After the birth of the bitch, it is common for the mother to generate a bad smell, either due to vaginal discharge or due to the puppies that she constantly has on top of her to suckle. We can add, for a worse scenario, that it is summer and with heat the smells increase. We want you to be as good as possible so that these moments that you have to live do so as comfortably as possible.
From our site we will try to answer this question to many owners: Is it bad to bathe my dog after giving birth? There is no yes or not, but time and advice to obtain the best results during the puerperium. Keep reading:
When can I bathe my dog after giving birth?
In the first 48 hours after giving birth, our dog will be exhausted, physically and mentally, just like human women. We find a dog with little or almost no appetite, without energy, who just wants to sleep. The delivery stresses them a lot and they just need to rest since the first hours they have 6 or 8 puppies attached to their mothers 20 hours a day.
Her recovery will be natural and spontaneous, but in some cases, especially in first time, it can take up to 1 week. But there are certain cares that we have to take into account before bathing her. We do not recommend bathing her before a week postpartumas we do not want to add another stress to her mother's life and, what is even worse, the puppies will continue to dirtying. She will continue to have vaginal discharge for 1 week to 10 days after delivery.
What we can do is clean it with damp cloths with lukewarm water. This will encourage her, since nobody likes to be dirty and smelly and we will not take risks with the little ones, who as they still cannot see, many times, until they find the tit, they suck anywhere and we can intoxicate them with the soap that we use to our bitch You can also use a damp cloth.
We have other things to take care of than giving our furry mom a bath. We will detail them in the following sections in order to have a convalescence of the female as short as possible.
Feeding a recently given birth bitch
Although it is always a good idea to help a bitch care for her puppies if she is very weak or seems exhausted, the truth is that the mother will take care of almost everything when it comes to the puppies, we we will only take care of it. We said at the beginning that he may have no appetite for the first few days, but we cannot allow him not to eat. The puppies will be suckling all the nutrients that inhabit it, so you must have reserves for it.
We can choose a food for puppies, which is a very caloric and nutritious food for these stages of life. In general, we will need a food with many proteins, an issue to consider if we choose homemade food. They should lead meat over carbohydrates (rice as an example), at the time of preparing the diet.
The feeder must always be full, so he can eat whenever he wants, and the puppies allow him. It shouldn't be far from where she sleeps with the little ones. The same goes for water. She has already lost a lot of fluid during childbirth and now, nursing the little ones, we don't want her to get dehydrated. If we see that one of the two does not come down, does not eat or does not drink, he will have to get into the farrowing pen with her and force her. Sometimes, they dedicate themselves exclusively to the puppies and forget about themselves.
For more information, you can consult this other article on our site on Feeding a dog after giving birth.
Avoid damage to the mammary glands of a recently given birth bitch
The mothers must be under our care too, especially for 2 reasons: for the he alth of the female and for the he alth of the puppiesWe must make sure that they are properly fed, that they have enough milk and that they do not abuse just 1 teat, leaving it almost dry and sore.
The mammary glands can get sick, causing mastitis and a lot of pain for the mother, so she will push the puppies away, preventing them from eating. It can happen in 1 or more breasts and the main sign will be the appearance of fever or high temperatures in the area. We should consult our veterinarian whenever we observe these symptoms in order to apply a rapid treatment.
Also, during the puppies' month of life, milk teeth appear, and with them, the lesions on the nipples of the bitch There are mothers who separate those who can eat by themselves, but in cases where they cannot, we must be vigilant and separate them ourselves.
