Dog Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook.pdf - Mr. Walnuts

484 •DOG OWNER’S HOME VETERINARY HANDBOOK
Betadine solution. A severely ill dam may require life-saving surgery to remove
the uterus and ovaries.
Most dams with acute metritis are too ill to nurse puppies. The puppies
should be taken off the mother and raised by hand, as described in chapter 17.
Bitches who recover from acute metritis may develop a persistent low-grade
infection of the lining of the uterus (see Endometritis, page 462).
MASTITIS
The bitch normally has five pairs of mammary glands, or a total of 10 individual
teats. There are two types of mastitis that can affect the nursing dam:
caked breasts and acute septic mastitis.
Galactostasis (Caked Breasts)
Milk accumulation in late pregnancy and during lactation may increase to the
point where the teats become distended, painful, and warm. They are not
infected and the dam does not appear sick. Caking of the mammary glands
also occurs during false pregnancy when there are no puppies to remove the
milk. This may also occur when the litter is small and the dam has extra milk.
Caked breasts should be distinguished from the swollen breasts that
develop when milk fails to let down after whelping (see Agalactia, page 486).
Treatment: Withhold water for 6 to 10 hours. Also withhold food for 24
hours and modestly restrict food intake for the next three days. Your veterinarian
may prescribe a diuretic such as furosemide (Lasix).
Bitches with a false pregnancy often exhibit an excessive mothering
instinct that includes licking and stimulating the teats, which makes matters
worse. This can be prevented, in part, by giving a mild tranquilizer prescribed
by your veterinarian. Hormonal therapy to dry up the breasts may be considered
in cases of false pregnancy.
Acute Septic Mastitis
Acute mastitis is an infection or abscess of one or more of the mammary
glands caused by bacteria that gain entrance from a scratch or puncture
wound in the skin of the teat. Some cases are bloodborne and are associated
with acute metritis. Breast infection can occur any time from day one to six
weeks postpartum.
Dams with acute mastitis run a high fever, are depressed, and refuse to eat.
The affected teats, usually the two largest ones close to the groin, are swollen,
extremely painful, and usually reddish blue in appearance. The milk may be
blood-tinged, thick, yellow, or stringlike. In some cases the milk appears normal.
Treatment: Acute mastitis should be treated under veterinary supervision.
Routine measures include appropriate antibiotics and the application of warm
compresses for 30 minutes three times a day, followed by gentle stripping of