About A Puppy? - Page 2

My advice to you would be to cut out  meat protein altogether and put the pup on an Hypo allergenic kibble only from Vets, like R.C DR 21, ask your Vet for advice on this, but do not treat this adivise lightly until you ask your Vet about an Hypo allergenic diet, It could be that your Pup is allergic to Meat just as my Goran is
I can tell you a great deal more but have posted it a couple of times now
Steve

Larrydee - I have my little girl on the large breed Orijen, I work it in slowly to wean her off the breeder food as they had her on some brand from Walmart I could not verify ingredients and/or ratings on.  Based on several sies and other GSD owners I went with the Orijen.

I have heard others mention pumpkin, I might try that next.  I did note that we actually had better luck with the instant white rice than the slower cooked kind, but as mentioned are trying to take all the grain out now just in case.

Steve - I have not even considered an allergy to meat...I will ask my vet her thoughts on this as well.

I have also been reading other threads and have seen it mentioned a few times that sometimes C and G are not found in the first test and should be retested multiple times.  I will ask my vet about this as well.  generally how long between tests should this be does anyone know?

Thanks again for all the help so far.

It sounds like you are on the right track. From this point I would follow your Vets advice. Try the pumpkin it works well.

Folks, I think we're all looking for zebra without first checking for horses.

Just some thoughts from the other side of things and OP I apologize if you already spoke to this questions somewhere else and I missed it.

First, we're talking about a baby who has been taken from her littermates and the only home she's known for at least 8 weeks to a whole new environment and people and experiences.  Sometimes, this can be stressful for a baby till they settle in to the new routine.

Second, OP have you and the vet gone over any environmental triggers?  Floor cleaners?  Do you use something that the puppy could be walking across and then licking her feet and ingesting?  What about your water?  Are you city/county or on a well?  If you're on a well do you have any chemical treatment devices (I have a cholorinator for instance)?  If on county/city do you know what they treat the water with?  What about your yard where the puppy goes out to play/relieve herself, have you put down grass seed, fertilizer, weed killer something that she could be walking across, ( a lot of people are prepping lawns/gardens for spring).

Looking back over your post I don't see if you mentioned a change in food?  Are you feeding what the breeder was feeding or did you change foods?  If you went with a different food, how did you change her over, gradual or quick and what ingredients are different between the foods?

I guess my feeling is a puppy is a baby and babies (human or furry) can be a little fussy when stressed by events we adults take as a matter of course, since they can't reason out a sudden change.  The fact that she's playful and has a good appetite and otherwise you indicate she's normal (no fever or secondary symptoms) makes me wonder if she just needs some supportive care while adapting to her new life with you and her family. 

Sounds like a case of coccidia.

She is just over 13 weeks old.  She was apparently the runt of the litter and was the last one left.  Her littermates had left a week earlier.  She had the diarrhea since we brought her home.  I has fluctuated a little.  I only use dishsoap and warm water on the floors.  We live in the city.  We have had other dogs in the past without any issue, both passed away from age.  We have a dog run with concrete flooring.  The yard is fenced off separately, and we have not put anything on the grass.  We did change her food from the breeder brand, and we did do it slowly, mixing in some of their food they provided us with.  The main difference is this is a grain free food, but as mentioned the issue was there before the food change as well.

I really hope you are right and it's just stress...because it's so heartbreaking right now to see her like this.  She runs around in little circles before squatting down and letting it out.  She is pretty thin and I hope she bulks up soon because she seems to fragile.

:(

A good bet is that this is related to parasites that have not been picked up yet in testing. However, if the breeder had the dog on food from Walmart, I am not much impressed with the breeder to start with. Sometimes parasites cause such havoc that they can cause damage to the intestinal tract and it takes time for that to heal. Have you asked the breeder about whether pups had firm, formed stools before they left there? And when and for what were they vaccinated and when? And when and with what were they wormed?

If you change anything, you should be changing only ONE thing at a time and give it several days, three or four at least, before changing something else. If this were my dog, despite the fact that no parasites have supposedly been found, I would treat as if they were there, starting with giardia/and or coccidia medications. If the pups were never wormed, this is a must and should be done repeatedly until one is sure they are worm free.

As for stress being a reason, I think that is pure bunk for the most part. I have had experience with many, many pups and dogs going from rescue into a different environment. It is EXTREMELY RARE that a dog shows stress without a serious temperament issue to begin with. If they did get so stressed, we would not be able to place dogs from rescues or shelters, for example. The running around in circles before squatting is often just how a given dog does its business, in other words, looking for a prime spot to do it. If she seems to be straining when squatting, that again is highly suggestive of parasites and irritated intestines.

I too would suggest a different diet to start with, but constantly changing it gets you nowhere. Go back to what she was doing better on and stick with it for some time while you then address some of these other issues. If the pup had parvo, it would be very, very ill. So I would not worry about this.

Ah, see I had vomitting issues with my girl for the first week after we drove her down from the breeders (13 hour car ride).  Never anything physically wrong with her and after a week of getting onto the routine of our family she straightened right up and never had another problem.

Thus where I got the idea of stress/change sometimes getting to them.  But that's just my experience with one dog, certainly not a wide sampling.

 Hodie

The food was called Ol'Roy from Walmart.  Most of the sites I checked out had no information on it, so that worried me.  I still used it to wean her off it slowly though while introducing the Orijen.

I was told that the puppy had her first shots, I have the name of the vet and the sticker from the vaccine.  She also said they were dewormed.  My vet is deworming her again now with a liquid we give her once a day (would have to go upstars to get the name).

You mentioned medicating for c and g, will the vet give me these meds even if nothing was found?

 Ol"Roy from Walmart......if they feed crap like that I would have been concerned. I would ask the vet who supposedly or gave the puppy shots for additional information. The dog should be dewormed again and if it is a liquid, given once a day, it may not be worming he is doing but trying to kill or rule out coccidia or giardia, but I would have to know the name of the medicine. In any case, I bet the pup will soon be doing better. As I suggested, don't change lots of things now. If this continues after the medication has been given, then revisit the problem and talk with your vet, or PM me as you have already done. The pup is likely to do just fine once you get this issue resolved. One reason it is thin may well be because it was being fed garbage food and probably has parasites. They can be very tough to get rid of in some cases. You will also want to consider whether you need to disinfect crates, floors, run and dirt areas etc., depending on what is found.

Good luck.