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Puppies and Kittens..same food OK?
It is not uncommon for puppies to sleep for long periods of time. As long as your not seeing other clinical signs such as vomiting or diarrhea and not wanting to eat, I wouldn't worry about the sleeping. Remember your puppy is just a baby. The older she gets, the more awake and playful she'll become. If your still concerned about her, a trip to the vet might be wise. Your vet should be able to give you all the information necessary on raising a small puppy. Enjoy her!
"Dandruff" in puppies can be as simple as dry skin flakes which bathing and good nutrition and care may help with (if the puppy has been neglected) or it can be other conditions such as mites, lice, or seborrhea and skin infection which is best treated by a veterinarian. Your veterinarian should be able to help sort through all the possibilities and provide you with the best possible treatment for the correct diagnosed problem.
Most puppies should be dewormed beginning 3-4 weeks of age and repeated at 3 week intervals for several dewormings. Vaccinations (distemper, parvo, hepatitis, adenovirus) should be started at 6 weeks and repeated every 3 weeks - the usual schedule is 6,9,12,16 but can vary slightly depending upon the age of the puppies when vaccinations are started. We don't vaccinate for leptospirosis in our practice because first, most of the reactions to vaccination are from the lepto portion of the vaccine and second leptospirosis is rare in Virginia. Labrador puppies should have the parvo portion of the vaccination boostered again at 20 weeks and even 24 weeks since they appear to be a breed more susceptible to the disease. Your regular veterinarian should be able to set up a vaccination schedule for your puppies as well as help with the dewclaw removal.
Heartworm preventatives are prescription medications and it would be illegal for your veterinarian to dispense a heartworm preventative without a "doctor - patient" relationship. It is safer to use the prescription heartworm preventatives than any other formulations of ivermectins. Your vet will also examine your dog, providing you with some assurance that there are no congenital defects or pediatric illnesses. Sometimes, skipping the entire pediatric series of veterinary visits is a costly mistake.
Most veterinarians suggest beginning the vaccination series at 6 weeks of age. With the new vaccines available now, it should take three vaccinations spaced about 3 weeks apart to ensure vaccine success in most puppies. A convenient schedule is then 6, 9 and 12 weeks of age. While it may not be as necessary with the new vaccines, a cautious approach would be to vaccinate one more time at 16 weeks of age, too.
Most puppies have a pretty good idea about what is expected of them after a week or two of training to urinate and defecate outside. It is necessary to catch them "in the act" several times and scold them just harshly enough to startle them, then take them outside and wait around until the have a bowel movement or urinate outside and praise them immediately. Puppies will usually make a few mistakes after this time but most have caught on. A few puppies are very hard to housebreak and many owners do not realize the importance of following the puppy around persistantly enough to catch him or her urinating or defecating. Without doing this, it is very hard to housebreak a puppy. The pen is too large to work to prevent him from urinating or defecating in it. If this is happening it would be a very good idea to consider buying a crate that is just big enough for him to stand up and turn around in comfortably. This is usually small enough to discourage elimination behaviors in it. You are not leaving him alone too long for crate training to work so it is probably another good option for you.
Many dogs do like their
crates. They seem to view them as a safe haven. If she doesn't exhibit
destructive chewing behaviors in her crate or when she is out when you
are home, it isn't all that likely that she will suddenly develop them
with more freedom. Of course, if she eats your shoes while you are wearing
them, she'll do it while you're away too!
Strangles" or Juvenile Cellulitis
This condition can affect puppies from about 3 weeks of age to 16 weeks of age. Sometimes demodicosis and severe infections can cause similar signs. If skin scrapings are negative for Demodex mites and there are no signs of a widespread systemic infection other than the swollen lymph nodes, it is even more likely that this is juvenile cellulitis.
It takes a great leap of faith, but the only really good way to treat juvenile cellulitis is with the use of corticosteroids in combination with antibiotics. If corticosteroids are not used early in this disease permanent scarring of the affected areas can occur and if they are never used, death is not uncommon. The swelling of the lymph nodes cuts off the puppy's ability to breath -- hence the common name of "puppy strangles".
It is really scary to use immunosuppressive medications in the face of what appears to be a really severe infection but it is essential IF the condition is in fact juvenile cellulitis. Diagnosis of this can be confirmed by skin biopsy but it is usually best to make an educated guess and hope for the best, since biopsy results usually take a while to get back.
Most puppies who are aggressively treated with appropriate corticosteroids and antibiotics will recover -- but permanent hairloss on affected areas or scarring is not uncommon.
Puppies that have very submissive personalities tend to urinate small amounts when greeting people or when someone makes sudden movements or assumes a dominant position, even inadvertently. These puppies are generally showing other submissive signs, such as head down postures or rolling over. It can help to just ignore these puppies at first and let them get used to your presence in the house prior to greeting them. Many dogs will outgrow this behavior but some do not. For some dogs, treatment with anti-anxiety medications or phenylpropanolamine can be helpful. Unfortunately, not all dogs will respond to medical therapy or behavioral therapy for this condition. Strategically placed throw rugs or plastic runners are the next line of defense since the behavior often occurs at predictable times and places.
Some puppies can not control urination when they are very excited. They just get so worked up that they leak urine. Most puppies will outgrow this problem, too (at least based on the ones we see). Some dogs don't, though. We have some success treating these dogs with phenylpropanolamine. It seems to give them just enough control to get them through the excitement. It doesn't always work, though. I have never tried any other therapy for this condition. I think this is because I practice in a rural area and it is easy for my clients to adjust to making these dogs "outside dogs" and living with the problem. If there is an animal behaviorist in your area, your vet may be able to refer you to him or her for help with this problem.
It probably does not harm a dog to eat its own feces. It may harm a dog to eat other dog's feces, cat feces, etc., since these may contain organisms the dog has not already been exposed to. It can be harmful for dogs to eat rocks but I have not seen a problem relating to eating leaves that I can remember.
We have had to remove rocks causing intestinal obstructions in three dogs in the last few years. It can be very hard to discourage this habit but firmly and consistently telling the dog "NO" and doing something to distract it from rock hunting may be helpful. Teaching a dog to "give" (to drop something it is carrying in its mouth) can be very helpful as well. Most dogs will learn to associate the "give" command with a treat really quickly -- say "give" and then offer the treat. When the dog drops whatever it has, reinforce the behavior by giving the treat and saying "good dog" or whatever you like to say.
There are a couple of products on the market made to discourage dogs from eating their own feces. Forbid (tm) is one of them. I have seen recommendations to add meat tenderizer to the dog's food in an effort to change the taste of the feces and some clients have felt that this worked for them. Keeping the dog on a leash and picking up stools as soon as they are deposited helps a lot, too. Some dogs are really fast about "cleaning up" after themselves, though. You just have to be faster!
Whenever a puppy doesn't gain weight properly it worries me a lot. Some dogs have a lot of problems and several of them can lead to poor appetite and poor weight gain. They are prone to megaesophagus and we have seen heart ring anamolies. They can have pancreatic enzyme insufficiencies. We have seen a portosystemic shunt in a puppy. Other, more mundane problems, like worms and other intestinal parasites are also possible. In several of these conditions, poor weight gain is the only problem.
Vascular ring anomalies are not likely, because they usually cause persistant vomiting anytime a puppy eats solid food. This is a condition in which some fetal blood vessels which should degenerate remain. The most common ring anamoly is a persistant right aortic arch. The arch forms a "ring" around the esophagus along with other structures and prohibits passage of solid food. Obviously, this is not too likely in your puppy but it is just worrisome.
Megaesophagus is a weakness of the esophageal muscles leading to dilation of the esophagus and poor passage of food. Coughing after eating or retching of food are commonly seen with this condition, early on. It is a cause of poor weight gain. Porto-systemic shunts are another fetal circulation problem. When puppies are born, their circulatory system has to adapt to live without the support of the placenta and doing this involves reversing the blood flow through most of the circulatory system. Sometimes, the liver gets bypassed in this process and fails to develop due to the lack of blood flow. This is a correctable situation in many dogs. It isn't all that likely but it needs to be considered.
Pancreatic enzyme deficiencies usually cause diarrhea, which you do not mention as a symptom. Failure of any large organ system can lead to poor growth -- so congenital liver, kidney, heart or other organ damage can be a problem. Of course, it is important to rule out the more common problems like worms and other parasites.
It would be a good idea to talk this over with your vet and find out what she is worrying about. Sometimes, we don't push hard enough for a good laboratory workup in puppies due to considerations like cost and stress to the puppy. Other times, it does seem best to adopt a "wait and see" attitude. If you are worried, checking the major organ systems through bloodwork is almost never a bad idea and checking for parasites is a good idea, too. There was a study done in Labrador retrievers which suggested that keeping them thin during their entire growth period (the first year of life, really) is very helpful in preventing the development of hip dysplasia. I can't answer the question about whether or not your vet is pushing a particular diet because she stocks it. I really think most vets do have their patient's best health in mind when they choose to stock diets but once they are in the hospital, selling them does become important, too!
Puppies and Kittens..same food OK?
It is safe for cats to eat small amounts of dog food. It is also safe for them to eat small amounts of "people" food or even to have diets formulated from people foods if done very carefully.
It is not a good idea to feed kittens either puppy food or adult dog food as their sole source of nutrition. Kittens and cats need some amino acids that dogs can make. This makes a cat's protein requirements more rigid than dog's and most dog foods do not meet the nutritional needs of cats. Over the long run, cats fed solely dog food are very likely to develop nutritional deficiencies and disorders asssociated with them.
People tend to let their cats train them to feed only a limited number of really "choice" tablefoods, which also results in poor diets when people feed too many treats or try to develop home-made diets for their cats. As long as you limit the treats to small quantities it is not going to cause harm to give your cat the occasional treat, though.
Distemper is possible. Unfortunately, vaccination causes a rise in the titer for this disease and it is very difficult to figure out if the disease is present in a puppy that was recently vaccinated, due to this. Once in a while it is possible to find the distemper virus directly in a blood smear using an immunofluorescent test but this is unreliable enough that I agree with your vet about the blood testing. It isn't likely to help. The symptoms you are seeing are all present at times with distemper. If seizures or neurologic signs develop, it will be further indication that this is the problem. Distemper can be fatal. We have no good anti-viral medications so only supportive care can be done. Usually it works, so I hope it does for your puppy.
The other possibility is that something else entirely is going on. I can't tell where you are from, but fungal illnesses are reported to have similar signs at times, too. I don't see many of these and can't give much first-hand insight into the probability of that. The probability of that would vary a lot with where you lived, too. An intussesception (telescoping of the intestine into itself) sometimes occurs after illnesses that cause diarrhea and straining. That migh explain some of the signs seen (but I don't recall seeing a runny nose with this). Once in a while we see a puppy that just doesn't seem to have a very functional immune system and they get problem after problem. These are often unrelated to the each other but the progression of them can be very confusing.
When I am confused or frustrated with a case I often try to convince the owner to consider seeking a second opinion from an internal medicine specialist. These folks see more of the difficult cases than anyone else and often have more experience in recognizing them than a general practitioner. If there is a referral hospital or veterinary school near you, this might be a good choice.
One more thing -- I often begin to prepare people for the possibility of an unsuccessful outcome, like death, when I still think there is a lot of hope. I just hate to see people blindsided by the emotional impact of an unexpected death of their pet. So I may discuss this possibility even though I think it is unlikely. Your vet may be doing the same thing.
It isn't possible to
give you an answer that would work for your Lab. Every lab is different,
and it depends on what you want with your dog. Do you want a working retriever
or a show dog? Show judges have different ideas of perfection than field
judges. And don't forget, there are different
types of Labradors, and there may be difference in the weight of these
types. Most vets don't know this, so if your male puppy's father's ideal
weight (or your female puppy's mother's ideal weight) is more than average,
try to convince your vet that his "standard" doesn't apply to your puppy.
.
At birth, a Labrador
puppy from average parents and an average litter (6 puppies) weighs about
1 pound or less. During the first 8 weeks of its life the puppy gains about
2 pounds a week. An 8 week old Labrador puppy weighs between 11 and 17
pounds. From 8 weeks to 26 weeks (6 months) this growth proceeds in about
the same way - an average six month old Labrador weighs between 50 and
60 pounds. Dogs are heavier than bitches. After the age of 26 weeks the
growth slows down. When your Labrador is one year old, the weight will
be 65 to 80 pounds for dogs and 55 to 70 pounds for bitches. Between the
age of one year and three years they gain another 5 to 10 pounds.
.
The best way to judge
what your Labrador should weigh is to estimate if his weight is appropriate
for him. As a Labrador breeder, I like to see some "bone" in my Labradors,
and since thrifty feeding during the first six months often is at the expense
of the "bone", I like to see some "puppy fat" in my puppies. This puppy
fat disappears at adolescence, it serves as a source of energy and it cushions
and insulates vital organs.
.
Start just by looking
at your puppy from the side. If you don't see any ribs at all, you slightly
stroke from front to back over his ribcage and feel for the ribs. If you
can feel them with a light touch, your puppy's weight is perfect. If you
need more pressure to feel the ribs, he is overweight and it would be better
to cut back a little on his food.
If your puppy is older
than six months and you want a healthy working dog, you should be able
to see the outline of his last 2 to 3 ribs while he is growing but you
shouldn't see more than 5 or 6 ribs. This would be an acceptable weight
for a working dog, also when he's an adult. If you can see most
of his ribs, you need to feed him more. Sadly enough, the ideal weight
for a show dog is 9 to 18 pounds more than the ideal weight for
a working dog.
Judging your Lab's
weight this way ensures that it is right for him and not just right for
the average member of the breed. It is almost always possible to adjust
the feeding schedule to ensure proper weight in a puppy fed primarily dog
food. It can be harder if he is getting treats, snacks, or has access to
outside food sources like the neighbours.
.
You can use feeding
formula and schedules, but it's still better to use the sight and feel
method to make sure that your particular puppy is not too fat or too thin.
When young dogs don't eat --- get them examined!
When young dogs won't eat well, it worries me. Some of them are just stubborn about getting what they want but more often, there is something wrong. The only problem is that there are a huge number of possibilities and it can be very difficult to sort through all of them. This is especially frustrating if it turns out that she is just being difficult after you do a comprehensive work-up.
If this is new behavior, teething difficulties are possible. Examining her to make sure she isn't retaining baby teeth and that her gums are not really irritated would be a good idea. If she has always been this way, that is less likely to be a problem.
Some of the things that come to mind with dogs that are very picky about eating, include intestinal worms, other intestinal parasites, food allergies, vascular liver shunts (portocaval shunts), problems with any organ system (kidneys, heart, liver) and Addison's disease. I am sure there are many other possibilities.
If she does not come
around quickly and begin to be willing to eat dog food or if you see any
signs that there may be more wrong (weight loss, lack of growth, gum disease,
etc.) please have your vet examine her and begin to eliminate as many possible
problems as is practical.
