pregnant shih tzu

Question
QUESTION: my pregnant shih tzu is about 5 weeks gone but all she wants to do is sleep,is this normal.

ANSWER: Julie
This is normal.  She has growing babies inside her and hormone changes at this point are where she is needing plenty of rest.  You also should change her to a quality puppy food at this point as well.

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QUESTION: will change her food,but at the moment shes off that as well and prefers to eat what were having,will this do her any harm.


ANSWER: It is best that she just be fed a good puppy food, she does not need to be getting any supplements of calcium this can cause problems later when she begins whelping so can other supplements.   Also, extra fats can cause upset to her tummy.    There have been studies that show and increase in litter sizes just on mothers who were fed strictly dry puppy kibble in comparison to those who were supplemented with cottage cheese, vitamins or chicken/rice, etc.  Just stay away from the calcium for now until she delivers.  Once she delivers her first pup then do indeed give her a slice of cheese it will help her tremendously at that point, I even replace the water in their bottle with chicken broth.  Good luck.

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QUESTION: she gave birth on monday to 6 healthy pups, but she as had diarrhea quite alot, have been giving her lactol milk could this be causing it and should i stop it


Answer
You should stop the mild yes and the diarrhea could also be coming from the placenta that she ate after giving birth as well.  Feed her just the hard puppy food for now and plenty of water or pedialyte if the diarhea is really bad (you don't want her dehydrated).  You can give her about .5cc of childrens kaopectate for the diarrhea.  Congratulations of the pups and hope they all do well send pics to my site or email www.enchantedtails-shihtzukou.com or deanna@enchantedtails-shihtzukou.com