Hi my bitch gave birth to 8 puppies by C-section on Friday morning. We ost 7 of the pups over the weekend but have one little fighter who i am rearing with the mother.

Ruby has been losing quite a lot of blood over the past 12hrs. It is clotted blood and I wondered if this was normal. When I took her to the vet yesterday she told me this was normal. Ruby has only yesterday started to feed the pup herself and wondered if the blood loss was due to the pup feeding and this is from the uterine contractions.

So sorry to hear of the loss of your precious babies.  I cannot offer any advice, but am sure someone knowledgable will be along soon.

Sorry to hear about your sad experience. It is naturally for bitches to have quite a copious discharge after a litter. As long as your bitch seems fine and the blood isn't bright red, she should be fine. Hope the little one thrives!

New moms do lose blood,my advice is to keep the pup warm,ideally put a thermometer in with her and make sure the temp stays aruond the 85 degrees,weigh the pup every day and make sure the weight is going up,you could also add a soft toy for the pup to nestle into,I have one that the heart beats and there is a heat pack in it so it is just like having a sibling or mom in with them.

If the pup does go cold please warm her gently and DO NOT feed till the pups body temp is high enough,cold puppies can not digest milk so please dont feed while the pup is cold.

If you need anything just ask there is tons of experiance and knowledge on the site,and best of luck.

Thank you so much for your replies. I didn't realise how scarey it is to look after a premature puppy 24hrs a day!  LuLu as we have named her is doing well. She is feeding from Ruby now and is also having whelpi in between so I know she is getting all she needs. Ruby rejected her pups at the start so they didn't get the colostrum they needed. We took mum & pup to the vet yesterday just to check they were both ok. Ruby is losing quite heavily but she seems fine in herself and is eating and drinking plenty.

How long would you say the pup needed suckling on Ruby between each feed so i know she is getting enough.

Sorry for all the questions. We didn't even know Ruby was pregnant until thursday evening when she was already whelping.

She is 3yrs old and has only ever had 1 season so when we came back from holidays in July we were told she had come into season on the 2nd day at the Dog Sitters. The DS said she mangaged to keep Ruby away from all the other dogs. Obviously NOT!

The best way to know if Lulu is getting enough food is to weigh her every day. Keep a graph of the weights and you will see any dips which will warn you to be extra vigilant. Also have a look at this post as she didn't get any colostrum - http://www.champdogsforum.co.uk/cgi-bin/board/topic_show.pl?tid=39665. Anne-Marie's method saved 6 out of 8 C-S born hand reared pups for me and I wouldn't hesitate to use it again at the first sign of fading.

I hand reared a litter of 5 pups at christmas, I weighed them 3 times a day in grams rather than ounces as this will show you any loss or gain.  Started off feeding 2ml of Welpi every 2 hours both day and night, as mum didn't have any milk at all after her c-section, not a drop,  mum delivered first pup on her own so had a normal discharge afterwards.

All went to their homes happy healthy pups at 8 weeks old, good luck with your little one!