He does kind of have a bully-type head. But I am really not good at guessing breeds.
He…
Sorry if this seems to ramble. I just have a lot on my mind.
He has already broken and melted my heart. I am a teacher and will actually be off work for the next 6 weeks to train, play, and “mother” the little guy. I think I have convinced my mother to watch him for the first couple of months when school starts to help him settle in because he is so young. Our best guess is that he is a lab mix. He will probably be medium to large in size.
I know that socialization is so important for a pup of this age. What can I do to help him?
I keep crying and my anxiety about the next 6 months is very high. My worries make it hard to sleep even when the little guy is sleeping. I’m so sad for him and I just want to make sure that he is a happy, healthy puppy. The shelters around here are overwhelmed and I refuse to leave the little guy. Euthanasia rates are pretty high.
He will eventually be an indoor/outdoor dog. I won’t be comfortable with this, though, until he is older. That is why I’m going to pay my mom to watch him. I will be gone from 7-3:30 and my man works from 7:30-5. On days with inclement weather, my fella would be able to come home and let him in or out. We have a large fenced in back yard with plenty of shady areas. I live in a rural area with very kind neighbors so I am not worried about anyone messing with him. I live in East Tennessee where there is rarely an extreme temperature; however, I’m also looking into adding a doggie door, too.
Here is what I have done so far:
(1) He has a lifestyle crate (with the partition to make it smaller for now) that is attached to a large playpen in our kitchen. He sleeps in this crate at night. I’ve been sleeping on a couch next to it at night to take him out when he wakes. This is generally every 2 hrs.
(2) I’ve taken him to the vet. They dewormed him and gave him a flea treatment that is appropriate for a little guy under 5Lbs.
(3) I take him out to potty every time he wakes up from sleeping. He has only had 3 accidents in 3.5 days. I clean up his mess well so as not to leave a smell and take him out anyway. I DO NOT scold such a young pup but rather just take him out and set him in the grass each time.
What can I do to ensure this little guy has a great adolescence? Especially considering he is off to a rough start?
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I’m trying to figure out what breed my dog is?I’ve been told he is a pitsky but I’m not sure, any information may help thank you
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Dawn Ferara, DVM -
Anonymous Looks like a mix to me. Does he talk a lot? Is he stubborn? Is he totally devoted to you, or is he aloof?
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PK Dennis For $70 you may be able to get a better answer than we can provide looking at a photo. Mars Wisdom Panel is a DNA test that I have found to give very good information on my own dogs, and dogs I have fostered. But, the more mix your dog is, the less satisfying the results of the test. I get mine from Amazon – look for the 2.5 or 3.0 version, they are the newest and give more info than earlier versions.
I have tested 5 dogs so far, and have been delighted with the results.
I Have A 3 Week Old Kitten Whos Mother Died So She Has Been…
Please help!
I have a 3 week old kitten whos mother died so she has been bottle fed , she recently starting drinking out of a bowl and when she ran out of milk i went to get more, she normally has raw goats milk but i couldnt find any anywhere so i went to pets at home and got some kitten milk instead , whilst i was there the vet suggested trying to get her to start eating food, so i got some wet food and put a small amount in her bowl and mixed it with milk, she loved it! But now she has horrible diorreha. I have taken the food away and just left the kitten milk , but im worried 🙁
I’m worried about the risks around children if my dog killed two helpless kittens dat cud bearly move as I have a son
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Anonymous This is prey drive, and likely will not affect your son in the least.
HOWEVER.
If you haven’t yet, I would invest in a crate. Train the dog to accept the crate, and crate the dog when you cannot supervise. Had the dog been tested around cats prior to moving him to your home?
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zara lee Kenny That’s good to know thank u Laura see believe it or not dog was never with cats before my sister had a cat but the never really had any interaction but with my cat the dog and her get on like a house on fire no problems at all this wud have been the last thing I would expect my dog to do considering she’s as gentle as they come I just didn’t know how to approach the situation with the dog
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Anonymous So if the dog really doesn’t know any better, you cannot expect her to know how to behave.
YOU have to teach her. As I said, this means crating when you can’t supervise. When she isn’t crated, she should either be leashed to you or dragging a leash attached to her collar so you can INSTANTLY correct and redirect her, and don’t let her roam to another room unless she’s supervised by an adult. EVERYONE in the household has to be on board with this.
How is her general obedience? Does she respond instantly when you give her a command? If not, get in a class with a good, balanced trainer (ask your vet for a referral). This will help build a relationship between you and the dog, and the trainer may have more ideas for you.
Do the cats have a cat-safe room WITH a solid gate on the door? If not, set that up NOW. Make sure everything they need is in that room so you can shut the door if need be. I would also keep the kittens (and the queen, for now) in a dog crate when you can’t supervise them.
My dog constantly itches his ear and sometimes it sounds like liquid is in there. When you look in his ear there is like dark brown sorta waxy like stuff ,a qtip and cottonball can wipe it out but it seems to hurt him deep down in there 🙁
My dog was throwing up liquid foamy stuff. She threw up 6 times and she isn’t eating or drinking anything what could possibly be wrong with her?
When we arrived home from work, there was a grease can in the living room he had gotten into. Unless it is a major coincidence, we believe that he ingested who knows how much. Are these symptoms normal for grease ingestion in a small dog? He has had no diarrhea at all, and only vomited one time. The other times he is dry heaving it kind of sounds like he is wheezing
My dog was breathing really hard when I got home, expresses pain towards her rear end, won’t let me touch her tail, is gassy, threw up earlier and it had a quarter of an unchewed rawhide bone in it, now she’s very lethargic, walking around in pain, her breathing is shallow and is having spasms on her bed, she’s an otherwise healthy 3 and a half year old catahoula American bulldog mix…..
All of a sudden my 3 month jack Russell seemed off. He was laying down when we picked him up he was like a noodle. Very wobbly and he puked in the car. He has his first shots. What could possible be wrong with my pup? Please help
My 13-year-old Beagle has, over the course of the past five days, been in very poor health. It started on his birthday when he had an edible rawhide birthday card. He chewed on it all day and I don’t believe he ate dinner that night or if he did it, was a small amount. He did go to the bathroom normally, but the next morning, he wouldn’t eat again and from there the symptoms progressively worsened. He threw up some 24 hours after first eating the rawhide and it was mainly unchewed bits of his regular Science Diet dry food (about a handful). He did not go #2 at all that day and though I initially thought he might be constipated, I realized that’s not really a common thing with dogs so it must mean there’s something more going on. The third day, he refused food again and was still having trouble using the bathroom. Peeing fine, but not drinking enough water (maybe going to his bowl 2x that day). He was reluctant to move and didn’t want to climb the stairs. He normally likes to walk forever and ever as he is a Beagle, but he went to pee, slightly sniffed, and returned home. The fourth day, his breathing appeared quite short and in rapid bursts. He wasn’t wheezing or coughing or anything. It just seemed like he was constantly out of breath. Same symptoms as before. The fifth day, we took him to the vet as he was really beginning to worry us. Symptoms maintained and he was unwilling to walk down the stairs to go outside. The vet said it looked as if there was food or possibly a small bit of rawhide in his stomach. Considering his lack of eating, I assumed it was the latter. She ran a general blood test and said that his blood was thick coming out, but the results were perfectly normal and all of his organs seem to be in good standing. There were no specific tests, only the X-Ray of the abdomen as she was aware of his consuming the rawhide. The fourth and fifth days, his hind legs would cross over as he walked and his hind feet would drag almost like he’s dizzy and was trying to catch his balance, but only in his hind legs. Te vet said she didn’t feel anything obvious in his tummy and whilst performing an overview of his teeth, she found he had pus coming from his upper canine teeth and the gums were pale and swollen. She followed up with anti-diarrhoea meds and recommended anti-nausea meds, but didn’t say they were necessary. Nothing was given for his teeth or any possible stomach pain. He was then given 300mL of fluids before giving the go ahead to take home.
The vet visit was two full days ago, nearly three, and we’ve seen little improvement aside from him eating the wet Science Diet food the vet recommended we put his anti-diarrhoea meds in so he would take them. He is still having trouble getting food down and around 6 hours ago, we began force feeding Pedialyte as he threw up once tonight and we thought the electrolytes might help. I’m concerned he may have Renal Failure or IVDD. These seem to be the two which match up the most with his symptoms and breed type, but I wasn’t aware he may have one of them when I took him to the vet and therefore didn’t mention it. I’m concerned the vet may have also missed something considering she seemed to overlook his hind leg situation and his teeth situation. Please give me advice on what I should do and he obviously needs to go to the vet again, but I think I’ll take him to a different one with records from his visit a few days ago. I dropped all of the money I had on his visit then and can’t afford anything more than the exam fee, so any recommendations on what to tell the vet that way we can bypass anything that isn’t absolutely necessary would be amazing and if he does need surgery (I hope with everything in me he doesn’t as I don’t know if he would make it out of being sedated given his short breathing which is still going on), are there any pet surgery fund donation sites anyone could possibly recommend?? Please, I beg of you, any help at all would be great!!!
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Anonymous In your shoes, I would definitely get a second opinion. Has he passed any stool since this started?
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Bria Rachele I’ve called about fifteen different vets in and around my city, some of which said it could possibly be IVDD and two said maybe TCC. He has passed stool, yes. He hasn’t within the past 36 hours I would say, but he has done it 2-3 times since it all started. He hasn’t had food within the past 18 hours though and because he was refusing most everything we gave him before, he really can’t afford to involuntarily fast right now. He’s lost quite a bit of nutrients and we’re still doing Pedialyte hoping that will help to at least replace some of them. His hind legs seem to have worsened a bit as well. I saw it could also be a disc within his spine, but it seems none of the symptoms for any of these completely match his, so I feel there a million and one things it could be. I just realized I inadvertently failed to include in the post above that the vet said he seems to have a swollen colitis as well, but she attributed that to his lack of adequate food, dehydration, and vomiting. I’m not sure if that would tie in with everything else to point to a diagnosis, but any symptom shouldn’t be overlooked. Please do ask any more questions you may have if you feel you might have an idea as to what it could be and I’ll answer the second I can! Thank you!
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Anonymous You’ve done quite a bit. I’m tapped for ideas…hopefully Dr. Magnifico or Ferara will pop in with suggestions for you.
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Bria Rachele Thank you for your input though and yes, any suggestions from any of the other two doctors would be helpful as well.
It will probably take a little while to potty train him because he is so young. To socialize him you can take him on walks and play with him and get him toys to play with. Puppies are resiliant so even though he has had a rough start just give him a loving home and play with him and make sure he is happy and he will be fine into adolescence. I hope you and your new puppy the best!
Don’t worry about what happened to him. Think about how lucky he is to have a caring human now who is taking great care of him. Socialization is important. Make sure to introduce him to lots of people when he is old enough to go on nice walks. Also dog parks or other dogs that you know, should be a great way to introduce him to other dogs. Your vet should have a ton of info to share with you. Best of luck!!
Thanks for the encouragement! I had a torturous few day where I didn’t know if I should keep him or take him to the shelter. Many people on the internet acted like it was inhumane to have a dog if you couldn’t keep him indoors 24/7 and be with him most of the time; however, the lady at the shelter showed me all the cute pups there and told me that many don’t make it out. I refuse to give up on him! I’m not rich and I don’t have the resources to put him in a daycare every day but I do have a very comfortable and large home with a privacy fence. I have lots of love in my heart and no children, as well.
I plan to use the next 6 weeks to get him into the routine of our household. My mother won’t be able to help out because she takes care of my grandmother but my man is gonna arrange to drive 40 minutes here and 40 minutes back on his lunch to check on little man.
We are looking at collar activated doggie doors currently but he will be too young for that at first. I found a really cool solar paneled fan that can attach to a doghouse and “heated flooring” options for winter. I can’t believe this stuff exists! Who knew a dog could have a climate controlled doghouse?!?
Again, I really appreciate the supportive comments while I was panicking about what to do. 🙂