low protien levels in pup ? - Page 1

Ok ,its not my pup..........my girlfriend just called me and a friend of hers has a pup with low protien levels and low iron, the pup is 8 weeks old & just went to new home few days ago.not eating very well, is drinking ok...?????   Is this lack of eating.....

Low protein, low iron ?   How does she know ??   A vet??  Some sort of blood test?

Anything to do with such a young pup surely came from its mothers milk and the breeder's feeding habit's.

If the pup's not eating I'm sure it's skin and bone.   What's it been eating ??  And what kind of shape was the mother in?

Are there parasite's?

At 8 wk's something is wrong.   Parvo ??

Your not going to solve this here ,  seek the advice of a VET.

Pup has been to vet , thats how i know about blood test, the pup is still at vet now............i was just wondering if anyone has ever had this happen & what it was ....................... no worms-no parvo......    she has not been eating well at all at new home....i was just wondering if maybe pup was not weaned correctly ???

Not being completely weaned should not interfere with eating unless the pup was not weaned at all.   Maybe the change of food has its eating off.   Mostly I would say someone needs to be there and see first hand to really give proper advice.

If the pup won't eat anything I think something physical is wrong.

 Two Moons is right here. The pup should be seen and remain under the care of a vet if this is the condition of the pup. There are a multitude of reasons for why it might not be getting proper nutrition, including simple and not so simple problems. Without a good foundation with proper nutrition at this young age, one is setting the pup up for other more serious health issues in the future, assuming it would survive. So it should be at the vet clinic until the problem is resolved.

found out some more details.........pup was still nursing and food was left, but no-one knows if pup or mom was eating it.........they where not weaned correctly & i guess a new house only ate a few bite of hamburg off & on........pup is still at vets...

I had a golden pup with a very similar problem.  He came home seemingly healthy at 8 weeks but never really ate once I got him home.  He would maybe eat 1/4 cup of food a day.  He was treated for Giardia and Coccidia but his appetite never improved.  He was growing very slowly and had very dry dull coat.  Originally my vet thought kidney disease but with blood work we knew that wasn't it.  The blood work showed low protein and iron levels which made my vet think protein losing enteropathy.  She had me take him home and spend a week giving a dog multi-vitamin that stated "plus iron", 2 to 3 hard boiled eggs a day and as much dry kibble as he would eat.  We also gave him nutri-cal about a half hour before each feeding and that helped to increase his appetite a little bit ,plus the vet recommended 3V Caps HP also.  After a week of this we repeated the blood work which showed that his protein and iron levels had risen but he still seemed dull and had poor appetite.  We did a different blood test that was sent to Texas A&M.  It showed that he had small intestine bacterial overgrowth "SIBO".  My vet prescribed Eukanuba Low Residue for a course of 4 to 6 months.  I was very hesitant to feed such a "low quality" food but in the end I fed it to him for 5 months and he made a complete recovery and looks amazing.  I have heard of dogs with the same disorder being treated with tylan or metro and having ongoing problems.  After feeding that prescription diet I was able to put him back on the food I wanted to feed and you would never have know he ever had a problem.  He turned out to be very handsom and strong, you would never know he had been sick.  Good luck with your friends pup, I hope he is OK.