puppy having problems after being shipped to new home - Page 1

We shipped two puppies this Monday - a male and a female.Both of them had no fear issues and were healthy.They were checked by vet on the day of flight and they were in good condition.Puppies left on Monday afternoon and arrived next day in the morning.The owner of the male is very happy with him but the owner of the female let us know that she was frightened and she didn´t want to eat on Tuesday.She started to eat a little on Wednesday and Thursday but on Friday she started vommitng and had a diarrhoea.Has anybody of you experienced something like this?Could it be the stress from shipping causing this? We have shipped our puppies before and haven´t experienced it till now.This female is the best female of the litter, very people-oriented,highly driven,eating well.
All the other pups are doing well in their new homes and so is the last puppy that we still have.
When she started to eat,the owner gave her quality food but different from what we gave her,it may cause the diarrhoea but I don´t think it would cause vomitting.He is taking her to vet today to find out.
Any suggestions from you are appreciated.

 There is a good chance that the pup picked up something of an infection in transit, or was already harboring an infection or parasites and with the stress of shipping now is displaying signs. The most important thing is that the owner has had the sense to take the pup to a vet for some help. That is the best thing and probably with a little supportive care, the pup may be fine shortly. You may end up having a vet bill, but better that than a sick or dead pup, or a client who is unhappy when they have seemingly done nothing to contribute. Even giving a different food is likely not the issue here.

Good luck.

I would tell them to get her to the Vet today ASAP ! don't let it go into the weekend shipping does not cause that

The owner just let me know that the vet didn´t find any signs of infection and told him to put the puppy on a diet food - rice and chicken and gave him some meds to stop the diarrhoea.
I can understand that the owner is worried about the puppy,so am I.
I thought that I read something on this messageboard before but I can´t find it.Giardia was stated there as one of the possible reasons.We work with our dogs and visit different training centres to give our dogs a lot of different stimulation which on the other hand may carry the risk of getting something.
None of the pups from the litter had any health problems.Would it be possible that a puppy has giardia and shows no signs of it?

Yes the pup could have giardia, coccidia, worms, bacterial infection, a virus or any number of other problems and if you are saying you took these pups to some different training centers at this age, you were asking for trouble. I would not have even let you in the door if you came here with a pup like this. They have no real immunity at such an age and easily will pick up infections. Did your buyer submit a stool sample? I would suggest that they do so.

coccidia is probably more common in puppies ,you could tell them to get a snap test to rule out giardia and have some of your adults tested for it, its more common in certain geographic areas  if it is coccidia it is easily treated with ponazuril though it can be hard to detect sometimes best to do a centerfuge fecal

Hodie,I did not take these pups to different training centres - I never take a puppy to a any training centre unless it has all the nessesary vaccinations.I was speaking about our adult dogs.
I am taking my adult dogs and the puppy that we have from this litter to vet now.None of them shows any signs of disease, all of the dogs were dewormed two weeks ago but I want to have everything checked.
Thanks for all your advice.

I sold a litter of pups earlier this year, all were checked by my vet and given a clean bill of health so as you can imagine I was horried when two weeks later I recieved an email from one of the new owners which contained the following:

"She started off with diarrhoea and vomiting which got increasingly severe
until the poor little mite was constantly straining to pass small amounts of
watery faeces. The vet gave her antibiotics and kaolin but things got no
better and samples were sent to the lab which all came back negative. We
wondered if she'd eaten chicken poo or something else nasty but the tests
did not indicate that.
 
Whilst waiting for the test results I was horrified to see her starting to
prolapse. We rushed her back to the vet but the prolapse was going back in
 so she just had anti inflammatory injection. The following day (last
 Wednesday) she prolapsed about 3 inches of bowel so we rushed her back in
and the vet found an intussusception where the intestines telesope which
 would be fatal if not corrected so they operated and removed the damaged
section of gut."

The pup has now fully recovered and has no dietery problems. An intussusception is apparently not uncommon in GSDs although the vet was not sure if it was the cause of the diarrhoea and vomiting or as a result of it. This pup was 1 of 10 and none of the others had this complication, and I am not suggesting that this is the problem with your pup I am just making you aware of my experience.

Recently I got a 9 weeks old puppy  from Czech, the trip took about 24 hours in between driving to airport and from airport to airport. The first two days she was fine and ate well, then she had loose motion (watery) but no worms. I was so worried about her, vet only gave pills for the loose motion and advised to give her youghurt for one full day and only boiled chicken the next day and from 3rd day onwards put her on dog dry food. In two days she was fine and had no further loose motions. In my vet's opinion it is the change of water quality (type) and is common when puppies change home. This is my experience. Good luck.

Ibrahim

Change of food and water are number one when a puppy changes environment....Puppy is stressed..Puppy on the chicken broth and rice will be ok....but why did they change the food....new buyer should keep put as close to former home for a 30 day period and then put their own wished into the life of the pup...for some reason people want to CHANGE...do not ever change a pups food or try to cram new food stuff into a new pup...try to keep the same for a period of   gradual admission...After all, puppie have feelings and   do react to new environment no matter how strong a blood line...just take time to tell alll buyers....try to do as we did ...play music in room for pup  and try to avoid an upset...puppies read the new buyer also..they get their unsettled feelings, also from the new owner....

Hope all works out.....just have buyer continue what your diet was for a gradual change into what they want and be sure you clue them in about good food versus  crap.

YR