My mama dog had her “oops” puppies a week ago. She’s feeding and cleaning them. Very protective. Otherwise she doesn’t really want to be with them much. She spends most of her time sitting outside but near the whelping box. She is still panting and she also has been discharging some blood randomly. It hasn’t been regular, but a few times there’s a small puddle. After the first time I noticed it, we hauled off to the vet.
An ultrasound revealed that mama has a retained placenta. Her calcium and CBC are normal. She’s eating and drinking and feeding puppies normally. Puppies are growing normally.
Here is our dilemma:
Doc said we can spay her now if we want. It would nip any infection in the bud. The downside is she Is lukewarm with her puppies and she seems to stress easily with them. Doc is concerned that she may give up on them if we were to stress her out.
Option 2 is weekly checkups. CBC. Ultrasound. Antibiotics (she’s on 2). And an anti-inflamitory. When pups can wean or drink from a bowl, we will spay her then. The con would be that this is slightly less safe for Mama.

We were explicitly told there’s no wrong answer. Best case scenario is that “the placenta gets gooey and falls out”. (Apparently that’s a thing..).. She is eating, drinking, nursing. She has no fever. She had a normal CBC. She is active and acting normally....

We have been back and forth a thousand times about this. There really doesn’t seem to be a good answer but we are leaning towards the second option. It’s going to cost a lot more, but I’m not sure I can independently care for 7 newborn puppies if mom rejects them or her milk dries up. At the same time, my girl is my priority and if she were truly at risk we would do what we have to do.

Anyone have an opinion? I have to decide by midweek th