[summit]

I've had my puppy for almost three weeks. The first week I had him, he stopped eating, after 2 days i took him to the vet. They x rayed him and said he may have an obstruction but it wasn't for sure and they wanted to do a barium test for 750. We decided to get a second opinion and took him to another vet. The new vet said, after looking at the x rays, there was no reason to suspect an obstruction and decided to get his stool tested.
This was last week and since then he will eat chicken and rice only. He still looks pretty skinny and you can see his ribs, but he is eating 3 times a day. He's been having only one BM a day. And the area around his anus sticks out quite a bit when he's defecating. The area also seems to stick out above the anus more than it used to.
If its worthwhile i'll take a picture and post it, if anyone might be able to give advice.
Tomorrow we get the test results back and may end up taking him in again tomorrow evening.

 

[Soundtrack]

I hope things work out for you and your puppy and it turns out to be nothing important.

Just out of curiosity, where did you end up getting him from?

 

[SophieB]

I hope puppy will be OK as it's a worry when they won't eat! Trust your vet to want to do a costly barium test...!!!

Perhaps your puppy was like one we had a few years back who didn't want to eat for his first couple of days with us and we then remembered that the breeder had fed her with 'softened' Eukanuba puppy food by putting a small amount of warm water on it for a few minutes before feeding so she clearly didn't want to eat her food 'dry and hard' and as soon as I moistened it, she was well away with her eating... 4 times a day and soon started to thrive.

It's maybe better if you try him on proper puppy food (soften it like I did) or he'll always want chicken and rice. Rice will bung him up anyway and it carries on absorbing moisture and might cause him not to have BM very often because of the rice!

 

[jaleely]

your pup is soooo cute!

When we first got bowser he seemed to be eating fine at the breeder, but wouldn't really eat much at home. A lot of this could be just the fact that the pup has never had to go without food, so therefore feels it can be picky. This took bowser a while. We used to keep daisy away from him when he ate, but as he got older she would come closer and now he wants to eat his food whether he likes it or not. Like for instance, he doesn't like FISH of all things *lol* but he doesn't want daisy to have it, so he will eat it : )

THe other thing was...when we first got him he was kind of in bad shape. Ear mites, ear yeast infection, fleas, belly worms, and later we found out...MANGE. So once we got the worms cleared up and every thing else settled he began to eat more and put on weight. You shouldn't be seeing your pups ribs. You might even go for a cheaper puppy food (like purina or something that has attractants in it) for a while just to get him to eat.

also give him a worm test anyway, even if you don't see them in the poo. We never saw anything with bowser, but he sure had them.

good luck. i still worry about my baby's malnutrition when he was little, so do what you can to get that little one eating! lots of protein! and at this stage puppy vitamins wouldn't hurt either, if he's not eating a lot.

OH and bowser had a kind of hemorrhoid at first too, but once his system got regular that cleared up.

if the dog is still passing poo, then there is no obstruction. if you press on the belly and there is no pain noticed, then that is probably fine. If he's not eating 2-3 cups of food a day, you're not going to get a lot of poo.
try putting broth or something over the food.
puppies need LOTS of protein...more than you can get from chicken and rice.
good luck and keep us posted!

 

[summit]

Thanks for the input
Turns out Gunnar had giardia. He did a week of panacur and a week off. In those 2 weeks his stool went back to normal and he gained almost 5 lbs! He went to the vet yesterday for shots and is doing great. He's doing 1 more week of panacur and will go back in a month for a stool test and his last shots.
Seems like we have the giardia taken care of and now it's on to house training...ugh!!! Oh and he starts puppy kindergarden next week. Anyone know a good website for backpacks and lunch pales?