I really need some advice. I hope this is the right forum, if not, my apologies.
Our doxie had a litter of 5 puppies one week ago today. She and the puppies were all doing great. She and the babies were checked by the vet on Saturday morning. All were given a clean bill of health. Our vet advised us to watch for breast infections but said that since the puppies were nursing well it shouldn’t be a problem. Well, she was wrong. Yesterday afternoon mom started becoming lethargic, her breathing was shallow and she seemed to be running a fever. At first we couldn’t figure out what was wrong. She is trying to acclimate to the hot desert summer from coming from a much cooler climate so we (wrongly) assumed that her panting and excessive water drinking was because she first is a brand new mom and that the heat here was getting to her.
I went to check on her last night and as I was petting her noticed that one of her teats (not being nursed on) was really swollen and hard as a rock. She was also really spiking a fever. I rushed her to animal emergency where they admitted her and kept her overnight on fluids and strong antibiotics. Her temperature was 105 when she was admitted.
The vet sent me home with puppy formula and bottles to feed the puppies. We tried all night to get those babies to eat but they just wouldn’t take the bottle. I resorted to using a Q-tip to drop some formula the their mouths but that wasn’t very effective either. This morning I picked up a medicine dropper and a syringe from the drug store to try and feed them but that wasn’t working too well either. The vet said that mom cannot nurse while she is on antibiotics and that we will have to bottle feed the puppies until they are ready to be weened. I don’t know what to do. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get them to eat?