Hot Puppies After Feeding

[Labkisses]

Hi guys

This is our second litter where we have had problems with puppies being hot after feeding from mum. Once they have had their feed they cry constantly! The only way to make them stop is by putting them on our floor outside of the whelping box.

Our pups are now 2 weeks old and we have had to have the air con (25degrees) on for them 24/7 because of the heat. They are fine after they have been put on the floor for 20 mins or so and settle immediately after being put there. Once they are settled and fast asleep they go back into their box and the cycle starts again. It's driving me mad though because i am constantly having to do this every 2-3 hrs every day and my eyes are about to pop out of my head due to the lack of sleep!

I am also a bit concerned about having the air con on all day. It looked like a couple of the pups developed some kind of hot spot which seems to have healed by itself.

Please help! I have posted a similar question a few mths ago but am concerned leaving a welt towel or bottle in their box with the air con on as it may get too chilly then? And the risk of developing more hot spots with the humidity and wet fur. What would u do?

Thanks in advance!

[becks]

try putting the wet towel or frozen bottle on one side of the bo, so they can get away from it in they want to.

What bedding have you got in the box, that and the close proximity to each other when at the milk bar may be making them hotter then they need to be.

[EISHUND]

I'll second the frozen bottle. Freeze a 2L bottle full of water & throw it in a pillow case & put in the whelping box. I find cordial or juice bottles better as they are not round & wont roll around. The pups will move to the bottle if hot & move away if cool so you wont have to worry about them getting chilly. Pups get very distressed if hot, I know mine did, but as soon as they felt the bottle they'd be off to sleep

[Tentapride]

Try removing most of the bedding from the box, maybe just use some marine carpet when it is hot - My pups are just 2 weeks old and that is what I am doing. I put a little bedding back in overnight for when the temp drops. You will know when additional bedding is required when the pups start bunching back up. What you want is a nice loose pile of puppies that are quiet & settled.

Also the ice brick wrapped in a towel is a good idea. A fan blowing across the top of the box, not directly onto the pups is also good.

Another and safer option for the pups is to use one of those Silver Eagle cool mats. They are brilliant, they help to keep mum and pups cool. Pups can move off it easily and there is no chance the pups would get a chill.

In the first week I too had my a/c on 24/7 but I've stopped relying on it and use all of these options with success.

At 2 weeks of age my pups are doing very well and I've managed to keep mum & pups cool, happy and comfortable.

[dancinbcs]

I raised a litter in an extreme heatwave and had to have the a/c on 24/7 in the adjoining room. There was no space on the room with the a/c to put the whelping box. They were still screaming with the heat, so I put flat ice packs (the sort you can wrap round bottles), wrapped in towels over part of the box. They still had drybed for traction and to give them a warm alternative surface. They were very fat, verging on being swimmers, so taking the bedding out wasn't an option for mine. Anyway, they would feed then go belly down on the ice packs and sleep peacefully. Once cooled down they could crawl off onto the bedding.

[persephone]

Vote for wrapped icebricks/cordial bottles here!! You only need to show them once !

[Rebanne]

.

Please help! I have posted a similar question a few mths ago but am concerned leaving a welt towel or bottle in their box with the air con on as it may get too chilly then? And the risk of developing more hot spots with the humidity and wet fur. What would u do?

Thanks in advance!

I had aircon on 24/7 and ice bottles, covered, when Fern had her litter in Jan 09. Pups were very quick to find the bottles when they needed them

[Ozstar]

When it is hot I use just a quilt cover wrapped over the foam mat for bedding, I find this is cooler the vet bed etc.

I also have large ice bricks that I wrap in a hand towel and place in the box.

I had 2 litters this time last year and the pups loved the frozen bricks.

The pups will crawl away if they get to cold.

If you have a large litter place a couple of ice bricks in the box.

Wishing you all the best.

Leanne

Edited December 22, 2010 by Ozstar Kennels

[persephone]

..oh, and don't worry too much about the slugs getting frozen. they are built for survival..if they feel cold ,they will gravitate towards their mother..which is what you want

[oakway]

The hot spots may not be hot spots. It sounds like a staph infection.

Smell the spots, to me they always smell metallic.

If it is staph I would consult the vet. You may also find that the staph may be linked to the problem.

[hilaryo]

I had a summer litter last year without airconditioning and it was nightmare - I said never again. I was planning on only taking 2 weeks of work but ended up having to take 4 just to keep the pups cool.

I found I had to remove the dam from the box after she had fed them. The heat generated by her amazed me and the whelping box works too well at trapping heat.

I used partially frozen hot water bottles wrapped in pillow cases. I had 4 and mainly used 2 in the box while 2 were in the freezer. The pups would fight over prime position on the bottles. Wet towels also worked for short period of time if you get stuck.

Luckily my puppies were big and very strong at birth but I would be careful if you had a small or weak puppies in the litter that may not be so hardy as their littermates.

There was a couple of problems. The pups got a bit snuffly but I guess this was from the cold on their delicate mucus membranes in their noses but this didn't last long. The other problem was that they developed a bit of a security issue with the bottles and wouldn't sleep without them. I tried to wean them off them and they wouldn't settle until I put them back in their sleep area at night

Haha - I just realised my avator pic has a bottle in the background also!

Edited December 23, 2010 by hilaryo

[Labkisses]

Thank you everyone for the suggestions! I will definitely go and get a couple big cordial bottles from the supermarket this afternoon! At the moment we have vet bedding in there and might try putting some towels or get marine carpet to keep the box a bit cooler for them.

Thank you again! Hopefully I will be able to get a decent nights sleep tonight!

[Labkisses]

The hot spots may not be hot spots. It sounds like a staph infection.

Smell the spots, to me they always smell metallic.

If it is staph I would consult the vet. You may also find that the staph may be linked to the problem.

I cleaned the little boy last night where he had some dried up gunk - kind of looked like puss. The gunk/puss was fully dried and once he was cleaned there was no sign of redness, inflammation or any kind of skin infection whatsoever. It was very weird! I checked the area a few times today and nothing has reappeared. I'll be keeping a close eye on him though over the next few days to make sure nothing strange is happening. He is a happy boy (besides crying when hot) and he is one of the largest puppies in our litter of 7.

[persephone]

The dried muck... could it be discharge from the mother?

[oakway]

The dried muck... could it be discharge from the mother?

Yes that is what it looks like to. That is what I thought it was.

I took the bitch and pups to the vet only to be told it was a Staph infection.

I destroyed the whelping box and any bedding that was in it.

All other bedding was rewashed with heavy doses of bleach and I put fresh unused bedding in and I have never had it back since.

Yes the pups do cry.

The puppies were given medication in the form of drops. I don't remember about the bitch as this was a long time age.

The scabby patches were about the size round of a cigarette. They also had a funny smell. As you say come up like a hot spot.

Hot spots are usually caused by allergies not necessarily heat. Hope this is of some help to you. I will rack my brains and try to find out what the drops were.

I think it may have been called Antirobe. It worked they stopped crying and they never got any more spots of it.

Cheers.

(they would have been an antibiotic)

Edited December 23, 2010 by oakway

[schwarzbear]

I have a litter at the moment who are 5 weeks, eleven of them that had the same problem they were very hot puppies. At 2-1/2 weeks they climbed out of the whelping box and now sleep on the concrete floor. They can get back in. I stripped all bedding from the box and just put newspaper down. Also ran the fan 24/7 quite away from the box. If they are not sleeping on the floor they have made their bed the tarpoline that the whelping box stands on. What I also found was that I had to syringe water into them I also put cold water into the hot water bottles that I used initially. I have never had a litter like this a real learning curve.

Suggest that you give them water in addition to Mum. They also went on solids at 2-1/2 weeks normally don't do this until 3 weeks.

Good luck with them.

[SwaY]

I used carpet in my last litter - same time of year.

I used vet bed this time, I found it to be hotter.