Puppy Survival Thread - June/July

[MrsHerculePoirot]

Discussion of all things puppy...

Old thread here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_doghouse/4234193-puppy-survival-thread-may?msgid=108567452

Too cute @GuyFawkesDay Hamish suits him!

We have a cooling mat - last time it was really hot I contemplated putting it under myself in the middle of the night 🤣🤣🤣

He's so cute guy!!!! Definitely a Hamish. I bet you can't wait!

I bought an extra cooling mat to sit on in the car for long journeys. It's surprisingly nice (our air conditioning in the car is broken ATM, so it gets very, very hot in there)

@GuyFawkesDay he’s gorgeous and does look like a Hamish!

I agree about wanting to use the cooling mat - I recently spent too much money on a supposedly cooling pillow but the mat is 1000x better!!

We have puppy paddling pool but Banditdog is not convinced yet! She doesn’t love water so we are sprinkling water on the ground and put her food on it so she gets used to wet ground.

I agree Hamid is a good name for that dog.

That’s a very cute Hamish.
We just have a plastic tub which we put toys in and pup gets them out and rubs around with. I even watered down the deck & patio today as it was so hot to touch.

Someone asked about meals up thread, when we did 3 meals we did 7-12.30-5pm. We now do two meals 7.30am and 5.30pm, but she still has a small frozen kong or likki mat & chew at 1pm plus training treats from her food allowance. As a permanently hungry LabX I swear she would eat all day given the chance. We did have an incident a couple of months ago when she was 1yr age got into the big sack of kibble DH fault for leaving cubboard doir open. Her tummy was huge she couldn’t sit we took advice from the vets and eventually one sorry for herself pup made it through the night (DH back on the sofa with her), and several burps/walks/ big poos later she was back to normal within 24hrs. But boy was she sorry for herself it was scary to watch her so uncomfortable trying to process a glut of food.

Awww labs are hilarious for their "stomach on legs" idiocy.

@Biking0077 my sister dog did the same thing! She is a spaniel and she ate a huge bag of kibble. She had to be admitted at the vets cos her body couldn’t cope with the amount of food. Thankfully she is insured!

@Biking0077 Dear old Spuddog, when he was a youthful twit, got into my mum’s bin the evening of a barbecue. He ended up at the emergency vet the next day, having 1.5kg of rubbish removed from his gut… thank god for insurance that day 🙈 He was a spaniel and made it his life’s work to keep the vets in Ferraris!

Spudpup is very lively and bright, but has had a bit of a squitty bum and didn’t want all of his dinner tonight. Given that he’s still full of beans, I’m putting it down to too much rich new food yesterday (he had some new trading treats, a chicken strip, and cleaned out DS’s yoghurt pot). As long as he stays happy, I’m not too worried though - he’s had fewer rich things today so we’ll see how he is tomorrow. We did have our first visitors though and he was very good really, for such a small chap. And he and DS have managed to co-exist in the garden without mass hysteria breaking out - DS has ASD and while he was very keen on a puppy in theory, the reality is a bit alarming for him. But he’ll get there - he liked Spuddog so I’m sure he’ll come round to Spudpup too. Just needs a bit of time.

Can anyone recommend good dog food? Currently pup is on dry kibble but needs plumping up (long story but she is the smallest of the litter and was rejected by mum). She isn’t really eating the dry food. I think it’s to hard for her. So I want to try her on something softer. What is good quality wet food?

@Spudlet my youngest DD is on the spectrum too and it was one of the reason I caved in to getting a dog. She didn’t bond at all for the first 8wks (too bitey/jumpy/ typical puppy) until we had a few days away from pup (DH stayed home with pup), then when we came home it was DD that pup choose fo sit on giving the best cuddles as she’s obviously missed her and they have been best buddies since she goes to training classes with DH and always plays with pup in garden before school she truely is turning into wonderful therapy for DD calms her when her anxiety is high.

@CleverQuacks you are meant to soak kibble in a bit of water, to soften it, for puppies

@ChubbyLittleManInACampervan thank you! I will try this. Do you think i should stick with the kibble then and just soak it? Or try wet food?

@CleverQuacks we had to try a couple of different foods when Dpup was little we joined pets home free club they kept giving us different vouchers to try stuff. I remember they had fish wet pouches pup liked plus we added water to her kibble.

@CleverQuacks I give my pup soaked kibble (just mix in a few tablespoons of water and leave it to sit for a few mins) and a little bit of tinned puppy food (or a scrambled egg, or a bit of cooked chicken breast and rice, quite small amounts though, but it adds interest)

My dogs have always loved a bit of chicken &rice

@CleverQuacks if this is the food the breeder sent with, check if it is puppy version. We never soaked our kibble but it was specifically for puppies of that breed.

This website here tells you the nutritionally value of dog foods if helpful (www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk/). We use half kibble and half butternut box where they send you fresh pouches of dog food. It is expensive but PoirotPup is so excited every mealtime he does this excited spins and sometimes this little excited whimper 🤣🤣🤣

www.allaboutdogfood.co.uk

Lifepup is about to cost me & 400 estimates for emergency vet cos puppy ate sweets while we were out.
Waiting to get him back today
Xoyiolyth sweetener is toxic apparently

@CleverQuacks I'm feeding millies wolf heart countryside mix dry kibble - I tried soaking it as it's quite large pieces of kibble but she didn't like it soaked lol plus she prefers to eat her kibble in a puzzle ball or snuffle mat. Then she loves "Step up" wet food from pets at home. It scores highly on the all about dog food website. We also tried several different wet foods and kibbles but she likes these!

@lifelongfrugaleer oh god poor pup

Oh no lifelongfrugaleer is she sick or are you just taking precautions just in case?

Precautions just in case. As sweets not in packets still can’t see the ingredients list

@CleverQuacks Ours has never been keen on her puppy food (what the breeder used) but the vet advised us to keep her on it until she's a year old. Definitely worth speaking to your vet before you change food, especially if there have been potential problems before you got her. We use Tasty Topper to give the kibble more flavour and mix through a small amount of cheese. She's 1 next month so we can finally swap to something she likes. Softening the kibble with a small amount of warm water might help, as PP suggested. Alternatively maybe she doesn't like the bowl? Try scatter feeding and snuffle mats. I'd avoid wet food (exclusively) as it's not great for their teeth, the kibble helps keep them clean.

@lifelongfrugaleer Oh what a worry. We've had two trips to the emergency vet since we got ours, it's always at a weekend things happen! Hope pup is okay, I've heard that about xylitol but I think it's just a case of monitoring blood sugars? So pup is in the right place and being well looked after.

@lifelongfrugaleer hope our is ok!

@ashmts our vet wasn’t bothered about us changing foods at all / just said to do it slowly as you switch rather than just overnight. I don’t think he’s had the same kibble type more than once - I mean they are huge bags so last about 1/2 months and we’ve added in butternut to get the mix of wet and dry! I find it’s like feeding babies everyone has been told something a bit different 🤣🤣🤣 PoirotPup seems to have a fairly strong constitution so touch wood we’ve had no problems but I know other breeds and pups can be more sensitive tummy wise! How is your pup doing now - I know how worried you were x

Oh no @lifelongfrugaleer! Hope your pup is ok 🤞