Painful teat trouble is no small matter
Poor old Yoyo had mastitis, or inflammation of her mammary gland. This can be very serious if left untreated, as the infection can spread and make the mother extremely sick, as in Yoyo’s case.
For the past week, we are seeing a lot of plastic washing baskets at the pet hospital. Why? Because inside, snuggled in towels and old T-shirts are litters of puppies or kittens, along with a very proud and protective mum, if she can fit.
Apart from the cat abscesses and itchy dogs that have been arriving in loads, we have seen an unusually high number of two problems associated with these washing baskets.
Yoyo and her five puppies arrived in one such light grey washing basket this week.
Yoyo is a 4-year-old cocker spaniel that never quite made it to see us for her operation and so she now has five little mouths to feed from her breakfast bar. But Yoyo wasn’t feeling too well and had stopped eating.
At 4 weeks old, the not-so-little puppies were starting to drag quite a lot of milk from Yoyo and this also results in more milk being produced. The more they suck, the more milk is stimulated to be made. But this can also create a few problems.
After unlatching several puppies, we were able to lift Yoyo out of her nest and have a good look at her undercarriage. She certainly felt very hot to handle and the thermometer confirmed her high temperature. Underneath was where the problem was coming from.
One of her rear mammary glands was very swollen, red, very hot and had a small discharging sinus that looked like it was ready to break into a larger opening.
Poor old Yoyo had mastitis, or inflammation of her mammary gland. This can be very serious if left untreated, as the infection can spread and make the mother extremely sick, as in Yoyo’s case.
The cause? It’s a balancing act that goes wrong really. The kittens or puppies need to drink just enough of the milk to reduce the contents of the glands at every feed but sometimes they don’t drink enough, or the gland produces too much milk, and everything gets a bit tight. The gland swells and will sometimes burst to the outside, as in Yoyo’s case.
A susceptible time is at weaning, 4-6 weeks in puppies and kittens. This is when the little suckers are starting to eat more solids and drink less off mum, but mum can have a lot of milk that needs releasing. So it’s really important to gradually wean puppies and kittens. Just taking them away at 6 weeks without giving mum a chance to gradually reduce her milk production is asking for trouble. Slowly introduce solid food to the little ones and gradually limit their access to mum and things may go more smoothly.
Yoyo was given some muchneeded antibiotics and antiinflammatories and Melanie (Yoyo’s owner) put warm compresses on Yoyo for several days until the swelling subsided.
The second problem that we have been seeing is ‘‘milk fever’’ in our canine mums. Yep, dogs get it as well as cows. This is the result of low blood calcium levels. Puppies can drag a lot of calcium from mum via their milk and if the mother isn’t on good, complete food, then lifethreateningly low calcium levels can occur. Meat diets just won’t do it!
Honey is a very white miniature Poodle that was rushed in to see us during a busy afternoon. She was trembling uncontrollably and almost having seizures. Her temperature was off the scale and her breathing very rapid. Her seven pups are 4 weeks old and had hungry little mouths.
She was suffering from low calcium levels and within minutes, could have started to have seizures, leading on to a sad outcome. With a bit of luck we managed to get a catheter into her arm and start her on a slow IV infusion of fluids and calcium.
Within minutes she was more relaxed and an hour later she was sitting up. Later that day she went home to be fed on puppy biscuits and an oral calcium supplement for a few days.
Prevention: A good commercial complete diet from late pregnancy through to when the pups leave home.
Mums just have it tough in all worlds and in lots of ways really.