Milk production - Page 2

Most dogs love cottage cheese and yogurt, she should be wanting to eat everything in sight right now!! she needs way more food and will need about 3 times her ration when she is nursing if she has a really big litter.... I comfirm pregnancy (with my vet) via ultrasound or pregnancy test... trust me is worth the extra you spend to know what is going on and then between 7 and 8 weeks, I xray (yes, it is fine for the babies)to see if I can get a count and how big they are looking.... I usually start increasing the food around week 5 but it is generally easy to tell... the vulva has not reduced completely and the breast tissue seems to become more heavy and thick.... all these things in preparation for what her body is doing.. Too much afterbirth causes black green nasty diarrhea, I advise against it....mother has enough to worry about without feeling crappy cuz her stomach is upset... I would advise finding a vet who is familiar with reproduction if not a reproduction specialist and working with them... Good luck!

Hi, it is said that the natural ingredients of raspberry leaves aid the mild production. It is even marketed for that. Never tried it with my females but it can't hurt. Dkiah, I do not agree with you on eating afterbirths. It is natural, so why not. They get greenish diarrhea from the amniotic fluid (is that spelled right?), not the afterbirths per se. It is very acidic and staining. But I do not believe that they get cramps from that. They never jump up and run out in a hurry, lol. Usually,they have had loose infrequents stools for days now. Mother Nature's way of cleaning out the intestines and preparing everything for the whelp date. But afterbirths have a lot of bloodbuilding nutrients with antibodies in it (cordblood). I also feed my pregnant females one teaspoon full of raw fresh beef liver daily during the last trimester. Chris

Something else: If you think she is pregnant and there might be a lactation problem, better get prepared. I used to have a female many years ago who had difficulties with milk production during the first 5 to 7 days, but after that time was able to catch up. She always had large litters. The best way to supplement is by tube-feeding. Buy a tube for puppies and boil it. Measure from the mouth to the first rib and mark it with a ballpoint pen. In a steady motion push the tube in. As soon as it is past the throat, there should be no more gagging. Hold the end of the tube into water to ensure, there are no air bubbles. Connect a syringe to it with the formula in it. Now very very slowly, push the fluid in. If you are too fast, they will vomit. The formula (Esbilac) should be warm, so it does not lay in their stomach too long. You do not need to sterilize the tube in between puppies, only by boiling in between feedings. It sounds horrible, but is actually easy and fast. These little babies will love the warm fuzzy feeling in their tummies and will be content. Good luck and all the best, Chris

That's ok Silbersee..... I still prefer to not let my girls eat all those afterbirths... yes, you spelled amniotic correctly..... I have had bitches with really yucky diarrhea after a whelping and just prefer not to deal with it... they get a couple.... all the sacs (which is what I refer to as afterbirth) leave greenish black stains if she eats that it will come out that way as well.... The first vet I ever worked for used to make the same recommendation to our clients that were whelping litters and most books I've read say the same thing so it works for me.... besides out last litter was 12, could you imagine how much of that I'd be cleaning up?? I'm gaggin already!! LOL!

I also heard that raspberry leaves help. They recommend it for women too. You can buy tea bags at the store. I usually add just a little bit of milk and sugar to make this tea more attractive to the dog, and give about a cup a day couple of days before welp, and plenty after the birth. I am not sure weather the tea helps, or the dog is just naturally a good milk producer, but I never had any problems.