Help I need advice - Shaking problems a week after giving birth
 

Hi, my 4 year old yorkshire terrier Elle had a litter of 6 on the 12th June (although I had her scanned at the vets I was told to expect 3, maybe 4), all went well with the labour and Elle was fine afterwards, although she had a runt who weighted less than 2oz at birth which was a third smaller than the others, he is doing well now, although Elle was anxious about him for the first 2 weeks and kept carrying him (and only him) in her mouth, she has stopped that now. My main worry is now Elle herself, one week after giving birth she started shaking all over and could not stand or breath very well, this happened after midnight it was lucky that my husband and I were still up, we rushed her to the vets, where she had to stay for 12 hours and it found that she was calcuim deficient (I had given her supplements but it was not enough), I was told to give Zolcal-D to her for one week which we did, when we stopped she started to shake again, so I phoned the vets and they told me to carry on giving the medicine which we have, but since then you has had another minor shaking bout, just her head this time, I am really worried and do not know what is causing this? Elle is still bleeding below, but not heavy is this normal? She does not spend any time with the puppies only to feed them (she leaves them alone at night), I am trying to wean them with puppy milk formula but at the moment they are not lapping (they will be 4 weeks old this Saturday, 10th July). Elle is still loving towards me and wants to go out for walks but we do not go out too far. I am feeding Elle chicken dailing with other meals consisting of puppy dry and puppy normal food, with milk supplement for herself, fromage frais and beef / lamb when I cook them. I would welcome any advice in helping make Elle herself again!!

I am surprised that after an episode of calcium deficiency that the vet has allowed the puppies to nurse at all. When a breeder friend of mine had a female that had eclampsia the vets told her to bottle feed the pups as the mom would continue to have the issue and it is fatal if not caught and treated early on. I suggest you bottle feed the babies if the cannot lap the milk yet. I would wean mom at this point because each time them pups nurse they continue to deplete calcium from her body. Bottle feed the pups until they learn to lap the milk or in 1 week they can begin the puppy mush (goats milk, baby rice cereal mixture)

I just had a girl have PRE-eclampsia (meaning she was 2 days prior to giving birth). she spent 3 days in a reproduction specialist hospital and once her calcium was under control (she also delivered her litter while in the hospital) she and babies were sent home and I am raising the babies. Too much of a risk for mom to nurse them.

I highly suggest bottle feeding the pups till weaned if your mom keeps having episodes. I know it was the scariest thing for me to see my girl go into the episode. nothing I want to ever have to go through again.

I would agree with the others that the pups need to be weaned. At 3 1/2 weeks, they are near the stage where they can start anyway and are also at the point where they are draining Mom the most due to their increased appetite. I'm a little surprised that the vet has let her nurse until now....maybe English vets do things a bit differently?

My Bonnie had a litter of 6 back in February and I was worried for her about eclampsia but she came through just fine. I fed her lots of beef liver and chicken, along with canned and dry dog food. She also got calcium supplements and I gave her goat's milk daily. She was eating 5 times a day at her peak.

As for feeding the pups, goat's milk with a little karo syrup added is preferable to commercial milk replacers. It would be good for Elle, too.

Best of luck.

I too have had large litters of 5 and 6 with no issues but boy, never say "oh that won't happen to me" cuz sure s**t it will. I had never had eclampsia and prayed I never would and then to get a rare pre-eclampsia was just so scary. I also suppliment with a high quality calcium suppliment after the birth of babies.

Thank you all for responding to my help message, I really do love my Elle and do not want to jeopardise her health in anyway, the puppies are all plump and are doing well, even the small one is catching up with the others. I did try them with puppy food last night and they did eat it. So I will try them with the milk formula again in a minute and even the bottles if they do not lap. As for goat's milk I will have to source that out they do not sell it in my local area.