fleas?

Question
QUESTION: Hi It's me again,
thanks for helping me with my pomeranian she now has two beautiful puppies..and the whelping was relatively quick she was done in an hour.

Isn't the first puppy suppposed to be the biggest? Her first puppy actually needs extra TLC while the 2nd one is very strong and thriving.

I have a question; I think my dam has a few fleas..not too many, as there is not any "coal dust" but we saw one on her today. She probably doesn't have too many because I occasionally give her some brewers yeast. I don't know what to do, usually I just buy the medicine and put it on her coat(the one that comes in a little tube)
But I don't want to hurt the puppies. I also don't want the pups to grow up with fleas.

How do you recommend getting the fleas off the dam? Or should I wait and then how do I treat both teh dam and puppies?

ANSWER: Hi. I'm glad that everything is ok. No, the first one isn't always the biggest. You can safely give her Capstar for the fleas. It only lasts for 24 hours, but is safe to give every day. You can pick her up a couple of pills and work to rid of the fleas fast. You can use Dawn on her and the pups. Put it on thick and leave it on for a few minutes. The fleas will usually come to the top, easy to pluck off. You may also need to treat her area and your house as well. Good luck!

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QUESTION: Hi,
Today I realized that one of her breasts is a bit swollen, but it seems fine, no pus, etc. Is there just a lot of milk in that particular one? And its only the last two that have milk.
Also Ive been bottle feeding them just once or twice a day to supplement. I also give my dam some extra formula to nourish her.

I know its necessary to breed her only once a year, every other heat. However I read that someone's vet said it was okay to breed every heat until she is 4 years old, and every other heat from 4-6years old? Since the dam is very healthy?
Have you heard of this before? Everything I read claims that if you breed every heat the puppies will be unhealthy and so will the dam.

Thanks for the quick reply.

ANSWER: Keep a good eye on that breast. If it feels hot, or looks red, or the milk looks off get her to the vet. My own personal opinion is that a dog only needs to be bred 2, 3 times at the most in her lifetime. Breeding every heat is a bad idea, the pups will be weaker, mom can run in to trouble, you may end up with a high mortality rate. If you only want two litters, then you could possibly breed her on the next heat as well, as long as she did good and the pups are healthy, then have her spayed. If you plan on having more than 2 litter from her, then I would space them out. I don't understand why a vet would tell someone that it would be ok to breed a dog that many times, that's crazy. Some vets believe that if you only plan 2 litters then it's best to breed back to back and get it over with, I can understand that. But to breed a dog every heat til she's 4 is just plain nuts, that would be 6 litter by the time she's 4 if she comes in every 6 months. I don't mean any offense to you, just to that vet that said that. :-)

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

QUESTION: Hi Again. thanks for the info. I just found a website on my last question, and could you elaborate this for me?
Thanks very much.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/bulletins_read/116263.html

Answer
Some people believe that it is ok to breed a dog back to back constantly, others don't. I think that it's really up to a person's personal preference. I personally believe that if a female dog has a hard time whelping, poor milk, sickly pups, then she should never be bred again, as long as she was taken care of there shouldn't be a problem. A lot of whelping problems, fertility, defects, ect. can be passed on. My own personal opinion is that a dog should only be bred twice, three times at the most, and the only reason to do a back to back is if you are breeding her only twice and then have her spayed. My own way of breeding has been that mom comes first, always. Remember, these are only my own personal thoughts and don't mean that a different way is right or wrong, just that I do things my way. :-)