Hi everyone, our dog delivered 7 puppies in the early hours of the morning. 1 sadly born dead and we also have a very small runt weighing 108g (the largest in the litter is 268g and other weights vary between 260 and 134)

I'm going to start a separate post about caring for the runt but wanted to just see if anyone has any advice on how we can be supporting Mum.

She's a first time Mum (3 years old) and is very caring and attentive but is also spending quite a bit of time fussing and whimpering and seems quite distressed. It's usually when the puppies are hungry and struggling to feed, she'll leap out of the box and try to get away from them, then go back and try again, then out again etc. All the while, she is crying and whimpering. If we sit with her then she seems a bit calmer (but not much) so we are trying to sit with her as often as possible but cant be there round the clock.

I don't know whether she is anxious as she is nervous about being near the puppies or whether it's because she feels she's missing out on other stuff going on in the house. For example, we have two other dogs and the 3 of them are usually inseparable. Yesterday and this morning our son took the other two out for a walk without her and she was franticly pacing and crying until the other two came back. So this afternoon she came with us and we were out for about 20 mins or so and she seemed more than happy to leave the puppies and come with us (although keen to be back in nest with them when she got back).

Is this all just new mum nerves? Is it ok that she's happy to leave them for a short walk with the other two dogs? Is there any reason for the pacing and whimpering?

The puppies were born only 36 hours ago so I guess it's natural that she's a bit unsettled but any advice or encouragement would be very much appreciated at this stage as we want to make sure that we are doing all we can at this end to support her but we don't want to interfere too much if that makes sense.

I can't help with the whimpering. Have you had her checked out by the vet to make sure nothing left behind to make her feel uncomfortable.
On the other point, none of my girls have ever been prepared to be left behind when the leads com out and mine are too noisy to do it without them knowing !!!
I always make sure that when they return they are disinfected all round with a suitable disinfectant, I use formula H.

Bear in mind that the uterus contracting back down will be painful for her and may cause her restlessness.

I'll also mention that I once had a bitch that as soon as we left the room she left with us! She was a great Mum but we had to be there to make sure they were fed every couple of hours at least.#
She just needed us with her and one of us had to be in with her pretty much full time which is usual anyway for the first week or so. Overnight too. I just slept alongside most of the time but I do that anyway.

Try to be with her as much as you can, we are with our girls round the clock for the first 3 weeks.  Make sure the small one is attached to a teat and feeding as much as possible, my girls don't like if when pups are crying and struggling to get I for a feed and always like us to help get them on if need be.

Thanks everyone, we both work from home and have burly teenagers too so plenty of us around to ensure we are with her most of the time.

We did the phone the vet for a chat just to make sure everything was ok as she brought up her dinner this afternoon and we wanted to check whether we should bring her in for a check up.

She's weeing and pooing fine so we think that we are offering her too much food in one go and her tummy can't take it (she is very hungry and wolfing stuff down). So it's little and often for the next few days whilst her digestion settles but we are going to keep a very close eye and get her straight to vet if concerned.

We are helping little one to latch on and being very vigilant there. We also have top up feeds prepared if needed and have given her a few feeds of Royal Canin milk.

We're not letting any of the other pets into the kitchen area where she is and we're disinfecting regularly.

Hadn't thought about disinfecting her paws after a walk. I'd prefer her not to come out to be honest but wasn't sure what to do for the best as she seemed so distressed with the others going out that I thought it was best to try and calm her down by letting her go too.

She certainly seems very happy to be out but also very happy to be back with the pups.

So do we continue to let her come out with us in order to keep her calmer but risk the chance of her bringing back an infection or should we just keep her in and hope she gets over the stress of being left behind.

Genuinely don't know what to do for the best

Well I could not let mine get distressed which they do if they don't get their walk. You could perhaps do a walk where you avoid lots of dogs ( assuming you do) we don't see many where we are.

She should be in a quiet place in the home, well away from the general activities going on and FOR SURE, away from other pets you have.    Some bitches find it hard to make the adjustment from just being a family pet, to being a nursing mum with a litter of noisy hungry and demanding pups to look after.   So again be there with her.  Get in the box and encourage her to lie down and let her puppies latch on if necessary.   I was always very hands on through all of this and it's far better through the early days, for her to be there if nothing else, to provide the warmth newborn puppies need as they can't control their own temperature - which is why if she is off them for 20 minutes or more, they MUST have extra heat around the box.   Once morbidly chilled, the puppies won't nurse.   It should be around 80F in the bottom of the box.

Somebody needs to be with her pretty much 24/7 through the first week or so (one of us would sleep in the same room with our nursing mums), until it's clear she has settled to her duties.   Forget about taking her out with the others for now - having a few weeks off that to concentrate on her litter won't hurt her.   And actually going out could well walk infection back in, despite the cleaning up you might be doing.    Missing a bit of exercise vs having a sick litter - no brainer.    And with full teats/mammary glands, normal exercise could well be uncomfortable.    If she's away from the others, them going out on exercise shouldn't be that obvious.   Our bitches did have a time away from the puppies so they could stretch their legs, empty and so on.   But not just going out with the others.

Our litters were always born into a completely other quite area of the house, and only moved into the kitchen by around 3 weeks of age, once eyes were open and functioning, and they were all mobile.   At which point we added the second 4 X 4 section of our whelping box to give them more room.

She sounds fairly normal, breeds do vary a lot in their behaviour, I would suggest keeping her where she is in the kitchen but make her whelping box as dark as reasonable it seems to help calm mum down, check that she is not too warm if you are using a heat pad, central heating is often enough along with a good vetbed kept clean I know lots of posters use heat pads but I am not one of them. Feed her plenty to help her milk supply, she may be pooing more as she eats more and cleans up the puppy poo as well, I think you are probably best to feed several times a day although I would not feed milk.

I personally would not walk outside the garden during the first couple of weeks if you can avoid it but a short walk away with a disinfectant wipeover should be ok.  As others have said crying and restlessness is not uncommon as afterpains can be uncomfortable, keep an eye on her teats for signs of mastitis and her discharge for any nasty smell but she should settle down soon and you can enjoy your babies.  Plug the runty one on the best teat regularly, if you watch the puppies when they latch on give them about 30 seconds and then plug the tiny one as the milk flow starts, pull the fattest puppy off!

Hi everyone, I wonder if any of you guys could help me? I have a first time mom(pug) she had a c-section last night and we brought her home with 6 beautiful babies. Her milk wasn't through so the vet gave her oxitocin, she still won't go near her babies and seems quite upset and afraid of her babies we have her mother and grandmother in the house would it be better not to have them around for a few days to see if she'll settle? We are bottle feeding every 2 hours but I'm really concerned that she won't accept her babies, what can I do?

You would be better to start a new post so it doesn't get lost in this one i am assured someone will be able to give u good advice