My bitch had her first litter...

She's had to stop feeding though. After taking a long look online at symptoms and showing some pics to a trainee vet in the family, she appears to have mastitis. Thankfully, when she ballooned and we (partner and I) realised she was pregnant, I immediately bought substitute food. I did this because we re-homed Roxy at the age of 3. And you never know how a bitch may take to the demands of the feeds. At the minute, I'm filling a large bowl with a measured amount of the milk for them to eat/drink. I've made sure that they're all getting in and I only feed them on their demand (large racket haha). It seems to be every 4 hours, which is normal. But the milk is running low now, so what can I move them onto? Or do I continue this process for a few more weeks? There's 6 of the blighters, they all seem to be doing well I'm just sad for our dog. Can't wait for her to be on the anti bios, get her back to her best.

I'd like to apologize for what I'm asking, since Google may offer written guides I do prefer to hear from the grassroots and its always good to have a few people with advice, and able to answer questions that I may have about the process!

Thank you

I'm not really sure what to say, other than that if you suspect your dog has mastitis she should be seeing a vet. Online diagnosis and a guess from a photo by a student isn't enough. Your vet should also be able to advise you re the puppies.

can't wait for her to be on antibiotics? why isn't she on them already have you consulted a proper vet at all?

Im going to assume you are a male, so won't know the pain caused by mastitis. It can be incredibly painful for the bitch, and if a pup tries to nurse she may well attack it out of pain. She needs pain relief, anti-biotics and to be seperated from the puppies for a bit.

How old are the puppies..?

Thanks for coming to us for some advice, there is a lot of experience here from our members. Please get her to a vet ASAP to be checked, given a proper diagnosis and treated as necessary. They will also be able to provide advice for the puppy feeds too which will be beneficial and remove any doubt

LizP wrote:I'm not really sure what to say, other than that if you suspect your dog has mastitis she should be seeing a vet. Online diagnosis and a guess from a photo by a student isn't enough. Your vet should also be able to advise you re the puppies.

This was all obvious but we couldn't get an appointment until tomorrow (I reside in England). It was the evening when I first noticed the soreness and swelling. As for the guess, she's field working at a vet...so we can say educated guess?

Amelie wrote:can't wait for her to be on antibiotics? why isn't she on them already have you consulted a proper vet at all?

Literally posted this after setting up the appointment. Looking for advice not repeated obviousness.

lexii wrote:Im going to assume you are a male, so won't know the pain caused by mastitis. It can be incredibly painful for the bitch, and if a pup tries to nurse she may well attack it out of pain. She needs pain relief, anti-biotics and to be seperated from the puppies for a bit.

How old are the puppies..?

No, I've not had mastitis and yes, I'm male. I'm aware that it can be painful, after reading up on it. She isn't nursing, I stopped it as soon as I noticed how red she was and how firm and swollen the 2 teats were. She's actually ok, behaviour wise I mean. They are 4 weeks on the 16th of this month.

AussieStaff wrote:Thanks for coming to us for some advice, there is a lot of experience here from our members. Please get her to a vet ASAP to be checked, given a proper diagnosis and treated as necessary. They will also be able to provide advice for the puppy feeds too which will be beneficial and remove any doubt

A reply without condescension?! Wow!

Yeah as I said above, I made this post as soon as I had got her booked into the vets. I'm just hoping that the next time I post, people don't act as if I'm completely stupid haha.

Thank you for your reply.

We're human and fill in gaps, so honestly you can't blame us for stating the obvious (get pups away from her and seek a vet asap) when you could of said all this info in the first original post and you could of gotten more clear and direct help. Did the vet mention a cool compress for her teats? maybe a tight t-shirt with a frozen tea towel, might ease whatever discomfort she is in until you can get her to the vets.
As she has been nursing for 4 weeks you can keep going with milk until around 5-6 weeks but they must stay with mum and each other at least until 8-12 weeks. to stop them from trying to feed of her, you could use a t-shirt but sadly they are going to try and suckle out of comfort and she is going to want to let them suckle because of her instincts.

Ah the joys of communicating online ! Can everyone please show respect to each other, we're all here for similar reasons and have different levels of experience. I'm glad you posted and sought advice, and it's great to hear she's been booked in at the vet, let us know how she gets on & what advice they give re the pup feeds

Apologies if my post sounded off, it wasn't meant to, as Amelie said with only half the information I gave you the answer I thought was best.

hope the dog gets on ok at the vet

There was literally no info in your post. You can not blame us for not knowing the facts when they were not given. We only ever have the dogs interests at heart.

How did you get on at the vet ??