Drying up milk in mother dog

Question
QUESTION: My beagle has 4 week old pups which she will not let them nurse anymore, we have taken away her food for 24 hours then gradually increased her food back to normal. Now her teats are more full than they were before. What else can we try?

ANSWER: Taking away her food is pretty non productive. You should put her on a lower fat, lower protein diet. providing you had her on a good puppy food while she was nursing. Hot pack her teats twice daily and let the pups nurse but just a couple of times per day. If she is in pain she should let them nurse a little. Gradually cut their nursing time down to once per day and then every other day. At four weeks they still need mama's milk. Try cutting their toenails and see if that doesn't help as well> Supplement them, and give her an area that she can come and go at will without pups following. She'll self regulate. If you can't cut her food from puppy to adult,. try mixing it with rice to give her a full feeling while cutting fat and protein.
Good luck
Cindi

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks Cindy! She wont let the pups nurse anymore, they haven't since Feb 2. They are eating soft puppy food and are gaining weight better than when they were nursing. Especially the smaller puppies. I think she wont let them nurse because of their mouth full of teeth. Currently she is in a bath of warm water Soaking her teats. They don't seem painful yet just overly full. We tried to make her nurse the pups but she tried biting us and was growling at the pups when they came too close. Her first litter of pups died for some unknown reason with her previous owner and this pregnancy was an accident, she is scheduled to be spayed in 3 weeks thank goodness!

Answer
right at least you won't have to deal with this again. It's an awful lot of work! Do try the hotpacks twice daily and cutting back on the protein etc in her food even if that means adding some cooked rice for a week or so
She'll be ok soon :) Watch for signs of mastitis though!
Cindi