I have six week old pups and two weeks ago they came down with Staph on their faces. They are on Amoxi-clav twice a day and the infection is completely gone. This is my Dam's third litter and in her second litter they also had Staph...that time quite bad. The pups are 18 months old now and none of them have any scarring or hair loss.

My question is, could this be something the Dam is passing along to her pups? Their box is immaculate...we use bleach to disinfect everthing. They seem to get it when we move them from the whelping box in our dining room to the bigger pen in our garage.
Secondly, I read that any pups that had the infection should be removed from your breeding plan? Any thoughts on this? I have spoken at length with our veternarian and he does not believe that we shouldn't breed from her offspring.

You're right - it doesn't sound like strangles, or it wouldn't have cleared up with the antibiotics. Have you checked to see if there are any sharp edges on the pen in the garage? Sometimes they poke their little noses through the chain link and get a little scrape that gets infected... But I wouldn't pull anyone from your breeding program.

I was told by my vet that if I hadn't acted quickly with antibiotics this would have turned into full blown Strangles.
Their large pen is painted plywood....no sharp edges at all. I was wondering if it was puppy teeth...biting each other??

I had a puppy in one of my past litters with a staph infection on his face. Even though I washed their faces with a warm washcloth after eating, between my vet and I, we figured it was a combo of two things...sharp puppy teeth scraping the skin(playing bitey face) and wet food. I started using some dial antibacterial soap on the wash cloth and rinsing it off real good after, then totally drying the face with a soft towel. Along with the antibiotics it cleared up well.

Hi
It seems that your infection source for the staph is in the garage area. The plywood walls for the pen maybe the culprit. Staph are very tough bacteria and able to survive and thrive in a number of environments. Just a thought, but when was the last time you bleached the plywood walls of the pen? Hope you have success in your battle!If you can isolate a source, that would help relieve your mind.
Take Care and wishing you success,
Lisa

This is what I find so strange. The infection never goes any further than their face. Six puppies were affected out of nine.
The plywood box was fully bleached after we used it last Christmas. Strangely enough we never had this problem prior to using the plywood box. The pups are raised for the first 4 weeks in a Dura-whelp. Before the plywood box we used to use a 10 x 10 box made out of the Dura-whelp material. We also used shavings and
now we use the pellets (equine bedding).
This is really awful and does not look good when puppy buyers come. I would like to know how to get rid of this once and for all.

have you thought about getting rid of the box you have and building a new one? I know a pain in the you know what, but......

Also, we took vinyl flooring that you would see in a kitchen or bathroom and actually covered all wood, all sides making the cleaning and disinfecting process much easier.

Are the pup all eating out of one bowl ? are they eating fast. Is the food being left on their faces to cause a problem. Some little hoggies need a face wipe during a period where they are so tender for infections. Just a thought ! Have had this happen. It is not Strangles, will not go away with just antibotics.

we had the same problem the Box is spotless so is my home but some of the pups kept on loosing hair on there face it looked crusty the vet and i could not figure it out well a big part was the Equine bedding as clean as it is it sticks to there nose and closes there pores in there face after they left it all cleared up email me if you would like to talk it can be real fustraiting Anthony

Here's another thought: is the wood "treated"? If so, the chemicals used to treat the wood (or even the glue used in the plywood) might act as an irritant to the skin causing pustules on their faces.

I am currently going through Juvenile Cellulitis aka Puppy Strangles with one of my pups. The pup looked to have developed a sty on it's eye that rapidly (overnight) turned into swollen, inflamed eyelids. I mean they look horrible. The pup had no other symptoms, so I thought eye infection. I brought her to the vet and right away the vet said "Strangles".
I didn't want to believe that, as I have never had this in any prior litter. I opted to treat with Clavamox and Vetropolycin (eye ointment). The next day I was on the phone to my vet. The pup's lymph nodes were the size of marbles...she did have the strangles. This pup has been on prednisone for a day and a half and the eyes are almost back to normal. She is continuing on the antibiotics as the pred lowers their immune system. There are those that believe this to be a genetic condition. My vet is convinced of this as it is more common in certain breeds of dogs. Our clinic has only seen it in labrador litters. (It is apparently very common to our breed.) Anyway, the vet said that in itself is the justification for it being congenital.

So, check your dog's lymph nodes...if they are swollen get your pups some prednisone.

What about mange?

Plastic bowls can cause those problems too especially the really wide nosed pups. Just a thought.