is this normal with whelping??

Question
hi Denise, spoke to you on monday re Roxy who had 6 puppies, she keeps panting and when I give her water she stops, she is drinking tons of water and eating 4-5 meals a day as she is always starving, and is weeing loads as well, but every few hours she starts breathing really fast and panting, she's looking after babies very well and they have all gained 3 oz in 48 hours, today she was shaking abit aswell, she's 2.5 years and is a staffordshire bull terrier and had her litter on monday, scan said 7 and she had 7, last one stillborn, please help, did phone my vet and they said its normal and didn't want to see her or the pups, is that normal???

Answer
Hi Faye:

It's perfectly normal for her to drink more water & eat more food but the other behavior is troubling. Usually a female will settle down within a few days of whelping & although any good mother will act differently her behavior doesn't sound "normal" to me. I can only assume your vet did an X-ray to ensure nothing was retained in her uterus and/or gave her an oxytocin injection. If neither of these were done & she's still drinking excessively it could be a sign of a uterine infection. Pyometra is very serious & life-threatening but normally a dog will drink tons & refuse food or eat very little. One can usually detect a foul odor emitting from her vaginal area. They run a high temperature so the first thing I'd do is take that. If it's elevated to 103 degrees F or above & she's still drinking constantly I'd insist on your vet examining her ASAP or ask to refer you to a vet who will. If she does have this infection, her life & obviously the lives of her litter are in jeopardy. I don't mean to scare or overly-alarm you but her actions worry me! I'd rather err on the side of caution. It's also entirely possible that she's just a very nervous mother & is having difficulty in adjusting to the hormonal fluctuations occurring - if that's the case, I still think your vet has a duty to at least rule out anything more serious. I wish I could provide more help for you but I truly feel this is the best course of action.