female nipple

Question
Hello, my female boxer had five puppies about 4 weeks ago. She has been very good about feeding the puppies. However one of her nipples has gotten very swollen. I have tried to drain her nipple by pressing on it, but I got very little out. I don't know if it might  be infected. What should I do.?

Answer
Squeezing it will only make it sore, because the swelling is in the tissues of the teat, not that it is too full. She has mastitis in this teat and it will abscess if not taken care of quickly.

You need to do warm and cold compresses alternately on the affected nipple. She may even need antibiotics from your vets. Dealing with mastitis can be tricky once it abscesses so try and avoid that at all costs.

Here is an article on mastitis for you to read:
http://www.petplace.com/article-printer-friendly.aspx?id=3882

As you can see, this is pretty serious. So you should get her to the vets tomorrow if you can. If this has been ongoing for a while she might already have started to abscess.

In either case, she need to see the vet right away.