Hi everyone, ive been sucking up info from this site for a while and thought i would join and see if some of you would like to offer advice.

My 5 year old bitch has a beautiful litter of 6 puppies.  Although this is her second litter, i am first time paranoid mum lol. Many of the problems could just be my own worry but i thought its best to check and get some opinions.

My bitch had a perfect labour and birth and nursed her pups for three days straight, no problems. I stayed with her this entire time. On day three she started growling at her puppies. Having tried to isolate if this was a particular pup or a teat she was having problems with seemed futile. I immediately had her down at the vets checked for calcuim issues or mastitus. Vet said she was fine. I took the hard decision to take her away from the pups between feedings and continue on a two hour schedule (It only happened a total of about 5 times). this was stressful for my bitch being away from them :( but has settled now. Pups claws are clipped well and bitches boobies are checked daily and since those early days she now seems completely fine with her puppies again, although i am still supervising all feedings. Has anyone got any clues as to what might have caused this upset with her in that week?

The puppies developed loose stools on day 7 and continued to have these for 4 days. I was in constant communication with my vet through this and she said as long as they were all feeding. Two puppies stopped nursing and i syringed fed them for an evening and now they are completely fine again and went back on the teats the same evening. Vet gave me probiotic at this point and this seems to have done the trick (those few days added years onto me i can tell you!!!)  Anyway i am left with a very chunky litter of 1 kilo pups (2weeks old) however my two bitches are much smaller. I dont expect them to be as big as the boys but one girl has me very worried as she is still only 500 grams. She is lively and feeding well, eyes are open and she is tottering about same as the litter. She is gaining weight just not as dramatically as the rest. Any tips with this little girl? My vet has said if shes feeding well just to leave her to it but i want to make sure i can do everything possible. From birth i really didnt think she was going to make it as she was so very tiny but is a little fighter :)

Lastly, i am on a two/three hour schedule with feeding these pups. Vet says wait till they cry but generally i bring in my bitch about 2 and a half hours if they dont cry. This is really for the benefit of my small girl. This is 24 hours. (yes im very tired lol) I find that the bigger pups arnt nursing as long, should i push to the three hour mark? and should this continue 24 hours until week 3? 

One last thing (sorry) my bitch is cleaning pretty well, however as she does not have constant access to the pups she does not have as much licking time and i have notice she wasnt paying much attention to their bums. I was hand stimulating from early on for poop, They are two weeks old now and ive noticed their crate is starting to get pretty messy between feeds. I stopped stimulating them a day or two ago as vet said they were going on their own but ive had panic attacks reading that they need stimulated until 3/4 weeks.  Went at them this evening with warm water and cotton ball and only got one poop. Worried now incase im too premature with leaving them on their own to poop (Have seen one pup crouching and pooping on his own in the crate) but not the rest.  Should mention they were wormed today aswell with panecur.

Im terriblly sorry for such a long post. I spent a long time researching and learning whelping (was really hoping for a nice bitch from this litter to do some ring craft with as we showed dad) and have had wonderful support from breeders i am freinds with however i hate pestering people all the time and i think my vet will be fed up hearing from me soon too and you really cant put everything you learn on internet and book into the reality. I have gained an incredible respect for people who breed dogs. The MASSIVE workload, sleepless nights and worry is overwhelming and i deeply respect anybody who does this on a regular basis. I just want to make sure im doing what i can. So advice on this little girl and on the poop issue would be great, i would appreciate any input that anyone can offer.

sorry your having all this stress!!  The joys of breeding :)
I'm sure someone will come along and answer everything for you.  The only bit I have experience of is the loose stools at 7 days.  I was told by several breeders and the vet that it was when the mums milk became a lot stronger and was quite common for pups to get loose around this time.  I think I had Pro biotic syringe and they all got a small amount and were fine.

Hi you have been busy.

Have you managed to speak to who had her for her first litter, they may have had the same attitude towards the pups and advise you re what was done then. No one knows how a bitch will react towards their pups,hormones are funny things and can take a few days to settle down. Your vet has ruled out eclampsia[low calcium levels] but I would still give the dam some cottage cheese,yoghurt and goats milk to drink my girls love that treat.

When the pups started with the loose stools had Mum been fed anything different in the previous 24 hrs, this can also upset the pups digestion. If you are present all the time then I wouldn't limit Mum's access to the pups, not only does she need to feed and clean them she has to teach good manners as they get older so the pups learn before they go to their new home, what we find on here is majority complaining about their puppy biting them is due to them being seperated from the dam too early and not allowed to mix with other dogs in the household who also help with the rearing. The pup that is the smallest now may well catch up and pass her litter mates in size,provided she is gaining weight daily and doesn't look like a bag of bones then I wouldn't worry,she needs to be able to feed frequently as she may not have the energy to suck for as long as the bigger pups, as the pups become more mobile they will burn off more calories so will need to feed as they want to or will start losing weight.

Have you wormed them yet, I do 2,5,8 weeks and Mum too,then final worming 12 weeks before they go to their new homes.

The pups normally start passing urine and faeces on their own when they start weaning at 3 weeks as there is more solid to come out than the milk you are used to seeing, some times the dam will continue to clean them, I have a male here who does a grand job from 4 weeks onwards supervised initially by Mum and myself[video on my website], he likes to show his feminine side.

Raising pups isn't the dawdle some folk think it is going to be. I hope it is all plain sailing from here for you.

Hi thank you so much for replying. She was fine with litter one :) The only thing i can think of was i gave her some boiled rice with her food the night before, i did initially think this might have been the culprit. As for leaving her, i have started to trust her again at nights. After i put my children to bed i just move myself up to the bedroom and sit in there with a book or the laptop and leave her with them until i go to bed so i am in the same room. My plan was to bring the pups down the stairs once they were begining to get weaned and introduce them into the household with a bit better freedom with mum as i wont be so worried about her squashing them. They have my bedroom at the moment which has been kept quiet with blinds closed but i understand they are getting to a point where its time to introduce them to day to day situations. You have a very good point regarding this. We do have another bitch in the house and so far i have not let her see the pups as mum was edgy when anyone was in the room with her and pups apart from me in the first week. In saying this she has relaxed a lot now :)
And yes first lot of wormer today. I will keep all your advice to hand! I appreciate that and great for having such a helpful dad! I will certainly push for more free time with the litter whenever i can, she is doing such a great job. Thanks again for your help, i to hope its a bit easier from now on although i think most of my stress is my own doing lol. x

I, too, think the pups need to move to a more busy area of the house.  Funny how much the pick up at 2 weeks and you can keep a better eye on them.

As for the little 'un, I wouldn't be too concerned.  Theres always one!lol. Mine in the last litter was a little boy who was easily half the size of his brother.  He never did catch up but the brother thinned down so (at 1 year) there is not so much of a difference.  TBH, I prefer the slighter look of the smaller brother as he's still got that 'something'.  Even when I weaned them, he didn't catch up at all.  He ate enough for him.  And you know the old saying? "Can't fatten a thoroughbred".

As for toileting, I think they should be going themselves now but I would still take the cotton wool and water to the box as mum would still be cleaning them up.