Labkisses

Hi everyone I have a litter of 5 labrador pups 5 days old today. They have been gaining 50-100g each per day and have been quite content until today. For about the last 4 hours they have not shut up, all of them constantly crying. Mum is showing no concern, we have put them on her teat 4 times but they are still crying. Is this normal?? How much crying would you consider normal and when or should I be concerned? I've contacted our vet and they said to perhaps supplement feed the pups. I've checked mums teats and they still have milk in them so I'm not sure if they are still hungry. She has toileted all of them also...I'm not sure what else could be wrong....please help! Thanks in advance

Thanks everyone Because I thought they were pretty cheap and I wanted to get a couple of them anyway, I've ordered both the rubber back and green backed vet beds from pepperone Cant wait to get them now and put them in the whelping box!

Hi Keesha No, didnt have her checked out internally..but it looks like the mating went well as she's expecting puppies! All got confirmed yesterday at the vets when we had her ultrasound done. So I guess the mating was successful after all ;)

Hi everyone We have confirmed puppies on the way!! This is our first litter and we're getting our all our supplies ready. We're interested in the vet bed or dry bed..but cant decide which is better or the real difference? Does anyone know?? Also is it better to get the rubber backed ones and if they are easily washable in a 7.5kg front loader? Also, where is the best place to purchase from? Thanks in advance!

Hello everyone, Strange question here but I was just wondering if your dogs (either male or females) changed in temprement around pregnant females? Some of you may already know that one of my girls is hopefully (fingers crossed) pregnant..we're going for an ultrasound on Thursday...so nervous but excited! I found that after my girl was mated my other bitch become very playful with her and wouldnt leave the poor thing alone. I mean even at all hours of the morning. This is very unusual because she is usually not the playful one and would rather laze around home. Just wondering if anyone else had this type of experience?? Thanks

Thanks guys for your responses. Yes how silly am I..she's not dying lol. Argh, i cant wait to see if she's pregnant! It's torture having to wait 4 weeks until an ultrasound lol

Hi everyone Just wondering who exercises their pregnant bitches and how much exercise is ok? If you do take them on jogs/walks etc, how much is enough and when would you stop? I'm hoping one of my girls is pregnant and she loves her walks, but I cant leave her at home if I take my other lab because she cries until we get home Thanks in advance

Thanks everyone I think I'll stick to feeding the dry food 3 days a week and RMBs the other days and maybe once a week a mixture of veges, minced chicken frames, fish and eggs. I'll see how she goes and if all goes well, perhaps very slowly up her meals with the half the mixture and half the dry food as the weeks progress. I'm hoping to take her off the dry food altogether, but I wont be making any drastic changes until after the pups are born.

Alenkit - If i'm reading your post correctly, you mentioned that both bitches were fed raw, but only 1 litter had problems and both litters of pups were brought up eating raw chickens? So I'm wondering how your vet came up with the idea that chicken may have been the cause of these problems in the litter when the other litter wasnt effected? Thanks for the info, it has made me re-think feeding my dogs so much chicken especially whilst pregnant.

Hi everyone I'm not sure if i should have posted this in the nutrition/health forum but I was just wondering how many breeders feed a BARF or RAW diet to their dogs and particularly pregnant bitches. I dont know if my bitch is pregnant yet, but this will be the first litter we've had and I'd like the pups to start off with the best of health and continue feeding an all raw diet to my dogs afterwards. Currently my dogs are on RMB's most days of the week and on other days dry food. So i'm not sure if it is a good idea to change her diet now. If she is pregnant it will only be week 1. So my questions are: 1. Would it be wise to keep her on a commercial dry food diet supplemented with RMBs and change to BARF after the pregnancy? Or would you change now as it is only early on. 2. What do you include in your BARF diet for pregnant bitches? Ratios of meat, offal, bones, including supplements..brewers yeast, kelp, vit C, A, E etc. 3. Has anyone had any problems with litters while feeding all raw or barf? Thanks in advance! Edited to add: I have all 3 of Dr Billinghurts books - Grow your pups with bones, The Barf Diet and Give Your Dog a Bone but they were written around years ago, and I figure that premium commercial dry food such as Advance, Royal Canin etc have evolved since the books were written. So is a BARF diet still the best way to go?

Thanks everyone for their responses!! Yesterday we had another visit to the stud and no luck again There was about 5 slip matings but no tie. We've decided to definetely go AI next time she's in season (if these matings have missed) or to find another stud. Fingers crossed that the tie and many slip matings worked out. We're going to get an ultrasound done in 4 weeks to see if we have furbabies on the way. I've got another question, with regards to slip matings..do bitches generally have smaller litters? And if so, is there a greater risk of c-section because the pups would be bigger than those of a larger litter?

haha thanks Angelsun, my girl has been very good lol, not teasing him..she just stands there still waiting ..but omg this stud is just waaay too excited! Yesterday he missed, and my girl got over it very quickly and sat by the gate and waited to go home lol. Poor thing, she must be as frustrated as us! Centitout - I hope what I saw was only 'pre-ejaculate'. Its hard to tell, because it looked like a fair bit squirted out. Now that I think about it, after the tie was done on the first day I did notice semen coming from my girls vulva and the stud was licking it as it was coming out!! Gross I know! - Hope your computer is ok haha So hopefully it did go ok the first time and there was enough to give us some furbabies.

Thanks for all the replies guys. The stud owner is not experienced in AI himself. The stud dog has sired a litter previously with no problems, they mated and tied and all went well. I'm not sure why we're having problems?? With regards to pointing him in the right direction, I've watched this and it happens so fast! The dog attempts to mount her, doesnt get on top of her fully and sprays before he gets near the right area. Its like he's so excited and is ejaculating prematurely. I dont think there is any time for us to point him in the right direction without getting sprayed on first We're going to have a chat to the stud owner today about possibly bringing them both to the vet tomorrow. It will be day 15 of her season then. The vets are unfortunately all booked out today and cant get us in. They recommended us to perhaps wait til next season and get her prog tested on day 1 and do 3 AI's on her prime days, 2 days apart.

I just called the only vet in our area who does AI and they think that we might have already missed the boat (so to speak) my girl is at day 14 of her season now and to do a progesterone test it will take another day. Bummer We are going to visit the stud again today, fingers crossed he points it in the right direction and doesnt get too excited too early!

Yep they did tie for 10 minutes the first day, but that was after what looked like him spurting/ejaculating outside the vulva.

Hi guys One of my girls visited a not so experienced stud yesterday. She was ready, and he was keen but perhaps a bit too keen. He mounted her and ejaculated, but not inside of her. This happened a couple of times and we saw white fluid spurt from him. Third time they managed a tie for 10 minutes. Would you consider this a successful mating? We went back there again today and this happened again, the stud just couldnt get it together, no tie and in the end my girl gave up. Any thoughts? Thank you

Thanks guys Yep the vet did clip both dogs, one of them has almost completely healed now thank goodness but it seems the betadine & curash powder isnt working so well for my other girl ;) I checked her this morning and it seems really sore and a worse than yesterday. I will check the chemist today for the anti-haemorrhoidal cream and give that a go. I'm thinking maybe the wet and humid weather could be playing a part in them getting their hot spots, we've also just moved recently and they might be allergic to some sort of grass around our new area. Hopefully these nasty hot spots dont come up too often! Thanks again!!

Hi guys I know there has been much discussion about hot spots, but this is the first time I've ever experienced them with my 2 labbies. One of them is 3 and the other is 5. Neither have ever had a hot spot before, but suddenly on the weekend my 3 yr old got one and 2 days later my 5 yr old did too! The weird thing is that they both got them on the side of their face/neck. The vet said that hot spots are not contagious..so does anyone have an idea why these would pop up, especially now since they are older and never had one before, and both around the same area of the face/neck?? We dont have a tick or flea problem, and their diet has not changed. Also, how long roughly do they take to heal? My 3yr old's hot spot was quite large and pussy by the time we realised what it was and got her to the vet. They gave us some topical spray and antibiotics and instructions to wash her twice a day with malaseb. Its healing slowly... Now that I realised what a hot spot was thankfully we got our 5yr olds one in time before it got too deep and pussy so with advice from previous dogzonline posts we're just using betadine and curash for her with antibiotics from the vet. Thank you in advance

Hi Hunter, Is it possible to put his crate outside while you and your husband are away?? If you guys are going to be away for long periods of time each day, then it might be a good idea to get your pup used to staying outside (with or without his crate). He will need to get used to it eventually. When he cries outside, whatever you do, do NOT go and see him. (I know it's heartbreaking!) He will cry for maybe 5 minutes, 30 minutes or maybe an hour or more, but in the end he WILL eventually stop. Trust me! I had a very dependent girl but she got used to it. Once you go outside to comfort him, he will think that each time he cries you will be there. It's best to ignore him and praise him when he is no longer crying. Good luck with it! I know it's very daunting at first, new place, surroundings etc. But with time he will be fine and so will you