing nicely. You just squirt the gel straight in and leave it.

Thank you for both your replies, it is such a worry. I will be asking a friend to bring some Intrasite gel along with her today. The lump was also as big as a golf ball, the puppies are fully weaned now and they are doing really well, but mum still has a lot of milk, The vet advised to leave it to dry up, and put a tshirt on her as the wound is dripping, did your vet advise on any type of dressing or best to leave it un covered so the air can circulate?

With my bitch we left the wound open. The vet DID say we should perhaps try to cover it up to keep it clean, but I found no practical way of doing so as the pups were less than a week old and still suckling. BTW this girl also had another litter after this and was absolutely fine then. :)

I've also had a bitch where the skin split and I squeezed the infection out, she was much better after that, but it looked awful as an open wound.

Check the other mammaries as in my bitch they gradually hardened one by one. The back four were all affected at some point and we massaged frequently with warm flannels and this took the lumps down and prevented them getting as bad as the first one.

Good to know others have had subsequent litters from their bitches with no problems.

Good luck.

We were also told to leave the wound open..........it did clear up quickly, it was amazing watching it close a little every day..... Our vet advised us to wash the wound out with hibi-scrub diluted with water.......we just used a syringe to squirt the liquid into it...

Having only two nipples myself and having had mastitis with all of my three boob fed children I feel for your poor girl :(   Eeek for all of those nipples and all of those little mouths.

When I was feeding my vet sorry doctor told me to carry on feeding from the infected boob because by the time I'd notice the hard red boob the baby would have already taken in some of the infection and he was right because I'd notice a sleepy babe two or three days before I got the red hot mega boob.

I had anti bio's and also had to keep my boobs as dry as possible and exposed to air :-D shriek here and keep the curtains pulled incase neighbours are watching!!  I also used marigold ointment (calendula) to try and keep my nipples soft although I'm not sure if this can be used with bitches.

I hope your girl is doing well and pups too