Keep her on preventive medications for heartworms, fleas and ticks and be sure to give those that have been studied for safety in pregnant dogs and their fetuses/puppies.” “You should update a bitch’s vaccinations ahead of time if you know her vaccinations will be due around her estrus cycle, pregnancy or into lactation. “It also is important to stay up on vaccines,” she says. Likewise, Andrea Hesser, DVM, DACT, a board-certified veterinary reproduction specialist who practices at Josey Ranch Pet Hospital in Carrollton, Texas, affirms the positive impact that comes from monitoring body condition, feeding a healthy diet, practicing good basic pregnancy management, and adhering to deworming regimens.
Monitor a bitch’s body condition to keep her healthy and fit and also monitor the rate of growth of puppies to reduce the risk of metabolic bone diseases, such as osteochondrosis dissecans and hip dysplasia. A high-quality, all-life stages dog food can be fed to bitches year-round and is ideal for weaning puppies.Developing fetuses are sensitive to even small changes in nutrient levels. Doing so could throw off the food’s nutrient balance. Do not add supplements or other foods to the bitch’s diet when you feed a high-quality, complete and balanced dog food.When the mom reaches a point in the last trimester when she is eating a lot of food, she should already be well-adapted to that diet.” If you switch from a maintenance diet to a performance diet, you’ve got that lag time before you get the full benefit of the food, so you want to do it in the very early stages of pregnancy. The higher protein and nutrition support a dog’s muscle to better support work, though it takes possibly two to three months for those adaptations to occur. Purina Senior Research Nutritionist Arleigh Reynolds, DVM, PhD, DACVN, a board-certified veterinary nutritionist, says, “There are many benefits to feeding an all-life stages diet such as one of the Purina Pro Plan SPORT Performance 30/20 formulas. The nutritional demands of pregnancy and lactation are achieved by feeding a high-quality, complete and balanced dog food. Just as you condition and train a Golden Retriever athlete, preparing for pregnancy nutritionally and from a health standpoint is important. Canine reproduction is a performance state much like athletic performance.
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