Agalactia in Dogs and Cats

1 Symptoms

Agalactia, or hypogalactia, is insufficient or absent milk after birth. The mammary glands feel soft and shrunken (unlike the inflammatory swelling of mastitis) and no milk can be expressed.

Nursing frequency rises but the young are unsatisfied, often chasing and biting the mother’s nipples until they are raw, inflamed, or ulcerated. The young cry, chew, and quickly become thin, and an entire litter can die of hunger.

2 Causes and Transmission

The condition is not infectious. It results from poor maternal nutrition, systemic illness, hormonal or mammary-gland problems, or failure of milk let-down after birth.

3 Diagnosis

Diagnosis is based on soft, non-producing glands and hungry young after parturition. The veterinarian checks the mother’s nutrition and health and rules out mastitis or other illness causing the low milk.

4 Treatment

Care improves nutrition and removes the underlying cause while treating any primary disease; medication to stimulate milk let-down may be used under veterinary direction.

The litter should be supplemented or fostered if the mother cannot produce enough, to prevent starvation.

5 Prevention

Feed a complete, nutrient-dense diet through late pregnancy and lactation and monitor the mother’s body condition. Check the litter is gaining weight daily.

Address illness or poor let-down early, and be ready to supplement the young if milk is low.