I have a girl that just birthed 4 huge yellow pups, her grandmother was a horrible mom, her mother the same and now daughter is going down the same road. It was a C-section 24 hours ago. Anyone have a magic wand that they want to share????

no matter how nice she is or what she produces,dams that will not look after their young are spayed and placed. they have a job to do for the first 4 weeks. it should be instinct .
i have been there which a bitch that had to be held down to nurse her pups.after 3 weeks of torture ,i weaned early and spayed and placed her as soon as possible.

Spay her and don't breed any of her daughters. I don't think I'd be on a third generation of bad mothers - I'd probably try the second to determine if it's genetic, which it obviously is.

That said:

What is she doing/not doing? Have you had her calcium checked to see if it's low? Is she in pain?

Our experence with c-sections is it takes at least 24 hours for mama to come around and except her babys.

Give her some cottage cheese, or yogurt right now ! Or even some Tums . Don't wait! And be patient untill the anesthesia wears off. Continue with calcium for the full 4 weeks, and feed her a Performance food. When she is done with this litter and she does not come around, spay her and do not keep a bitch puppy!

I think it is way to early to say all of that. A C-section is not like whelping for a mother dog. Give her some time. Hold the pup up there to nurse. Mine was born on Sat. by C and by Monday afternoon you could not keep her from them. Was a great Mom. We put them through all of this unnatural stuff and then wonder why they act like they do. Geeesh. Just make sure puppy eats and eliminates a little. 24 hours to early to panic. Let us know.

She didn't birth them, they were surgically removed. That would be her first strike. Can't whelp puppiesis not a good thing in my book.

Give her a little time to come around, if she doesn't, thats strike 2.

If she plays with them as they are older and weaned thats a great thing. If she doesn't, strike 3. And I would spay her and keep her as a pet.

If she had the section after her temp dropped, you should be better off rather than if not. Give some calcium- not too much- have the vet check her levels.Use some homeopathics too- some bach flowers to calm her down, sepia to get her hormones back on track. If she feels better, she will accept the pups sooner. A homeopathic vet will help you more at this point.

I had a bad mommy once too. It was awful for the first 10 days and then she finally warmed up to them. It was a natural birth so no excuses. Her second litter she was much better but still not great. Her two daughters I kept were fine and had great maternal instincts.

I did have another who was a bit freaked out about it all after a section. What I did was brought in a really wonderful mommy and after making sure it was okay with the real mom, let her start licking and caring for the puppies in the whelping box with the mom. After a day of this the new mommy decided those were HER puppies and took over. It worked great.

Another idea someone gave me at the time that helped a little was putting peanut butter on the hineys of the pups. I know....eeww...but it worked pretty well and at least I didn't have to make them all go potty.

First, being a good or bad mother seems to be at least somewhat genetic. If she's not being a good mom, and her mom wasn't a good mom, and so on, please stop breeding her and don't keep any bitches out of her for breeding.

That said, C-sections can take long for a mother's instincts to kick in. Try to place them on her and see if she takes to them--just watch careful to be sure she doesn't hurt them. If it becomes apparent that she should not be mothering them at all, you will either need another lactaing females or you'll have to hand feed, which in my experience is not easy. The subsitute mom doesn't have to be the same breed. Just find a healthy one, with owners who you can trust to take care of them for you.

You should probably explain what she is doing/not doing. I have had to do c-sec on a few bitches that had trouble with labor. The first 24 hours, they sleep. I do not leave them alone for a minute until I know she is comfortable with the pups. Take them and put them in a warm place and back on her every 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Some girls have taken 3 to 4 days to realize they are moms, especially if they are in pain. Did she have any pain meds at all? We tried it on the last c-sec and it did help.

Wipe the pups yourself until she gets it - I have done it for a week or more for the mom. Calcium in Tums does help and something special to drink, like broth in the water.

#1 Calm down. Your girl can sense how you are feeling and that is not going to help. Other suggestions are very good.

I realize it's too late now but for the future.. especially with girls that have not had a litter and have to have a C or any bitch having a C... ask your vet to baggie a placenta. Take it home and smear it on the puppies, not to the point that it's just a mess, but for a really good scent. This will help tremendously as the scent is the same as whelp scent.

Our girl who refused her new borns on her first litter is now spayed. This girl's mom and half sister were fabulous mothers. I didn't want to chance breeding her again and having the same thing happen. We did keep a few females out of our girl who couldn't get her mother act together so hopefully one of the girls will work out and be just as great a mom as her grandmother and aunt.

Calcium! A lot of times poor mothering is linked to calcium deficiency... Tums are great.

I always feed my whelping and in labor mommas calcium in the form of ice cream and yogurt all the way through whelping and while nursing all the weeks. Never been an issue with our girls not wanting to take care of their pups. She did show some signs of not enjoying being around pups when her mom had her final litter but I thought maybe if she had her own babies, her maternal hormones would kick in. Now I know, she really doesn't enjoy being around puppies until they get around 5 to 6 months of age.

Thanks a million for all of your comments and suggestions, well see how she fares and I will keep all posted!

People use Tums during and after whelping.....

How many and how often for each scenerio???

1 in between each pup whelped. However, my one girl was a bit off for the first 24 hours (maiden) so perhaps she could have used more.

I am interested in how much others give.

TUMS

I was recently told to give the dam 500 mg per number of puppies and one additional for the mom.

I always feed my moms 1 tums per day after whelping, I have never had any problem (knocking on wood), I feed Exceed and add some Cottage cheese or ice cream every day.

I hope the Mom is doing better! If you have a minute, an update would be great. TIA