To cut a long story short,Holly went into labour on Day 58 and ended up at the Vets at 1 am Saturday morning after delivering a dead pup. The Vet was concerned that the others appeared to be distressed and advised a C Section. We went ahead and another dead pup was followed by a weak one which was small at 3oz.
The Vet had said that we were very lucky that if Holly had not have had the section she could also have died as when he opened her he could see the pups  that had come through the old internal section scar that had started to break down.

Sadly the surviving pup, Grace, died at 5am this morning and need to know
a) I have left Grace with her for now which she is still trying to nurse her, how best do you handle the bitch who obviously is going to be very distressed.
b) Holly has tons of milk, what would be the best way of getting this off of her
Thanks

What sad news. :( I can't offer advice as to when would be best to remove the poor dead pup (bet I wouldn't leave it too long), but as regards her milk I'd contact all the vets in your local area to see if they know of any foster-mums needed. Without pups to suckle the milk will start to dry up, but she's likely to be uncomfortable in the meantime. :( I would imagine the treatment would be similar to that of a phantom pregnancy - low protein food and plenty of exercise. Poor Holly. :(

Hi Herbiedax,

I am so sorry, when I read this post it bought tears to my eyes. Poor Holly. A friend of mine swears by adding a tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley to the bitches food to dry the milk up. The vets can give you a drug (liquid) called Gallastop which also drys the milk up.

I hope your poor girl is ok and obviously you too,

Hi there, very sad to hear your news.Without going into details as its too sad, but we had similiar situation with Lace who is a very maternal bitch.What we did for her was to remove the last puppy from her as quick as possible to try and stop any more maternal bonding.Then we removed all used vet bed, boxes, towels anything that had the scent of puppies on it.We cleaned the whelping box, put new vet bed in and let her have access to it, removed any soft toys and tried to treat her as normal as possible.She was upset for a few days and we could have had her sedated to take the edge off for her, but we felt she was coping ok.Her milk came so I reduced her food and kept an eye on her boobs for any hardness which luckily only lasted for a day or two, but no redness and she was on antibiotics due to the complications we had which probably helped.We are a couple of weeks down the road now, and Lacey seems back to normal.We are not out the woods yet as we are watching her for infection or pyo, but mentally she seems alright.I wish you all the luck and hope your bitch recovers quickly and if I can offer any more advise at this awful time,let me know.Gail

Agree with Gail we take the pups away straight away and then treat the dogs as though they'd not had any pups.  They are usually back to themselves within a couple of days.

I sound as though this has happened to us hundreds of times but having a breed (Pomeranian) that only has one or two in a litter sadly this does happen from time to time!

I have taken the pup away ans at the moment Holly is settled so long as I stay with her. I have finished tiding up the doggy nursery and everything in the room is back to normal.
This was  Holly's last litter and a terrible shame to lose them all, I hope that Holly will be okay. She has not really eaten since a week before the birth and still has only picked since. I have a feeling that the rupture that she had may have already caused some infection so will see how she goes

Try not to worry that she hasn`t eaten much yet.Offer her chiken or fish which is tempting and good for her.You need to keep her strength up but not encourage too much milk production.It will get better, honest.Gail

Poor girl, I feel so sorry for her and for you. :-(

Hi Gail,  sorry to hear about Lace hope she's getting back to her normal self.

Paula

What a tragedy, so very sorry,

Your girl knows immediately that the pup is dead leaving it there is more stressful, no doubt you have taken it away long before now, as already suggested plenty of extra exercise to help get rid of the milk it will dry up on it's own.

Dogs get over things so much quicker, try to be up beat yourself as she may look upset due to feeling it from you she will just get back to normal very quickly. So be happy go lucky and take her out for those walks, lots of fuss and act as normal as possible, you can always have a little cry in your bedroom as no doubt you feel drained and at a loss yourself, console yourself with the fact your girl is well and will be ok, you can always let your upset out on here, (best place for it :-) ) but try to be positive infront of Holly.

brie lost two litter pne after 24 hours.
she was totaly lost for 3 days vet gave us a mild dose of acp to use foe 4 day only use it for two days and milk flow dry up on it our with 10 days.lots of excise to take her mind of it and go back to maintance food or smaller amouts of food to dry the milk and get the weight off.
the reason she went on acp this was her second litter she lost the fist litter was between 3 to 4 weeks old,

the dogs do come of it much better than us humans there we be saying if and buts???you will cry alot but the most import thing is looking after your girl at this time.

one thing with brie when she lost the last litter at 24 hours we would let roam the house so that she know inherself the puppys where not around.

How is Holly doing now?Has she started to eat a bit more?Hope all is looking better for you both.Gail :) :) :)

Hi Gail,
Holly is much the same. We were at the Vets yesterday and has almost ruled out any medical problem with her and that it is probably depression. She still is not eating that much, managed a little chicken today. If she is still like this after the weekend he will prescribe Galastop for her, which I believe is given for false pregnancies but will only use it as a last resort as it has an effect on the body that could cause problems with the repair to the uterus wall.
We are taking her on holiday the 2nd week of June, just a few days away in the caravan just to get her out of the house and away from the washing machine where I think she thinks I put her baby.......bless her!