My maiden bitch had four puppies last Thursday (26 April).  It was a difficult birth and she seemed very stressed by it.  She has not taken well to her puppies. She will now lie with them and feed them, but will not clean them.  I have tried rubbing food (butter etc) on the puppies to try to get her to do it but it hasn't worked. So I am having to stimulate puppies to go to the loo.  They wee every time I do it but three of the puppies have not done a poo in the last 24 hours.  Can anyone offer any helpful advice?

Get some puppy poo and put it on her own front paws, so she has to clean it off herself.  Make sure there is a puppy nearby as well, so that hopefully she will move across from cleaning herself to cleaning them... Put some pee on her front paws if you don't have any puppy poo available!

I would also give her calcium supplements - any lack of mothering behaviour or disturbed behaviour should see you giving calcium supplementation - often the behaviour goes away very quickly once calcium levels are good. 

If puppies continue not to be able to poo, there is a way to give them an enema.  I haven't done this but I'd look on YouTube or elsewhere to learn how.  Are the puppies gaining weight?

Thank you for v good advice.  Puppies are gaining weight really well - they've been putting on 60-90g each day.  But I'm worried most of that weight is poo! Where do you get calcium supplementation from - Boots??  I will go and get some today.  I've got an appointment with vet tomorrow if they still haven't done a poo by then.  Big thank you for your help

The vet may or may not be able to help in terms of helping them poo - a lot of vets are not very knowledgeable about breeding and neonatal puppies and won't know how to give an enema.  Finding other very experienced breeders who can advise, or watching YouTube videos might be better...

You can try giving mum food with more fibre in it (pumpkin or squash, for eg) as pups do get what mum eats, through her milk.

For calcium, give calcium if you see weird behaviours:  Nesting, moving puppies, hiding, stress etc, lack of mothering.  Then, how much to give depends on bitch’s size, litter size and how aberrant the behaviour is.  Her behaviour will often improve within 30mins but if it doesn’t, give another dose immediately.  Can then dose 4-5x a day if her behaviour continues, or stop supplementing if she’s ok. 

There are different types of calcium and they are all ok:  Calcium carbonate is the most common form but it has to be taken with food to be effective.  Then there's calcium citrate - which is a bit harder to find, but it gets more rapidly absorbed and does not need to be taken with food.  Yes, you can get calcium supplements from a pharmacy.

In terms of the dose:  You want to supplement with 90mg of elemental calcium for each pound of bodyweight per day.  For example, calcium carbonate provides 40mg of calcium for every 100mg of calcium carbonate.  Calcium citrate only provides 21mg of calcium for every 100mg of calcium citrate.  So a 20lb bitch could be given 1800mg of calcium in 4500mg calcium carbonate.  (Sorry it's in lbs, but it's taken from mentors I have in the US.)  But basically it's the elemental calcium you want to know - it should say what that is, on your supplement bottle.  Then you want to give 90mg of elemental calcium for each pound of bodyweight per day.  But you can repeat the dose a few hours later, if needed - it is pretty hard to OD on calcium when she is making milk for puppies.

Hope that helps - you can also give goat milk in her food if you want to add some more.

Thank you.  I've got the calcium now so will see how we get on...

I had one 'prima donna' who'd have NOTHING to do with poohing her puppies - peeing fine, but she'd not deal with anything else.   Feeding - fine however.   I did my best to get them to empty but I have a feeling they spent most of their early days feeling quite uncomfortable, despite my best efforts.    Then nature /gravity kicked in and all was well.   She only had the one litter!!!

I'd not force this by putting their stools (or anything else) on her - that's a bit nasty isn't it?

ps   I'd be very wary about giving her a calcium supplement which may have nothing to do with her dislike of dealing with her puppies!    Too much is as bad as too little with supplements and isn't anything I had to do with my awkward bitch.

good to know, thank you.  I don't think I'll be breeding from this bitch again either! The first two weeks are meant to be the easy part - and this is anything but!!

I had a bitch who also refused to do the pooing. Everything else was fine. I had to do it for them which with a large litter and top ups in the first week was a hard slog. After speaking to a few breeders they also said on their bitches first litters in the same breed they had the same. 
I tried a few things to no avail like putting honey on their botties or holding the pup to help her.
I wouldn't put poo and wee on her paws. She may well clean that off but that wouldn't necessarily mean she will then do it on the pups.

Good to know there are other bitches out there who have done the same.  It's strange, my girl is so greedy and loves nothing better than eating cat/chicken/sheep/cow poo - just not her own puppies' poo!  They are simply not going now, I've been trying all day.  Their last poo was Sunday morning.  Off to the vet tomorrow.....

I've seen it work, putting poop/pee on her paws.  It triggers the cleaning reflex and then if a dirty pup is nearby, the licking just moves across to that.

MamaBas, there is nothing wrong with giving calcium - in fact it is recommended in situations like this, and definitely no where near an overdose.  Even if she doesn't need it, giving it will do no harm - and it might do a lot of good.

I would go to the vet today...well actually I would have a home visit with pups so young. Another 24 hrs without pooing may be a bad move.

> <br />MamaBas, there is nothing wrong with giving calcium - in fact it is recommended in situations like this, and definitely no where near an overdose.  Even if she doesn't need it, giving it will do no harm - and it might do a lot of good.

All I suggested is OP be 'wary' of overdoing the calcium.    Provided she's having a good quality food (and I didn't switch what mine had from before they were mated, to after the puppies had been born), it shouldn't be necessary to add anything to the diet - just more of it but if you like with some scrambled egg, extra meat, cottage cheese, as she needs.   Some don't drop their weight or look awful when just off a litter, but some do, despite the breeder's best efforts.  And it does depend on how many puppies she's catering for and of course, assuming a 'complete' food is being fed.

I'd also, I'm afraid, question all this putting pooh on clean puppies because what if it doesn't work ...... you have a dirty puppy to clean up!  

With my reluctant mum re poohs, I sat my babies in warm water in the hope of getting the bowels to open!   That wasn't terribly effective

You're not putting the poo on the puppies - you're putting it on the mum's front paws.  She will clean herself because that's a natural response, and doing that ingest some of the puppy stool and move across to the puppy next to her.  It is an instinct which sometimes just needs a nudge to be awakened. 

Some bitches do need an awful lot more calcium than is available in cottage cheese (which is the only thing in your list with calcium in it).  They could either eat 5 tubs of cottage cheese or you can give them one calcium tablet to get sufficient calcium into them to prevent eclampsia and to fix pre-eclampsia and poor mothering.

> You're not putting the poo on the puppies - you're putting it on the mum's front paws.

On pups or on her - that's still yuck, to me.  Sorry.   And regardless of what extras I gave my bitches, much as it's all water under the bridge for me now, my point was as long as she's on her normal good quality food, there shouldn't BE any need for extra calcium.   Again we never had to resort to giving calcium tabs (no eclampsia) but each situation is individual.   I wouldn't expect to have to use calcium tablets.   I gave extras as mentioned, to give mine extra nourishment but usually only if they had a large litter.

Well, that's great MamaBas.  If you are ever unfortunate enough to have a bitch staggering around with eclampsia, you can just keep repeating to the vet that "there shouldn't BE any need for extra calcium". 

It doesn't matter what you think should or shouldn't "be" - things will happen nonetheless, due to biology and physiology. 

Sorry if you think the poo thing is "yuck" - frankly I think many things about whelping and raising puppies are "yuck" and I get the rest of it done, so I see no difference on this one.  Especially since it works in many cases.

It is 30 years since my last litter, but I always had a bottle of ColloCalD in stock, and was grateful for it on occasions. I never hear the product mentioned on here, does nobody use it any more, and if not, why not?

>I always had a bottle of ColloCalD in stock, and was grateful for it on occasions.

I always get some in when we're expecting a litter. Sometimes it isn't used but more often it is. I wouldn't want to whelp a litter without it available.

>> I always had a bottle of ColloCalD in stock,

As I recall, so did I, back in the day  

Well, that's great MamaBas.  If you are ever unfortunate enough to have a bitch staggering around with eclampsia, you can just keep repeating to the vet that "there shouldn't BE any need for extra calcium".  ... etc "

Well that's me told eh      

> If you are ever unfortunate enough to have a bitch staggering around with eclampsia, you can just keep repeating to the vet that "there shouldn't BE any need for extra calcium".

Having been in exactly that situation, i firmly believe that the CalloCalD i gave the bitch while i was on the phone to the vet to tell them we were on our way saved her life. Its the most frightening situation I've had. My vet was fabulous, he had a nurse waiting in reception for me to get me and the bitch straight into his room and all the IV equipment etc ready and waiting to administer immediately on our arrival.

> Well that's me told eh   >

..... and all I was suggesting was not to over-do the calcium!

Did I read somewhere that Tums are ok to use for calcium but no other antacids?

Or is this completely wrong?!

>..... and all I was suggesting was not to over-do the calcium!

In 45+ years I have never, ever given calcium.  I felt there was enough in the food that I provided.  I've never witnessed eclampsia in my own girls.  3 different breeds.  And I've never lost a bitch.  Too many litters to say I was "lucky."

>You're not putting the poo on the puppies - you're putting it on the mum's front paws.  She will clean herself because that's a natural response, and doing that ingest some of the puppy stool and move across to the puppy next to her.  It is an instinct which sometimes just needs a nudge to be awakened.

This is a good idea and totally makes sense to me, something to remember. Luckily so far my girls proved to be excellent mothers, two would clean poo all the way until the puppies go to their new homes, one until they turned 6 weeks old approximately... It is yucky watching them do it, but oh, so much easier keeping their beds clean

I had mother and grandmother cleaning up in my last litter, bless them. My old girl was a fabulous mother, took me months to persuade her to stop cleaning up with the puppies I kept, and she still washed them when in season, disgusting though it was!

>Did I read somewhere that Tums are ok to use for calcium but no other antacids?

Charlie, Tums are allegedly ok - but there are other additives in Tums, so I think it's best to use actual calcium supplements.

Ah.....thanks.

Ok in an emergency then, but it’s better to be prepared.....