New pup - is this normal?

[dustyflipflop]

We just brought home a goldendoodle puppy (yesterday).
She was part of a really big litter and shes 11 weeks old.
She's lovely and very chilled. She slept all night last night from around 10pm until 7am apart from one toilet break at 4am.

She has played with my DCs this morning in the garden and last night as well, she's really taken to my eldest.
She has eaten ok and is drinking plenty of water.
Not had an accident in the house yet (I'm sure it's coming), I try to take her out regularly.

So my concerns are below - and let me preface it with the fact she has been in the car for just over an hour yesterday and obviously just got separated from her family so I am aware it might impact things, the breeder also advised me she was wormed yesterday.

• She sleeps , a lot, she played with my DCs before school this morning for a bit then went to sleep for a good couple of hours, she had a little play with some chew toys, then some food and a trip outside and slept for another hour or so on my feet as I was WFH, then I gave her a quick bath because she was a bit smelly, which she loved. She then went outside for a few mins and took herself off to bed and is currently sleeping again.
• She's quite drooly but I noticed it was a LOT in the car, all down her chin/neck.
• her poos are currently soft/liquid
• she was sick earlier but then went back to playing and then sleep

Is all this fairly normal for a pup her age? Should I be worried or should I just keep an eye on things?

Apologies it's been a very long time since I last had a puppy on my hands.

Thanks again everyone. Little update.

The breeder (I haven't told her about my concerns just yet) contacted me just now and said she has changed the pups food to a different one as she noticed they kept having loose stools and she said she is seeing huge improvements in just 3 meals.
It's the Goodness of Fish - Fishmongers finest dry food. Does that sound good?
Would it be worth giving it a go before calling the vet?

Poo still loose but she slept downstairs all night with no crying or whimpering of any sort. She was super excited to see the DCs in the morning and is trying to get them to play a lot, I'm monitoring as she's jumping up and trying to lick faces and nipping at their sleeves to get them to play.

Could be the food but take her to the vet for a check up as has been advised

@dustyflipflop

Thanks again everyone. Little update.

The breeder (I haven't told her about my concerns just yet) contacted me just now and said she has changed the pups food to a different one as she noticed they kept having loose stools and she said she is seeing huge improvements in just 3 meals.
It's the Goodness of Fish - Fishmongers finest dry food. Does that sound good?
Would it be worth giving it a go before calling the vet?

Poo still loose but she slept downstairs all night with no crying or whimpering of any sort. She was super excited to see the DCs in the morning and is trying to get them to play a lot, I'm monitoring as she's jumping up and trying to lick faces and nipping at their sleeves to get them to play.

If all the pups have loose stools then an infectious cause like giardia is much more likely than all of them reacting to dog food. Ask your vet for a stool sample pot and collect a pooled faecal sample over 3-5 days

Is the fishmongers food a puppy food? If not it won't have the right balance of nutrients

Fishmongers is a Pets at Home food - stated for dogs with sensitive stomachs. They do do a puppy food.

Not the best food on the market

If all puppies have loose tummies I would speak to a vet also avoid puppy licking the DC's.

Thanks again.
Just called the vet and they recommended either James Wellbeloved, Royal Canin or Hills dry puppy food.
They advised to stay away from wet food and to keep an eye for a day or two and call back if no improvements or if I'm concerned about anything.

@dustyflipflop

Thanks again. Just called the vet and they recommended either James Wellbeloved, Royal Canin or Hills dry puppy food. They advised to stay away from wet food and to keep an eye for a day or two and call back if no improvements or if I'm concerned about anything.

Did you ask them about giardia? Or whether you could get a sample pot?

After my experience with giardia I'd advise you to just get her checked out ASAP. I was fobbed off by the breeder saying it was change of food, situation, anxiety etc Giardia can be caused by dirty water and unclean living conditions so it's not something the breeder will want to admit to as it reflects badly on them. I may be wrong but I also think it can be spread to humans so make sure your kids are washing hands after touching her etc. It may not be giardia but better to be safe than sorry.

When you say “she was from a big litter,” exactly how big a litter are we talking about here?

For me as soon as someone states that a puppy is from “a big litter” that sets alarm bells ringing in terms of where she’s come from.

How much contact did you have with this breeder beforehand? How long have you waited for this puppy?

Someone I know came back with a puppy from “a big litter,” and when they said how big there is no way on earth that all those puppies had come from the same parent. They’d just lost a dog and seen these puppies for sale, and it seems that it was blatantly a puppy farm.

Fortunately for the puppy she was perfectly fine and is healthy and happy and a few years old now. But many puppy farmed or even backyard bred dogs aren’t so lucky. If it had been me the size of the litter would have meant I would have walked away without question. But a lot of people don’t.

I would definitely get her checked by the vet as a matter of urgency. If it is just feeding or settling you’ve lost nothing, but if it isn’t then you could potentially lose the puppy.

@dustyflipflop

Thanks again. Just called the vet and they recommended either James Wellbeloved, Royal Canin or Hills dry puppy food. They advised to stay away from wet food and to keep an eye for a day or two and call back if no improvements or if I'm concerned about anything.

That's because they sell it. Those foods are not particularly good either!

allaboutdogfood.com is a good site

If you want to feed dry, Orijen and Milly's Wolfheart are both good foods with very little in the way of unnecessarily filler.

It is, unfortunately, more likely that there's a bug going round the litter than all the pups developing an intolerance to a food.

Have you booked a regular new puppy vet check? Or rung about the D&V?

(And yes, giardia can pass to humans)

Golden retrievers Can be sensitive to chicken so is there any in her food? I’d avoid royal canine my last retriever was very ill on that and we changed to another brand which he had until he passed away no problems.

What we did with our pup wnd the kids is separate them until he’s calm then when they fussed him he wasn’t biting or jumping up it prevented that behaviour, they can then reward calm. We have a pen although he’s too big for it now and a stair gate or you can pop him on lead so you can move him & walk him around if he gets over excited. reward the calm behaviour loads.

worm tablets always give my dog the shits

I am going with James Wellbeloved for now in the Fish.
She loves salmon bites so I thought it might be a good one to go with.

I'm dividing it between 5 meals a day.
The vet things it might be the food because the breeder said she has seen a huge difference with the puppies stools after a few meals of changing the food. They have been through a bit of a change as well as the breeder said she had them on a raw diet until she realized not all owners will want to go with that so decided to go down the route with the Autarky and Butchers which again means they would have had a big diet change within the last few weeks.
I have her booked it on Monday however the vet said if there is no change within 48hrs then she will be seen straight away.

She's quite happy in herself and much more interactive and wanting to play at the moment which is great but I will be keeping a very close eye.