Aggression toward Newborn Puppies

NOTE: Consult your veterinarian prior to ANY treatment!

The "condition" is most appropriately called "pre-tetanic eclampsia". Most breeders are familiar with eclampsia, which is a calcium deficiency which occurs in nursing bitches and is very serious. This pre-tetanic form occurs prior to / during / just after whelping. The symptoms can include lazy whelping and inertia, agitation of the bitch, growling and aggression toward pups, all in varying degrees. The treatment is "Calphosan" (calcium) given sub-Q every 3-4 hours for 2-3 days usually (dosage for a 75 lb. bitch would be 1 1/4 CC each time). In those recent cases that I have heard of, that received this treatment, the bitches settled down and cared for their pups within a day!

I have experienced this in the past with a bitch who exhibited all these symptoms (except for whelping problems although she did slow down a lot at the end) and it was awful! She had to be kept seperate from her pups until they were several days old. She acted like she wanted to care for them but was very agitated and would hurt the pups if given a chance. There was NO advice given to me that helped so I had to wing it and keep the pups safe. My bitch did settle down and turned out to be an attentive excellent mother that adored her pups! But we always went through what I called "hell week" first. In hindsight, I wonder if her tendency to not eat well during pregnancy, combined with her body chemistry, caused this. She then would start to eat well about 2-3 days after whelping and so maybe ingested enough calcium to "level" things out? (I am guessing here and she is gone now.)

It seems that this condition is almost unknown to the average veterinarian. It also seems (sadly) that many are un-willing to learn about it even when it is a possible problem in one of their patients. My own vet (and the one also used by the breeder friend that learned about this from the terrier breeder/vet) has been most open to learning about this, but tells me it is almost impossible to find published information. Another friend in a different part of the country recently contacted me, describing this condition in her whelping bitch. I forwarded her this information and told her to call her vet. Long story, but I believe THREE vets basically refused to LEARN anything new, a puppy was ultimately killed, and a lot of extra work and stress went into raising that litter and keeping the rest of the pups safe!