Of course it's 7:00 and all the vets are closed... I have a nursing mom, pups were born 2 days ago. She hasn't been eating much. I took her temp this morning and it was fine. I just took it again and it's 103.3. She's drinking fine, acting and nursing as normal. Any thoughts on this? TIA
Higher temps after whelping is nature way to prevent infection while placentantation sites involute. Considering a normal temp 101 - 102, 103.3 is not horribly high, I had a girl go to 104, and was getting ready to take her in when it started going back down. I would watch it carefully but I don't think this is an emergency, enough to risk taking newborn puppies and their dam to the E vet.
Of course it's 7:00 and all the vets are closed... I have a nursing mom, pups were born 2 days ago. She hasn't been eating much. I took her temp this morning and it was fine. I just took it again and it's 103.3. She's drinking fine, acting and nursing as normal. Any thoughts on this? TIA
Normal temp for a dog is 101 to 102.5 so that is not really high, how hot are you keeping the whelping box? This could affect her temperature Contrary to what all the books etc say I would keep the temp in the box at 70 degrees, unless you hear crying babies and you will know the cry that says something is wrong I would not keep their living area anymore than that, they snuggle against mom and each other to keep warm. Check all her teats and make sure none are getting mastitis and use ph tape to check the ph of the milk to make sure it's not going toxic if all is good i'll bet your keeping their whelping box too hot
Have you checked all of her mammary area? This could be mastitis if you find any hard area around a nipple. If you do, this needs to be addressed promptly.