About meLiz~ Shih tzu lover, mom to kids, wife to a great guy Archives
March 2012
Categories |
Back to Blog
Calcium During Pregnancy11/21/2011 I noted in a recent post that I do not supplement calcium during a dam’s pregnancy. I have never supplemented specifically for calcium during pregnancy. I feed a high performance food all of the time, with the exception of nursing, when I switch to puppy food.
When my dogs show signs of labor I normally give them a raw egg and add 2 crushed Tums for calcium. Within a few hours of birth being complete I give this again and continue giving it on a daily basis for about 5-10 days after birth. This length of time is determined by the dam’s unique needs. Some dams need this a few times per week for the duration of nursing, some don’t need it at all after the first 10 days. However, I have heard that many people supplement specifically for calcium everyday for 2 or more weeks leading up to birth or switch to puppy food during pregnancy for the extra calcium. When I heard this I wondered if I was neglecting my dog’s nutritional needs, specifically calcium. So I experimented with giving them Tums during pregnancy. The result was vomiting. Perhaps this was due to them eating too quickly, but I wonder if it was their bodies rejecting the extra calcium. I have always been under the impression that a lack of calcium immediately after birth would lead to Eclampsia in the dam, but that you should not supplement calcium during pregnancy itself. Thus why I have practiced the above. However the questions I have received have caused me to go back and reevaluate my feeding regime. I found the following statement in an old email from a fellow breeder, however I cannot remember who that person was to properly credit them. “Yes, the amount of calcium in puppy food is too high for preg bitches, there have been a number of studies showing that extra calcium either through puppy food or supplementation during preg can cause uterine inertia, resulting in c-section.” This statement has caused me to dig further into the reasons behind what I do. Our family has been feeding Shih tzus this way for 20 years and in that time we have had 2 C-sections, which for this breed is pretty good. I found a number of sites on this, but below are a few that I found to be particularly interesting. This site http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/breeding/nutrition.htm seems to indicate that supplementing calcium during pregnancy can contribute to uterine inertia and thus C-sections Here http://www.dogbreedinfo.com/breedingpregnancyguide.htm it states that calcium supplementation and puppy food should be discontinued 10-14 days before the expected whelp and then resumed after the whelp takes place. It mentions this in regard to the uterus. Now my own personal experience has been one of having pre-term labor. Meaning that I begin having contractions long before my babies are due. I have had three different Ob’s for three different pregnancies. Each time I started having contractions, the first thing they did was to draw blood to check my calcium levels and to prescribe fairly high levels of calcium to help “relax” my uterine muscles. It was always discontinued several weeks before the expected delivery as according to the Ob’s “high blood calcium levels can impair the body’s ability to have normal, useful contractions.” Now I realize that human and canine pregnancies progress and behave differently, but I am finding more and more that there are similar biological processes in place for both species. Very little funding and research goes into canine reproduction, but millions go into human reproduction. So looking at human reproduction and seeing if its findings apply to canine reproductions is a reasonable thing to do. Thus I am willing to make the leap that high calcium levels in a dam would cause the same issues that are seen in human reproduction. This site http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/80304.htm states that oral supplementation of calcium during pregnancy can actually cause eclampsia (also know as Puerperal Hypocalcemia, Postpartum Hypocalcemia, Puerperal Tetany, and Periparturient Hypocalcemia) More links on the connection between calcium intake during pregnancy and eclampsia: http://www.ehow.com/about_5345025_eclampsia-symptoms-dogs.html http://www.gsdhelp.info/repro/eclampsia.html http://www.lowchensaustralia.com/breeding/eclampsia.htm http://www.ifvec.com/Clinical%20Vet%20Advisor%20012011/Eclampsia.pdf The sites above and my own observations have reaffirmed in my mind that I am doing the right thing for my dogs and their ongoing good health. If any other breeders have had different experiences or have knowledge of further research on the matter I would love to hear about it.
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |