Dead Puppies

[mallardshooter]

My Father -in-Law has a pair of Goldens. (reserve judgement please) The bitch dog littered last Tuesday (10/7), had 4 of 7 survive. My M-I-L called me last night frantic saying that 2 of the 4 were dead, and the last 2 were looking sickly.She said they all were fine when she checked after school, but the 2 were dead when she checked after supper. She said that it didn't look like the mama dog had sat/rolled on the pups. Also, the mama would have anything to do with the last 2. The mama was nursing fine until that. What could it have been? Never seen anyhting like it. Don't know about the last 2, but it would seem that they are on borrowed time.
Could it have been Parvo? Any ideas??

[JT]

I had a similiar problem once (but with a different breed). It turned out that the bitch had a calcium deficiency. It caused diarrhea in the pups and they dehydrated. It's not easily seen when they are young because the bitch will clean up after them at that age. You ought to check with a vet but you might try some calcium and/or vitamin supplements while she is nursing.

[Chuckle12]

We had a litter of puppies whelped on Aug 31. One of the puppies died the day after whelping. turns out he had a deviated septum, where the roof of his mouth had a gap in it and he couldn't get good suction and it hurt him to nurse. i don't think that's whats going on here, but the vet said that there could be multiple puppies like that in a litter, you can tell if they have a deviated septum by opening their mouth and making sure that their top palate is fused in the middle. just something to think about.

[Bustin' Ducks]

Sorry to hear that..Please let us know what ya learn about it..

[Doc & Nash]

I had a litter of pups about 12 wks ago and lost over half of them due to a cleft pallet. When they are sucking they will drown you might want to check the dead ones. If the two that are left have this same problem then yo might as well take them out of their misery or either watch them starve to death.

[Delta Duck]

I had no idea so many things could happen to puppies. You can bring them to my house and I would bet all will make it. Take it that the Mama dog I have is an All-American and I don't see the puppies until they come out from under the barn, but you never would think a dog could have that many puppies. I did get up last Sunday morning to find 4 in the middle of the road.

[D1]

alot of things can be going on with her,is this her first litter?if so she may not be a good momma dog, I had a blu tick one time that stepped on and killed most of the pups. momma dogs milk may be bad,not enough vitamins in it to support a pup. I have learned to let mother nature take its course with animals and if it is her first litter, try breeding her again if the same thing happens get her spayed in a hurry

[millineum mallard]

I raised labs for over 10 years and had only one account of losing the entire litter. This one occasion was due to a flu-like condition that was passed on to the pups. Now, the mother didn't show any "conditions" of being sick and being that they can't talk to you, you wouldn't know that anything was wrong with her. All I can tell you is that from that point on, I took all of my puppies to the vet and had them immunized with penicillin within three days of birth. Sick or not, it doesn't cost anything to speak of and could have saved me a couple of thousand in lost puppy revenue. There are several things that can be done to prevent these things from happening and need it or not, it helps the puppies tremendously by just being healthier from the get-go. I usually do this on the third day when I have their dew claws removed. Losing puppies is not easy and I hate to see any puppy suffer unnecessarily.