Have you noticed irritation on your nursing mother dog’s mouth? Pink or red sores may occur, especially when mothers have large litters or are mothers of large breed puppies.
If a nursing mother has sores on her mouth, it is not because she is doing anything wrong or there is something wrong with the puppies. It happens because puppies do not eliminate, unless their mother stimulates their genitalia. Because good mothers regularly clean their pups, it is not uncommon for nursing mother dogs to develop sores on their lips from “urine scald” as a result of licking her puppies.
What Is Urine Scald
Urine scald or urine burn occurs when the skin has prolonged contact with urine, specifically the ammonia contained in urine. Good mother dogs who clean their puppies assiduously can develop the condition on and around their mouths. Since it is a burn, it is painful and can cause the mother to continually lick her own sores. That licking exacerbates the problem. Left untreated the sores can become infected, as she continues to lick her puppies to encourage elimination of feces as well as urine.
How to Prevent Urine Scald on Nursing Mothers
If your mother has had an issue with urine burns in the past, you can proactively clean her lips with a medicated baby wipe, after she cleans her puppies. This will prevent the urine from sitting long enough to cause irritation. You can also smear a little Vaseline on, after wiping and drying her mouth.
Not all nursing mothers will develop urine scald, so preventative care is only recommended if she has had previous issues with urine ulcers.
How to Treat a Nursing Mother Dog With Sores on Her Mouth
You need to be careful with the products you use to clean and protect this area. She will be licking whatever you put on her mouth, and she will inadvertently apply the treatment to her puppies rear ends.
Colloidal Silver Spray
To sterilize and sooth the urine burn sores, spray them with colloidal silver. Colloidal silver is safe to consume in small quantities and has been proven effective in infection control for burns, chronic ulcers and open wounds (1). It helps promote healing, is flavorless and does not burn when applied. Colloidal silver works to clear the bacteria from the open sores, and is the gold standard in human burn treatment units for infection control. It can also be used to promote healing of hot spots.
Petroleum Salve
To protect her mouth from the urine she will inevitably come in contact with again, you can apply a thin layer of petroleum based salve, such as Vaseline to create a protective barrier between her skin and the puppies’ urine.
When Nursing Mother Dogs Have Sores That Will Not Resolve
Generally speaking, urine scald on mother dogs is not a life threatening issue. The regular cleaning to stimulate elimination tapers off by the time puppies are 3.5 weeks old, giving her a chance to recover.
If the sores continue to grow or do not appear to be resolving, contact your veterinarian. He can take a scraping to see what bacteria are present, and can prescribe an antibiotic and pain killer if necessary.
Sources
- Effect of Topical Silver Nanoparticle Formulation on Wound Bacteria Clearance and Healing in Patients With Infected Wounds Compared to Standard Topical Antibiotic Application: A Randomized Open-Label Parallel Clinical TrialBasanti K Pathi 1, Subrajit Mishra 2, Niranjan Moharana 2, Abinash Kanungo 2, Amaresh Mishra 2, Subrat Sahu 2, Rajesh K Dash 1, Rajan Dubey 3, Manoja K Das 4 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38894757/
