Hi All,

My girl has given birth to 3 healthy puppies 17 days ago however she is still panting, and it is mostly at night and sometimes when feeding them at the same time. It was her first pregnancy. She is a good mum.

During the day she goes around her day normally and there are no problems. What worries me is that at night when she is trying to sleep she pants heavily, eventually she goes to sleep, but it can take up to few hours. She never did before the pregnancy, and it is only at night. She eats well, lately her appetite even increased ! etc.

Is this normal for a bitch to still pant so long after giving birth?

I would appreciate if you would share your experience with me and apology in advance if a similar topic has been discussed but I did search and nothing came up.

Thank you !!

Yes,very normal. Mine do it very heavily for the first three weeks while nursing then gets less as puppies start feeding from her less. Don't worry :)

Quite normal, if you have a heat pad then she may be too hot but other than that feeding puppies does often make them pant.

Yes.   You may find that keeping the puppies warm has meant she's TOO warm?   We used a brood lamp which gave a good even heat at the sleeping end of the box and kept it dry but would drape a sheet across the very back of the box so mum could get out from directly under the lamp.  Nursing a litter, on the other hand, can be very stressful and provided she's otherwise well (no retained birthing material) panting like that could be 'normal'.

My nursing bitches are almost always too hot.  That's why they will make a mess of the bedding, determined to lie on a cool surface instead of the vetbed I have in there for the puppies.  It all goes away later on.

mine was the same it is her first litter I took her to vets
as I was worried, like a pudding I didn't think about the heat
lamp, its 5 weeks on and she absolutely fine .But it is a worry

At 17 days her little body is working very hard at milk production.  Panting is totally normal.

Oh ! Thank you very much for all your replies I know she supposed to pant when nursing but what concerned me is that she pants during the night when she is not nursing, she is laying on the floor and just breathes heavily, and it is only during the night and by 4/5am she stops. But then again, I think its normal, maybe it is the uterus contracting in order to get to normal etc as the room is not too warm for her so I cant think of any other reason. But anyway your replies calmed me down a bit and I am sure she is fine, during the day she is completely fine :)

Once again thank you guys :) !