my bitch has 4 wk old pups but they dont really seem to be bothering much with each other anymore so their maybe feeding on her once a day if that their much more interested in their other food. so today i noticed the bitches milk, all her mammory glands are really hard all the way up, will this just be her milk starting to dry up or should i be worried. Does this happen when the pups dont feed on her for a while?
please help!

Hi
That's not the milk drying up, that's your bitch being full of milk because the pups haven't suckled. You need to wean them off gradually to prevent mastitis, i.e start off with letting her feed them say 3 times a day, get it down to twice, then once then not at all.  With my bitch last time it took until 7 weeks before the milk was gone.

Marianne

How are the pups?  Are these the ones that were ill?

Sounds like the bitch is bagging up because the pups have lost their appetite due to being ill.  Normally at this atage erht milek woudl hardly be noticed as the pups would strip it all, as well as their other food.

I have found that allowing the bitch free accesss to ehr pups means that she drreis up naturally.  My bitches normally still give the odd suck right up to 8 to 10 weeks,a dn milk won't be completely gone until 12 weeks.  Had to wait this long in order to have my Kizi spayed.

In this case I would get some hot flannels as hot as yu can st6and but not hot enough to scald.  Lay these on her milkbar and it will cause the milk to flow out and the glands to soften.  You should then put the pups on her to take some more of the milk off.

If you leave it too long the milk will get infected and she will become ill.

Hi Brainless,

Just a thought!! if your pups became ill , sickness ect; would you think it would be better to  feed off the mother a little longer, especially if there feeding had reduced though sickness anyway?
As I was a breast feeding Mom EGH!! I know how uncomfortable the bitch must be feeling.
I know expressing it would just make her make more milk. So I do agree warm wet flannels would
help a little. Humans can get mastitus and absesses in there breasts could bitches get the same?
Regards
Denese

Most defiantely. 

Breast feeding is designed to synchronise with demend so any sudden i
natural drop in demand will cause problems.

I firmly beleive in allowing a bitch to feed for as long as seh will allow.  It also sems to vary with the litter how long this will be, and I am sure the bitches sense how long this is needed.

Sick pups especially would benefit from theri mothers milk over anything else.

Hi Brainless,

You have confirmed my thoughts, Thanks.

Regards
Denese