Hi there just wondered if any of you have any advice a lady has just had a litter by our stud dog 10 puppies they are around 10 days and the mother has gone down with a severe infection the vet has her on a drip at the moment and says she will be unable to carry on and feed her puppies so the owner is left with a large litter to hand rear we have a bitch who is just weaning her puppies they're 6 weeks and she has a tiny bit of milk left but she is not particullaly maternal on the other hand we have a maternal bitch who has started producing milk because we have puppies in the house (she does this every time) and she will stand while they suckle on her.

Have any of you tried to get another bitch to rear puppies and how successful was it? if she could only take two or 3 it would help even if supplimented with bottle feeds. Any advice would be appreciated as I have not had this problem myself.

Hi sauce boat, I had an Aussie who was a surrogate mum and a wolfhound who reared two orphan kittens, Ive also bottle reared a little of eight, so it can work.

I don't think I would risk bringing puppies from a dam with an infection into my home if I had 6 weeks old puppies about the place as much as I would want to help it sounds far too risky to me I'm afraid.

Perhaps she could take the 'maternal' bitch TO the puppies and see how that works out until mum recovers?????

Hi

I have a bitch who is now 10 and still comes in milk when we have a litter, she has reared orphan puppies, kitten, which she still suckles at 2 years old and an orphan lamb (she didn't suckle that obviously, but mothered it).

Just taken in a stray 6-7 week old, twice the size of my 7 week old pups, and their mum has offered him milk when he wants it.

So if your bitch is so maternal as to come into milk with pups in the house, give her a go, with a watching brief to start with of course. Might help to make sure the pups are rubbed in existing vet bed with your pups scent on so that she recognises them as part of her pack.

Jayne
xxx

I have a very good friend whose dobermann gets milk with every season and when another of her bitches has puppies, this bitch happily feeds the puppies to the point of taking over! . She has even fostered a sickly one before.
I am sure your other bitch sounds like she would be a great mother, once the pups start suckling it may take a few days for her to reach a very good level of milk but I am sure she will be fine.
Let us know what happens I hope everything all works out..... emma x

We had a bull terrier bitch who was a fantastic mum and when she welped she only had two and neither of them survived FPS.
At the same time the vet told us that he had a dalmation that had just had 12 and was not coping to well, so he brought round 4 pups, it worked like a charm and all pups were healthy and strong.
But i would only advise this if you really know what you are doing , but as someone stated before it maybe better to take the bitch to the pups because of the infection.

Sam

Thanks everybody for the advice I will put it to the litters owner as she must be exhausted by now.