Potential postpartum diseases in the female dog

In an interview with Lacey Rosenberg, DVM, DACT, an associate veterinarian for Veterinary Specialties at the Lake in Sherrills Ford, North Carolina, she explained what postpartum diseases can occur in the female dog and how each of these diseases present in a patient during the Fetch dvm360 conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Below is a partial transcript.

Lacey Rosenberg, DVM, DACT: The most common things that we're gonna see in the postpartum bitch or the postpartum female dog are mastitis, metritis, hypocalcemia, [Streptococcus] agalactiae, and then subinvolution of placental sites or SIPS.

So mastitis is inflammation of 1 or more mammary glands, we're going to see like a permanent memory discharge, or the milk may have some blood in it, if it doesn't have pus, [and] usually the glands are going to be warm [and] painful to the touch. We treat these obviously with pain management appropriate antibiotics.

Metritis is going to be inflammation of the uterus in the 2 weeks after whelping. So in that postpartum period, it can be from a retained puppy. Severe retained placentas [with] really long whelping or bacteria just has a chance to invade. Depending on the severity of the case, sometimes these are spayed [and] sometimes we will medically manage them.