Three Babies. Is Mum Exhausted Or Poorly?

[Lindsaybean]

Poo girl must have had a long day. The babies are five days old now, mummy seems to be laid down a lot and spends a lot of time at the water bottle. Has spells of a sort of panting. Is this normal? I just assumed she's exhausted. I've moved them into a bigger cage will this have upset her?

 

[Wiebke]

Poo girl must have had a long day. The babies are five days old now, mummy seems to be laid down a lot and spends a lot of time at the water bottle. Has spells of a sort of panting. Is this normal? I just assumed she's exhausted. I've moved them into a bigger cage will this have upset her?

Please have her seen by a vet as soon as possible; if necessary by an out-of-hours service (which you can get from your normal vet's answering machine)! This is not normal. Have her lungs (respiratory tract infection) and heart checked, as well as looking for an infection of the womb lining.

Weigh her daily at the same time, instead of every second day, as we recommend with nursing sows. If necessary, start syringe feeding mum.
Weigh the babies daily to make sure that they are putting on weight. If all of them struggle, then there is a problem with the milk flow/mum's health.

It would be good if you could offer some extra food like mushed up pellets or stale wholemeal/wholewheat bread cubes soaked in full fat goats milk for the pups to nibble on. They should start switching from mainly drinking to mainly living on a solid diet in the coming week, but they are not quite there yet. Please do not syringe feed the pups, if done wrongly, it can easily kill them.

 

[Abi_nurse]

As Wiebke has said this is not normal and sounds like an emergency. You need to see a vet ASAP.

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