Congrats on your new little ones.
As always it is best to have your Vet to check her out.
Some females over produce milk at first.
The back teats will look and feel like they have gravel in them, be red color and warm to the touch.
She may continue to have the same condition the next time she is bred.
Each time you will need to use a warm compress and express some of the milk off several times a day until her body adjust to the amount of milk needed.
Also keeping the larger pups nursing off the back teats to help with the engorgement.
You should see improvement usually in 2-3 days.
Use the expressed milk to feed the smaller boys if they are not nursing off mom
or
you can sit with mom while letting the smaller ones nurse, squeeze the teat while nursing if needed.
If they are getting enough milk they will have round little tummies and be content.
Other wise if they look thin and cry and they will need to be hand fed until they are strong enough to nurse off mom..
As far as docking the smaller ones, I would not do so until they are 5 days.
If they have not gaining enough weight and you are not comfortable to have it done on day 5.
Then I would not put them through the stress or take a risk of killing them simply for a cosmetic reason.
If someone wants the procedures done later on, they can do it when the pup is spayed / neutered.
If I need to use a calcium supplement, I use Tums ½ in the morning and ½ in the evening.
Last edited by yorkiegirl2; 03-04-2011 at 08:41 PM.
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