Whelping Female

Indiana Brian · Post by **Indiana Brian** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 1:17 pm

Question: I have a female that has a litter which is 3 weeks old now. I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas on how I can protect her teats when I run her. I'm not about to take her out and let her tear herself up, but I do believe she could handle running for an hour a couple days a week. Does anyone have any advice??? Also, how long after the pups are weaned will it take for the teats to go back to a "normal" size? I'm pretty new to this so any advise would be appreciated. Thanks, *Brian*

BJK · Post by **BJK** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 2:16 pm

Brian,

Personally, I would wait until the female wean the pups and then give her time to dry up. A lot can happen to sagging breast in heavy brush with sharp thorns and sticky briars. Not to mention trash piles with broken glass and jagged edged tin cans. I forgot about the rusty barbed wire.

I was hunting this past season when one of my veteran females came up lame. Her chest was ripped open. I won't be as graphic as it was that day. She required 30 or 40 stitches, lost a nipple, couldn't hunt for 4 weeks and a nice vet bill. No, she had not been bred, her breast weren't sagging and she wasn't nursing pups. I hate to imagine what would have happened if she were. Good luck, but I would wait.

BJK

Beagleman973 · Post by **Beagleman973** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 3:14 pm

Listen to BJK, it's not worth the risk, not to mention she has enough stress on her right now. It usually takes around three weeks for the milk to dry up once they stop nursing.

Alabama John · Post by **Alabama John** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 6:57 pm

Brian, don't run her as the others have said.

Build a platform of any kind she can get up on (two concrete blocks laid lengthway at the four corners which makes it 16 inches tall with a piece of plywood on top works fine) and she will wean them herself. I do not like to see pups chasing the mother and tormenting her and her growling and downing the pups to keep them away from her day and night because she cannot get away from them to rest and give herself and the pups both a rest.

Talk about frazzled nerves! Most dogs that hang and sag down permanently were left too long with the pups.

When she has them weaned and they are eating soft food good twice a day, then take her away permanently and gently rub camphorated oil on her teats and whole bag every other day for 6 days to prevent fever. Don't feed her until the third day after you take her away and then for a week cut her ration down to half so her body will need and absorb the milk herself and she will dry up real nice and tight.

Hardtime01 · Post by **Hardtime01** » Mon Apr 12, 2004 8:00 pm

Wait till the pups are weaned and rub her teats every day with Spirits of Camphor. Her teats will shrink up like she never had milk, and this will allow the next litter of pups a smaller teat to suck. Why risk hurting a bitch worth breeding, if you dont have too. My 2 cents, hope this helps.

B.Trull · Post by **B.Trull** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 6:51 am

wait till she drys up, you're asking for trouble and a vet bill.

Brad

Indiana Brian · Post by **Indiana Brian** » Tue Apr 13, 2004 11:45 am

Thanks everyone for your advice. I won't run her till she's dried up. You are right, why risk serious injury to a good dog?