Puppy Survival thread part 4

[GooodMythicalMorning]

Puppy's getting bigger!: continuation of Bitey's thread. If anyone wants to join feel free.

PizzaPup was left yesterday whilst Dh ran an errand and left again this morning for DH to do the food shopping. She barked for a few minutes but no damage done.
DH and I had a big discussion about whether or not she's staying, lots of tears shed but no decision was made.

It's been very wet here too but not sure what to do about coat. I don't know what sort of weather she would have had in Romania so not sure what she's used to.

Guess whose in the emergency vets waiting room . His lump burst.

Oh no. Was it infection? Poor pup. Hope he's sorted soon. Shows you weren't being precious first pup. Poor baby.

Back from vets. Still think suture reaction but they are still all in place so it hasn't opened the actual wound up. Had antibiotics and have to go back to our usual vets tomorrow but looks like this could take weeks to clear up which isn't what I wanted to hear :(

Oh no. But how does an allergic reaction burst? Poor baby and how stressful for you.

The lump was really swollen and tight like the skin was translucent so I think he caught it or nibbled it (more likely) when I wasn't looking and I noticed him looking intently at it and then blood. They said his body is rejecting the dissolvable sutures and trying to expel them and we may even end up with a bit of a suture that we can pull out :(

Oh bugger. That must be so uncomfortable. Are they internal stitches? One of our cats pulled out her stitches when spayed. They had to staple her.

I think they are and his body is effectively trying to shove them out :(

Really could do without this as I can't keep working from home or having holiday.

Poor boy

Back from holidays and I can report moderate success with our car-anxious older dog using the Thundershirt. He still wanted to stand on me most of the time but we had a couple of occasions where he sat on my lap and no shaking or stamping at all. We even went on a steam train and he was fine.

We also had a herbal remedy from the vet which stank and was no use. Adaptil didn't work either. I feel we're getting somewhere though.

The holiday cottage had a massive dog safe garden so both boys were in their element as they could race round to their hearts content.

Oh no, poor biteypup. What an absolute nightmare

Sorry you are going through this. Could your daycare take him and keep him in a crate/a room away from other dogs so you could work?

Oh bless him and you. How stressful. And he can't exactly go to daycare etc whilst this is going on. Could any family or friends help?
With the separation anxiety we have had I don't know how anyone manages to work at all with a pup. Maybe I'm just doing it al wrong.

Is wolfiepup struggling with separation anxiety to? It's hard isn't it?

Wolfie other than DH I don't have any family and all my friends work so no one to help. The daycare will take him but it's a bit awkward with him now needing additional care and I need to still get him to the vets tomorrow so going to see how they get on but may have to be prepared to take time off. I have managed to swop my day care day so I will work from home tomorrow to get to the vets with the view to going into work on Tuesday but he has already bitten bits of plastic off the cone so that's out the window. He has pissed through a medical shirt because I could not get it undone in time and I am certain he can get to his wound with the inflatable cone. DH is stressed by it all (doesn't cope with medical stuff very well) and I am sat nursing a glass of wine trying to jolly the dog and him along and just wanting to sob with it all.

Anyway enough of my shit . Pizza it sounds like PizzaPup is improving so maybe give yourself a sensible time limit to see if it continues to improve and then have another discussion.

Best sounds like you had a good holiday.

She did. I won't lie. It was bloody awful. If I left her long enough to wee she would wee in her bed. Try and eat the bed. Drool. Eat the wall. Cry. And her heart would be pounding. So I couldn't leave her. Ever. It was grim.
I spent weeks getting her used to being left. First out and straight back in. She also sleeps in a pen. To start with I slept by the side. Then I just stayed until she was settled.
Now I can walk her and leave her for a few hours. She stays relaxed on her bed in the lounge whilst I pop upstairs or have dinner in the other room. Twice I managed to leave her on the bed in the living room and have a shower. We got her in December. Not a quick thing to fix.

Bites, my sister put a baby vest on her dog when speyed. Is biteypup too big for that?

Wolfie, we can't have a relaxed dinner, PizzaPup tries to get on the table to get the food, we have to wrestle her off then she'll sit under the table. If we put her in another room she will just yowl. She follows us upstairs or howls. It's grim

Oh no Biteypoor you and poor bitey dog. You're so unlucky as it's usually such a straightforward operation and recovery. I'm so very lucky that I have my parents as back up dog care. I honestly don't think I'd have been able to keep Bluepuppy without them.

blue I so wish we had had the same experience as you did as I am feeling pretty tired emotionally by it all as we just seem to hit problem after problem with him. I need to phone our normal vets today and try and get seen asap and this time I am writing a list of questions to ask so I don't forget. We still need to give him another dose of drontal but stuff that for now as I can't cope if he start vomiting everywhere again

pizza that sounds really hard work, it must be tough when the training and toiletting is going so well but the never getting even a little break must be really draining.

Bitey it sounds like you've had an awful time, surely now he will be on the mend? Could you work half days in the office and half from home? Or is it maybe one of those things where you feel like you are out the office too much but actually people in the office aren't that bothered (i think sometimes we beat ourselves up over flexible working when actually the workplace are quite happy with everything - no idea if that makes sense I'm full of the cold and functioning on very little sleep).

Ive got a tough week ahead, I'm working four days (changed my hours to do four short days instead of three long but until now I've used holidays and toil to only actually be in three at the most) so feeling guilty and stressed about that and I'm also away this weekend for a friends birthday (booked in January) so another friend is puppy sitting so I'm feeling bad about how exhausting her weekend is going to be as well!!

Antboop - how did the training class go? Weve got our first one tonight and I'm equal parts excited and nervous!

It was ok. Pup is quite barky at other dogs but wasn't the barkiest there luckily! He also didn't have an accident so that was good!!

We have a course of antibiotics and may need to go back to have the suture that is causing all the problems trimmed when it eventually gets expelled by the body. I am hoping this is the end of our run of health issues :)

Been off the grid for a few days but back with questions! Mostly around feeding. Monkeypup still has runny poo. Have been given Hills ID by the vet which we are slowly introducing. My question is (and probably should have asked the vet this!) what do I do about treats for training once he's fully switched over? He's been on chicken and rice almost since we got him and I have just used chicken for training treats but am wondering now if chicken doesn't agree with him either.

The food from vet is wet so once he's completely on that I'm stumped as to what to use for treats and then the question of which food to try long term once he has settled down. Gah this is almost as much fun as DS2 and the toddler diarrhea and gluten free diet years.

I'm worried about his weight too now as he seems really thin although eating everything I put down. Hmm maybe I'll call the vets (again) in the morning.

Sorry so far I've contributed only questions not help to this thread. I certainly hope you guys with young teen dogs don't disappear from the thread, you are needed here!!

I use a mix of treats including cheese and hot dog sausages which I assume you would not want to use if you are trying to assess what is causing the runs.

However, I also use in quantity training treats that I get from Millie's Wolfheart which are simply 90% turkey and 10% potato and sweet potato and they are quite small and dry so I can give lots without feeling like I am stuffing him full of high calorie treats. Maybe try something like that until you get his food sorted?

When I fed my dog chicken and rice for days to 'settle his stomach' I found it was only when I switched to normal dog food did it settle so I am not convinced it works for every dog.

I've just tried slow cooking liver in the oven on a really low temperature as we were working on quicker recall and she's not very food orientated. She goes wild for it! Only gets a few pieces though as they shouldn't have too much of it and they're very small.

I'm going to try doing the same with other offal. It's really cheap too which is a bonus. It doesn't seem to have affected her poos.

For general treats she has an 80% fish and 20% sweet potato/potato treats which she enjoys and isn't full of rubbish.

Liver might be a good idea once we've settled the tummy. I think I'm going to cut out the chicken altogether once we've finished introducing the vet's food and then give it a couple of days and try something else for treats.

Intensive training may just have to take a back seat for a week and when we go on little walks he's so scared of everything he won't touch food anyway for reinforcement, so will just spend our time building his confidence outside.

May look for a dry food that contains fish instead as maybe chicken doesn't agree with him.

On the upside I came home to find him curled up on DH's lap this evening so at least some bonding is going on there!