Umbilical Cord Care for Newborn Puppies

Last updated: June 03, 2019

In this Vet Minute, Revival's Director of Veterinary Services, Dr. Marty Greer, talks about how to care for an umbilical cord on a newborn puppy.
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Video Transcript

Why is belly button care so important for puppies and kittens? Hi, I'm Doctor Greer, Director of Veterinary Services with Revival Animal Health and in this Vet Minute we are going to be talking about the importance of umbilical cord care in newborns. Puppies and kittens are born with a wet umbilical cord which is vulnerable to bacterial infections. It's easy for bacteria to ascend up the umbilical cord into the abdomen of a puppy or kitten and cause them to pass away unfortunately very suddenly. So instead of having to wait for problems, we want to preemptively treat all of our umbilical cords to help dry it and keep bacterial assent from being a problem.

Marty Greer, Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, has 35+ years' experience in veterinary medicine, with special interests in canine reproduction and pediatrics. She received her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from Iowa State University in 1981. She's served as Revival's Director of Veterinary Services since 2019.