golden retriever

Is your dog a female? Are you planning to be her mother? Please note that some female dogs may have high fever and convulsions after giving birth to puppies, just like epilepsy.

Cause of disease

The main reason why female dogs have postpartum convulsions is because during the lactation period, a large amount of calcium in the dog's body will be lost with breast milk. Therefore, if there are too many puppies and the number of sucklings is too frequent, it may cause postpartum convulsions in the female dog.

Susceptible pet lactating female dogs

The onset time is acute within two weeks of the puppy’s birth.

Symptoms

Generally, this problem occurs suddenly in dogs with no obvious signs beforehand. The dog will show symptoms of mental excitement. The sick dog will be restless, timid, occasionally whine, have an unsteady gait, and will have relatively rapid breathing. . Symptoms of convulsions soon appeared, with intermittent or tonic muscle spasms, stiff limbs, unsteady gait, and even lying on the ground. Some dogs with more serious problems will also have symptoms such as high temperature, difficulty breathing, rapid pulse, foaming at the mouth, etc., and the visible mucous membranes may turn blue-purple. From the onset of symptoms to the onset of convulsions, the shortest time is about 15 minutes and the long time is about 12 hours. The process is relatively rapid. If severe cases are not treated in time, they will die of suffocation in more than 1 to 2 days.

How to deal with it

If the frequency of convulsions in a female dog is relatively high, it will be difficult to achieve relief through ordinary calcium supplementation alone. Therefore, certain medical methods are needed. If the owner is able to inject himself, he can inject 10% calcium gluconate 5-20ml into the dog. The injection speed should not be too fast. At the same time, intravenous injection of pentobarbital 2-4mg/ kg body weight or chlorpromazine hydrochloride 1.1-6.6 mg/kg body weight (this is intramuscular injection) to control the problem of convulsions in dogs. Then supplement the female dog with an appropriate amount of calcium every day and get plenty of sunshine.

Conservation period

Reasonable calcium supplementation is essential every day. Taking your dog out for exercise and getting more sun will help calcium absorption.

Notes

1. Although dogs lack calcium, the amount of supplementation must still be reasonable, otherwise it will be counterproductive.

2. In order to prevent the occurrence of postpartum convulsions, calcium supplementation should be done before delivery. Sufficient amounts of calcium, vitamin D and inorganic salts should be provided in food.

3. If the number of litters is large and the mother dog feels stressed, the owner can appropriately use goat milk powder instead of breast milk to share the pressure of the mother dog.