Summer 25 pups

[Lavenderdog]

Any other new puppy owners around this summer? Have been looking back at some of the old puppy support threads and can see how helpful it was for those posters to share their experiences.

9 week old mini schnauzer here - so toilet training and avoiding those needle sharp teeth are the current main activities here!

(And being tolerant of her determination to rid my garden of lavender plants. Hence my user name 😂)

Pablo has just been sick again, twice! I gave him a chew out of his puppy box (same one he has had before) and he promptly threw it all back up again! Again, he seems fine in himself and is drinking but I am starting to get worried. Vet call in the morning do we think??

@VanGoSunflowers I would to be on the safe side. I'd wait with an adult dog, but not a puppy. Being sick coupled with having worms would worry me. Did the breeder only worm him once? I thought puppies needed worming three times. Has he kept his kibble down?

@SpanielsGalore as far as I know, she had him wormed once and I wormed him a second time when he had his second jab on 25th June.
He has kept his usual kibble down (since the one he threw up this morning) , it seems eating anything other than his kibble might be an issue though.
Mood wise he seems fine and I know if I put food down for him now he would eat it, but I’m not going to. He’s keeping water down fine and is now asleep.
I will call them in the morning, thank you.

@VanGoSunflowers I’d keep and eye on him and call if it gets worse. In the meantime, feed him plain chicken and rice or (my secret weapon for sickness) ready brek and nothing else.

We’ve had the most incredible day with Rory. He’s done all his toileting outside, napped in his bed, had his first walk literally to heel and even been to the pub at the end of our road where he met some humans and other dogs, then took a nap even with the football playing etc 😂. He was happy to wear his harness and let me adjust it to fit. He was extremely polite with people and although he tried to play with our friends’ elderly dog, who clearly thought “ewww a puppy”, he was accepting that she’d rather stick to polite sniffs. He’s learnt to sit for food and really enjoyed his dinner and sausages, he’s definitely the epitome of a greedy lab. This dog is either going to be a dream dog OR we’re going to be in for a shock when he settles in properly 😂.

Hi guys! Anyone any tips for dry flaky skin on puppies? My mini dachshund (13 weeks) had dry skin around tummy area but after his bath today I’ve noticed it’s almost his whole body. It’s not terribly bad, but there. Currently weaning off pedigree wet food on to jolleys lifestage puppy kibble

B was only wormed once with the breeder as well so seems like a pattern.

I've only had him being sick when he was ill with the abscess and a few morning pukes which apparently is because he's gone too long without eating (overnight but still, 8 hours+ is long for a tiny belly!). I've taken to giving him a later evening snack the last few days and that seems to have worked.

Always worth a call to the vet if you're worried, I also think it may be linked with the worms somehow (and I now have an old wives type thing in my head that worms make you extra hungry so he may be scoffing too fast? I could be delirious from the footy tho, take no notice!)

@Idratherbepaddleboarding What a perfect day! Fingers crossed Rory has started how he means to go on!

@Idratherbepaddleboarding thank you, and it sounds like a perfect first day for you all! I’m so pleased for you!

@widewomanofthevillage thanks, he’s not eating his food any quicker that I have noticed - he’s a lab so he scoffs it down pretty quick but when he brought up the first pile this morning it all looked like whole pieces. I’ve got it in my head that he’s got an obstruction or something but might be leaping to worse case - I’ve check every poo he’s had today and cannot see any worms and they’re all normal!

@widewomanofthevillage I hope so! I hope he’s not luring us into a false sense of security 😂.

How often are you bathing him and what with? I used baby shampoo in an emergency and was shocked at how much it doesn't suit them!

@VanGoSunflowersVinny was sick and had worms in his poo at one point. He was older than Pablo but not very old at the time. It was the first time he’d ever been sick and it freaked me out! He was sick a few times over the space of a couple of hours but I kept an eye on him and he was completely fine. I fed him plain boiled rice and he was wagging his tail whilst eating it like it was the most amazing thing ever 😂

He is wormed routinely and I’ve never seen worms in his poo since then. They weren’t alive but I spoke to the vets on the phone as I was worried, and they said he was due to be wormed a few days later which is why they had appeared. Which doesn’t make a huge amount of sense to me but 🤷🏻‍♀️

@YorkshireFelix thank you for replying 😊

It’s reassuring to know. I am going to phone them again tomorrow because I’ve got it in to my head that because he’s obviously gained weight since the last lot of worming tablets that maybe it’s not effective now and they have the dosing based on the weight he was 5 weeks ago. Which is a ridiculous thing to think because they are an actual vet and I am not. But I think I just want some reassurance from them and to see if they think he needs to be checked over.

Bless Vinny being happy with boiled rice though 😊

Worming treatments aren't preventative, they only treat worms that are present at the time of administration. So weight gain between then and now is irrelevant. Vets are very good at signing people up for care plans for worms, fleas and ticks and fairly useless at explaining how the treatments actually work.

If you do feed rice (and there are other better options for unsettled stomachs, we do fish/turkey and sweet potato over chicken and rice) be aware that rice grains can end up resembling tapeworm segments in poo.

@VanGoSunflowers they grow so fast, I wouldn’t be happy about them giving his dose based on his weight 5 weeks ago.

Rory had and excellent first night. He went straight in his bed next to my side of the bed and slept from 10:30-5:30 when DH’s alarm went off. He’d have slept longer if DH hadn’t had to get up I’m sure which is good as he works away during the week and I don't want to get up at 5:30 every morning! He went straight out for a wee, inhaled his breakfast and then asked to go for a poo. He had a play with the best toys ever (and empty bottle and a toilet roll tube 😂). He’s just asked to go out for another wee and now it’s definitely nap time. Phew, all that before 7am!

@Idratherbepaddleboardingwow, what a star Rory is.

We’re still getting up with SoupDog at 5.30am for business outside but then she sleeps on the couch for a couple of hours after that with one of us. I’m just coming to now and need to get ready for work. It’s bloody exhausting and is beginning to take its toll after 3 and bit months of it. Sigh.

@soupmaker My 4 year old needed letting out for a wee around 3 a.m. and was then up at 6 a.m. for months too. She'd then spend two hours biting me, before going back to sleep at 8. God I hated her some days!

@tizwozliz I don't understand that about worming treatment. Why do they say some treatments last for three months if it only kills worms present at time of administration? I thought it was like flea treatment and lasted for a month or three.

@SpanielsGalore we’ve had improvements now she settles back down in 5 minutes after a quick gnaw on one of us - during the day sticks and yak chews are fine but first thing it needs to be a human! It doesn’t help that DH works shifts so some mornings she’s disturbed at 4.30am when he gets up. I keep muttering, this to shall pass, and trying not to glare at SoupDog!

once a month has been bath time and using puppy shampoo. Not overly sure of the brand, bought from Jolleys and sortve green colour. I’ve started adding salmon oil to his food? Any experiences with it?

As someone else asked, how often are you bathing him? My boy is 15 months old and has been bathed precisely once - most dogs really don't need to be bathed very often at all, and it may be that his skin is sensitive to something you're using to bath him?

Otherwise, it might be an allergy. Many dogs are allergic to chicken, beef, or dairy (luckily it's usually only one of those). Dairy allergies can cause itchiness and yeasty ears so worth thinking about. I worked out that Bill is allergic to dairy, because as soon as I stopped giving hm things like cheese and yoghurts, he stopped chewing his legs and having sore, stinky ears.

I was meant to respond to you last night about this. My boy had dry flaky skin around his back end for a few months. We started feeding salmon oil with his dinner every night and it has cleared it right up!

Booked in to the vets for 1.45 - he’s been sick again twice. Within seconds of eating. Poos are normal, just boiling some rice to see how we get on with that. I read somewhere that they can drink the water you boiled the rice in (once cooled) to rehydrate them too. I’m really worried about him!

On the bath front, nearly 8 weeks in and I’ve never bathed Pablo? Have spot cleaned him when he has needed it but that’s it. No skin complaints.

Aww bless him, hope the vets goes ok!

@SpanielsGalore - it's based on worm life cycles as I understand it. So they kill worms that may be present when treatment is given but eggs are not affected. Any eggs present would then turn into worms over the next 3 months that would be killed by the next treatment but before they have a chance to produce eggs so halting the cycle. Worming every 3 months should prevent worms ever getting to a problematic stage but it doesn't prevent them picking them up. In the same way most tick prevention doesn't stop ticks attaching, it just kills them once attached.

I only wormed for the first year with my puppies. Beyond that they get worming tablets if we go abroad (once a year) ish) and we do worm counts (including for lungworm) in between. We'd only treat if positive

@VanGoSunflowers - is this sickness after he was wormed? Hope he’s okay, but good you’re taking him to the vet!

I bath mine maybe once every year! I don’t think dogs need bathing that often tbh, not unless you’re grooming them…

@tizwozliz Thank you for the explanation. I always assumed the treatment prevented them from getting worms. Not that I treat mine routinely either. Interestingly I was talking to a vet last week and he said current advice is not to worm routinely, but only when needed.
Talking of ticks, I found three on P and 1 on K the other day, despite the Seresto collars. They weren't attached, but they're still picking them up and bringing them into the home.

My dogs very rarely get bathed. They get hosed down in the garden after a very muddy walk and spot shampooed if they have rolled in fox poo.

@VanGoSunflowers Poor Pablo. I hope the vet visit goes well. I also feed white fish and sweet potato when my dogs have an upset stomach. It's nutritious, easily digested and dogs are less likely to be allergic to it.

@tizwozliz thank you for that explanation, that makes sense!

@LandSharksAnonymous yes, he isn’t due another worming treatment for nearly two months, last one was just over a month ago and the sickness started yesterday

@SpanielsGalore thanks for that tip, I’m trying rice this morning as I don’t have any white fish or sweet potato in the house, I will pick some up a little later on. He’s just asleep atm so when he wakes up I will try him with the rice and see how we get on

I will let you all know what the vet says!