Dog eclampsia

Hi i just wondered if anyone had any experience with dog eclampsia, my mini schnauzer who has been feeding her pups really well suddenly started fitting yesterday. She had really low calcium levels and had injections of calcium.


Has anyone else experienced this, any good tips for keeping her calcium levels up?
thanks

Hi, how old are the puppies, is it a large litter.

You bitch needs small frequent meals of a good well balanced diet, trying to supplement the diet with extra calcium is not really a good thing to do and is though by some to increase the chance of eclampsia. I would talk to the vet about it.

I guess you are supplementary feeding the puppies to help the bitch, no doubt the vet will have explained it all to you when you had the injection. I hope you puppies are ok.

Hi
She had 8 puppies, they are all fine, putting on loads of weight. I am totally feeding them for 24 hours to give her a break and get her calcium levels up, the vet has now put her on calcium supplementation whilst she is lactating.

She seems better tonight and she cant wait until she can get to feed her puppies! she is really engorged tonight. The vet said to let her feed again today but to help her with the feeds. They are only 2 weeks old today so are too young to wean.

thanks for your reply, scary but pleased she is ok

Hi 8 is a large litter for a small breed. Did the vet advise you to remove all the puppies . If so you must of course follow the advice of your vet ( he may have given medication he doesn't want the puppies to absorb) .
Personally I would not remove all the puppies, I would leave two at time on the largest full teats starting with the weakest puppy and alternate both the puppies and teats. Withdrawn all call on the teats at once and letting them become engorged can be quite painful for a bitch once she has been sucking.
**If in doubt, check with your vet.

Hi
thanks for your advice, i have been feeding them over night 3 hourly, mum is engorged this morning, I spoke to vet and they said to let her feed the next feed, then for me to alternate the feeds with her.

Hopefully this will work and not take too much out of her
x

Hi that sounds OK to me. At two weeks the puppies are past the first critical couple of days when they need to receive colostrum so should be better able to cope with supplementary feeding.

I don't know how experienced you are with whelping so excuse me if I am telling you something you already know.

In your position I would keep an eye on the sucking and make sure the weakest puppies get a turn on the large back teats and that all the teats are used by moving the puppies to cover each teat to prevent other complications.
Also make sure all the puppies get a turn on a teat to ensure they are receiving the valuable antibodies from the dam to prevent infection.

Also it is essential everything is kept scrupulously clean and all feeding equipment is sterilised as you would for a baby. All outdoor shoes should be removed and hands washed before you go near the puppies because supplementary feeding may make them more vulnerable to infection.

With a litter that size (most Minis usually have 4-6 puppies) I would continue to supplement some feeds until weaning.

Hi

No thanks your advice is greatly recieved, this is my first litter (can you tell!). I find it difficult because you get so much conflicting advice from vets,nurses, so I dont know what to do for the best!

My dilema is by supplementing the puppies has benefits for mum health wise but I am finding it difficult because obviously she wants to be with her pups 24/7 but as soon as she is in the pen with them, they want to feed, on the other hand I dont like to shut her pups away from her, for bonding purposes and her mental wellbeing. Its really hard to know what to do for the best in this situation!

x

My Rosie had this with her first litter, we nearly lost her, she started fitting, was sick, messed herself and went unconscious, her calcium levels were so low even after 3 injections she didn't come round. When she eventually did our vet recommended we remove pups from mum, due to the medication she had had, thankfully pups were 2.1/2 weeks old, so I started bottle feeding, and weaning instantly. Rosie was bound tightly so she couldn't feed them pups, but she still stayed with them 24/7, still cleaned them, toilet them, played with them, just no more feeding, which was horrible to watch as she so desperately wanted to feed her babies. She had 7 good sized babies and they just completely drained her of all her goodness, she was such a good mum.

Rosie did go on to have another litter, but from an early age, we topped her up with Collo Cal D - a liquid calcium and had her calcium checked by blood tests once a week. Thankfully it never happened again.

Hi
Just to update, I took her back to the vets today because she still isnt right. To add insult to injury when I took her back she has developed a massive abscess on her leg/shoulder which he lances - no wonder she was still feeling rotten! She seems a bit brighter now, she's been through it x

Poor girl that must be very sore. She is not having an easy time is she .