Pups are one week old now.  Mum does not have any green discharge anymore, but very occasionally has a small amount of dark red discharge which she cleans and I hardly even see it. 

However, when I was cleaning out the whelping box yesterday, I noticed that the absorbent pads under the vet bed had a couple of patches of wetness - no colour it, no smell.  I threw those out and changed them and replaced with clean vet bed on top. 

This morning, mum went out for a pee and then came in and sat on her bed just outside the box for 20mins or so.  When she got up, I could see a wet patch where her bum had been.  I sniffed it and it didn't seem to smell of much - *possibly* pee - but it hardly smelt.  And she had just been for a pee...

Today I was sitting in the whelping box with her and the pups, when I noticed my bum was getting damp and I was sitting in a wet spot!! 

So - can bitches lose some kind of water after whelping?  Is she leaking pee?  Is incontinence normal after whelping?  Thx!

Wouldn't worry at this stage, things still very swollen etc...

Could it be puppy wee ?  I noticed my little lot a few months ago before eyes were open were pretty active and some did wee on their own without Mummies help, maybe friction.

The wetness on the bed she was on outside the box definitely wasn't puppy pee, as they're all in the box.  And the wet spot in the box, was where I saw her bum lying last night as I slept outside the box - and it was clean vet bed yesterday.  So I don't think it's coming from the puppies.  There's also too much of it in one place for it to be the pee of a single puppy - they're only tiny.

I did wonder if maybe she needs to be taken out more frequently to pee, as she's eating/drinking much more than usual.  She hasn't asked, but perhaps she's just exhausted and/or doesn't want to leave pups.

It could be maybe take her out more and then see if wet patches still there? Could she have a uti and has a little less bladder control?

Gawd, I just sat in another wet patch this morning.  I think I'm going to have to take her out halfway through the night, because that seems to be when it's happening - currently I go to bed at midnight and she usually wakes me around 7am for one reason or another, so I'll set my alarm for the middle of the night.  Maybe she's just exhausted and in v deep sleep...

No one has any experience of recently whelped bitches and incontinence?

PS The other thing I've been doing, is adding a ton of water to her mix of wet and dry food - I thought good liquid intake would help with lactation.  Maybe I will stop this now and let her adjust her own fluid intake...

I Looked around the internet last night for canine incontinence following a birth, but I couldn't find a thing. 
Do you suppose that through the pressures of birthing on the urinary tract, she has lost some feeling there (temporarily), and simply cannot tell when her urine is going to come out?

It could be what goes in, has to come out with her.   And yes, try taking her out to empty more often for now, and see whether it makes a difference.   To be honest, again, I don't remember any of mine being affected that way post whelping.   But each bitch is different.    Having a brood lamp over the sleeping end of the box made for it being drier all round to be honest.

It is just a week since she produced these puppies after all and she won't have gone back to normal yet.

Good quality high protein food is more likely to help with lactation rather than upping the moisture intake.

Actually some of these wet spots in the bed could just be saliva + plus puppy pee from cleaning the pups it's surprising how much can be produced.

One reason I think it's pee, is because of the patch on the bed outside the whelping box after she got up - it was right where her bum was, too. 

Anyway, I will take her out in the night and I'll also stop adding water to her food and let her regulate that side of things.  Fingers crossed it stops...

How's it going???  (It is definitely not 4.51h here, it is 6.51h!  I wonder why the two hours difference...)

Aren't you two hours ahead of the UK in Switzerland?
Oh...ok NOW i see what you mean! The time on the post is an hour behind the actual time of posting. Weird.

I noticed that the day my girl whelped as I was using that as a rough guide well explaining time differences between whelps...not sure what's going on but it's been like that a good couple of weeks now.

How is your girl getting on now Rabid? any changes since the new toileting routine?

We had a dry night - I think. I still need to check the vet bed properly.

Hurrah.

I use vet bed all year round in my kennels for my dogs. You can get a wet looking patch from condensation under where they have been lying. The vet bed only lets damp go one way so any damp from the dog is very noticeable underneath but the surface feels dry.... This's with the genuine green backed vet bed as well. I occasionally use a big plastic bed in the house for my oldies when they come in and they are a nightmare for damp patches under the bedding,again not urine.

I have had it in the whelping box under the bitch and find even the smallest amount looks quite a damp patch.... Not a problem as bedding is changed very regularly and doesn't happen obviously once the bitch is sleeping outside the box although then you have to change bedding more often anyway due to endless puppy wees :)

When my dogs sleep in my tent I have found the underside of the bedding wet, sometimes quite a puddle. My first thought was it was pee but then realised it was condensation.

I really don't think it's condensation  - it's too wet for that and it does smell like pee, I realise now.  It's also not cold in the kitchen, like in a kennel or outside tent, so less likely to be condensation.

Depressingly it was wet again this morning, even though I gave her last meal at 11.30pm, and got up at 2am to let her pee.  :(  The vet bed makes it hard to tell - it can often feel dry to the casual touch, but if you sit on it or put more pressure on it, or feel underneath it, you realise it's wet.  So it's hard to tell exactly when it's happening.

I haven't ruled out puppy pee - I've seen them peeing by themselves a few times when she hasn't been watching and has missed it... but then I'd expect there to be a lot more of it in different places around the box, rather than one larger wet patch. 

And this girl was a bit weird with toilet training when it came to pee when she was a puppy - she just didn't seem to 'get it' for the longest time.  She never ever pooed in the house, as a puppy, but I did tear my hair out about her peeing in her crate when she was younger.  She just didn't have the natural urge to try to hold on in there, which most dogs have.  (And you might remember my question during her pregnancy, when she just jumped onto her dog bed and peed on it, and whether this could be caused by pregnancy - only happened once - v weird!)  I hope it stops soon, if it's her, as there's going to be enough washing as it is!

I guess it will become clear what it is as she starts to spend more time outside the box....that will mean it can't be the puppies!

Edited to add:  Do the nipples leak milk at all and could it be that?  I don't think so though....

Hmm, I'm now thinking it might be puppy pee, as I just moved the little blighters into a corner to replace the bed where they'd been, and there was a wet patch where they were...

The time on the post is an hour behind the actual time of posting. Weird.

Did you change your settings on CD when we switched over to summer time? The post I can see from Nimue was timed 05.51.

My posts are also an hour out in time...

So - mystery solved - it's puppy pee.  Mum is doing her best to clean up, but when they are all peeing at once, she just can't.  I only figured this out when I just now put in clean vet bed, mum hopped in to feed them and I could see they were peeing and she wasn't getting all of it.  I felt under the vet bed when they'd finished feeding and it was all wet again :(  They mostly don't seem to need mum to stimulate them to pee, although they're also not peeing consciously or trying to move away from bed before peeing yet.

Whilst I'm relieved it's not mum, I'm not sure what I can do about this at the moment(!)?  I've only JUST put this vet bed in, the washing machine is constantly running as it is...  I do have washable hospital pads under the vet bed, so the box is protected, but when it goes through the vet bed, the pads also need to be washed... I didn't want to start using not-vet-bed yet, because the pups seem to need the extra warmth still.  I have disposable hospital pads too, maybe I should use some of those under the vet bed instead of the washable ones... might cut down some washing...

Is it normal for pups to pee without mum licking them like this?  They are 11 days old...