Okay, I am wading in with my quarters worth. First,,,I would suggest you give your puppies BeneBac or acidophilus to offset the effects of antibiotics on the good bacterie in the pups' bowels. Antibiotics kill the beneficial bacteria in the bowel of all concerned. I use BeneBac but I also have used acidophilus from the health food sections of groc store or health food stores. I really worry when puppies are exposed to antibiotics and not cared for as well. I AM NOT SAYING YOU ARE NOT TAKING CARE OF YOUR BABIES!!! It is just that since they don't act sick we don't consider them.
Okay, as for calcium.. Buy crushed oyster shell calcium tabs, They are as big as horse pills.. I use the 500mgm ones. They are tasteless and I grate 1/5 of the tab on the food twice a day.. No taste and no problem. The moms should have no more that 200 mgm of elemental calcium a day when nursing..just use the finest part of a cheese grater..
Please keep us informed and of course, always run this stuff by your vet. This is more holistic than many..GoodLuck with your younguns..

I did get the tums in, since I took that advice here and crushed it up in her food.. we switched to can food because she wasn't eating the puppy food anymore, she never did care for it, but ate it- now she was refusing to eat much of it so the vet suggesting can food. I have only given 1/2 tab of tums.
per day... (edited to add the per day)

I am not offended by the statement about not taking care of the pups... you don't know me, or seen how things are in this house, so you were just making a statement on something you feel strongly about. I appreciate any knowlege or advice you are willing to share, this is new to me, and although I have read and read, there is nothing like advice from someone in "real life"

I am doing all I can for all the dogs, the mom, the pups and my other dog who is going through a depression because of missing her sister.

I have tried to take every precaution to ensure a healty litter and mom.

I have done warm compresses and cool ones(for comfort) and expressed milk out of the harder teet... (to make sure it still looks good- the vet recomended this)

I will run to the store tomorrow and get probiotics (the "good" bacteria in the intestines)

i will also be going to the vet tomorrow and discuss the antibiotics with him, because my little ones are sneezing and have a runny nose.

Thank you all for the advice, i appreciate it- the more knowledge and information I can get the better... the babies and mom deserve the best.

So if you can think of anything else I need to do let me know.

And I am all for "alternative" medicine, a balance of both makes for a healthier body I think.
thanks again
brenda

You can actually buy the small tubes of BeneBac at pet stores. I give a tube to my new moms when they take their new baby from me. Any stressor can set these babies aflutter..Some people say give 'em yogurt as it has acidophilus in it BUT some dogs do not handle lactose in the dairy and it is hard to judge how much to give them..