milk fever?

Question
I have a two year old beagal she gave birth to her first litter last year. We notice that as each day would pass one would die,so we had another begal that have given birth right before her so we took what puppies where left and gave them to our other beagal. She is fixing to give birth again and we never did find out for sure why her first litter was dying. How can you tell that a dog has milk fever? Should we try to let her feed them or just take them away and nurse them ourselves? Should we get her fix? Thank You, Shanna

Answer
The best way to see if a dog has milk fever is to put a thermometer in its rectum and a normal temperature for a dog is 100.5-101.5. If you decide to use a thermometer you would apply Vaseline to it and insert it about a inch in. I only recommend you do this unless you are trained or supervised by a professional, because it could damage the dog. Some signs are she won't want to tend to her babies. She will likely be very 'needy' of your attention and appear worried. She will become restless and begin panting. The panting will get increasingly worse to the point of not only drooling a little but A LOT.Very soon after this - maybe minutes, maybe an hour - she will start staggering around, tripping and even falling right down. This is very scary. It's almost as if she were drunk or having a stroke.
If you fear that she may have milk fever I wouldn't breed her. But if you decide to you can feed them. Use milk replacement powder. I would not let her nurse them because of the substantial number of puppies she lost. Milk fever or Canine Eclampsia is quite serious so if you decide to breed her again consult her VET, because they would know more about her medical history. Having puppies may be taking to much of a tole on her body so be very cautios.If you decide to nurse them yourselves which there is nothing wrong with that, make sure you don't over feed them about 2-4 ounces. Make the mother very comfortable. Good luck and I hope for the best.