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My senior dog had puppies but can't nurse. How do I feed the puppy?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mountain Feist | Female | unspayed

My dog is almost 13 years old and has had many litters in her time. Although we’ve tried to prevent it for her own sake, she had another two puppies early yesterday morning. One of them passed away due to weakness and the other is pretty much the same however we’ve been trying to nurse it back to health by hand due to the fact that it can’t seem the latch onto its mother to nurse. We believe that because she’s so old, that she can’t produce the milk that it needs to nurse from. Please help.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Answered By Dr. Melanie, BVSc MS

Veterinarian

Published on May 15th, 2018

You will need to go out and get puppy formula now if you want this puppy to survive. I recommend the KMR brand, and get a bottle as well. You can get them at a grocery store or pet store. I will put a link below on how to care for newborn puppies, but please keep in mind they are very fragile and require around the clock care. As for Echo, I strongly recommend getting her spayed. Female dogs should not be bred over the age of 7, and 13 is way too old to be having puppies. Spaying her is the only way to prevent it from happening again. Call her vet to make an appointment to have her spayed. If she isn't nuring the puppy, then it can be done sooner rather than later. Best of luck.

https://www.2ndchance.info/orphanpuppy.htm

1Pet Parents found this answer helpful

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