Manitoba rescue dog lactates to feed orphaned feral kitten

Dog milk, it seems, is the cat’s meow.

Patricia Tschanen has spent her life rescuing, fostering, boarding and training animals. She thought she’d seen it all until her 11-month-old dog Phoenix spontaneously started producing milk to nurse a feral, orphaned kitten that was brought onto their property near Fraserwood, an hour north of Winnipeg, by one of her disabled cats.

“Some things you have to see with your own eyes to believe,” Tschanen says.

The kitten made quick friends with all the dogs there but took a special liking to Phoenix, who Tschanen took in as a rescue by Manitoba Animal Alliance.

“Snickers started laying on Phoenix’s belly and doing the purring and the stamping and I told my vet tech friend, ‘That’s so cute, it looks like she’s nursing’,” Tschanen said. She checked and sure enough, the dog had produced milk for the kitten.

Phoenix has never been pregnant but is not yet spayed due to lingering health problems from surviving the distemper virus as a puppy — a virus that killed her other five littermates.

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Veterinarian Ron Worb of Anderson Animal Hospital & Wellness Centre explains this sort of spontaneous lactation can happen for a few reasons.

Phoenix may have had what’s called a false pregnancy, essentially hormonal confusion after being in heat, which can cause milk production. But Snickers’ kneading and suckling is the most likely cause.

“As long as there was continual stimulation by the teats with suckling, it could stimulate the female dog to produce milk,” Worb says.

Luckily, Snickers is old enough for cat food as dog milk doesn’t have the same nutrients as a mother cat’s milk.

Tschanen isn’t sure long this will go on, but in the meantime, is happy for the unlikely couple.

“I like to think that the disabled cat helps the homeless cat and the rescue dog feeds her,” Tschanen says.

“(Phoenix) learned how nice it is to get help so maybe she thinks she wants to give that back to that little kitten.”

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