My husband had a scare yesterday when Joanie started acting strange. Panting heavily, then an inability to walk well and finally seizures. I found out about all this after work on my way home when she was already at the Vet's office.
She had Canine Hypocalcemia. Other names are Milk Fever, Puerperal Tetany and Eclampsia.
It's something I had never heard of until yesterday.
It's a life threatening situation and it sounds like it is pretty possible it will happen again. It most likely due to the fact that she weighs just 15lbs and is nursing 5 good sized puppies.
Other causes are poor diet but we feed a very high quality food. She was a stray during her pregnancy and then had her puppies at the shelter, so I'm not sure how far in advance her diet would have been a problem. It takes about 3 weeks to get calcium levels back up if that's the case and we have only had her a little over a week.
If it happens again we will likely have to wean the the little pups and supplement with puppy formula. I think mom's milk is pretty important for lifetime health so I'm hoping we can get though this OK.
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