As I was saying at the end of my last post about our new puppy, we discovered on Saturday that our little bundle of energy was sick.
I’d noticed on the drive home that our pups nose was dry. As we drove home I asked Chris if her nose had been wet when we saw her in the barn while she was in the pen with the other pups and as I thought it had been. As it turns out her nose is dry sometimes and wet at others.
She’s been active and doesn’t really act sick, but as I said in my last post she was pooping a lot all day Saturday and passing pine shavings in her stool and when she finally started having watery diarrhea that I noticed had blood streaks we immediately called a vet and talked them into letting us bring her in that day.
Since the puppy had passed so much stool on Saturday we had some samples to bring with us to the vets office. The vet immediately collected a sample to test while we were in the office and then he came in to examine the pup.
He said she was full of gas and of course the immediate concern was whether she still had pine shavings in her bowels and whether she might have a bowel obstruction. She hadn’t been vomiting or retching but we had noticed from the time we got her home in the early morning hours that after she’d have a drink or eat her stomach and abdomen would heave and move around as if she were having hiccups.
She never seemed to be in obvious discomfort when her stomach was twitching, but I did notice over the weekend that she didn’t like her stomach, hind legs or behind touched when her abdomen was making those odd movements. Perhaps it was gas moving around or the bulky pine shaving filled stool moving around …
Overall the pup seems to be in good health. She’s a good weight for her age. Oh and she wasn’t born on September 7th as I was told. The paperwork I was given states that she was born August 25th and she’s only had one set of shots so far … in early October. She should have had at least two sets of shots by now if not all three sets!
When the vet was finished examining the pup he went back to see if the stool test was finished. It was finished and he said that he could see a lot of bacteria. So our pup is on meds! She got two injections while in the vets office. One was antibiotics and the other was a medication that would sooth her stomach and bowels – something like Prevacid.
So she’s now on three medications. Two for the stomach and bowels – to coat and sooth them (Sulcrate and Cimetidine), and one is an antibiotic (Tylocine). She gets them before and with meals and she takes her medication really well.
She’s also on a different food that’s easier on her stomach for now too. It’s called Medi Cal Gastro Formula and she loves it. It’s canned food. The first time we fed it to her it was room temperature and it stuck to the roof her her mouth. Now we serve it cold, just out of the fridge, and I chop it up into tiny pieces so it will go down easier without getting stuck to the roof of her mouth. I actually had to get my hand in her mouth to break up the build up of food stuck in there on Saturday. We though she was going to choke!
Since puppy seemed to be doing ok after the vet visit we decided to go right to Petsmart (we had the pup in a shoulder bag) and get a training crate. It was a quick trip but we still managed to pick up two more toys for the girl. She’s got 6 toys now!
The medications seem to be working. Her tummy hasn’t done that heaving hiccup like movement since maybe noon on Sunday and he stool is less frequent. Oh and the pills seem to be puppy happy pills because she gets super active after we give them to her. It’s probably because the meds make her feel better I guess.
Other than getting her used to her crate, which she’s done really well in, we haven’t had much luck in the training department. That’s probably because her stool is a bit more frequent than it should be thanks to her bacterial infection.
We bought puppy training pads but to a puppy that wants to chew everything they are just one more toy to play with! She did go pee on one of the pads for the first time today though so there’s hope that it might work. I think for the most part though I’ll try to take her outside every two hours during the day and get her used to doing her business outside if at all possible.
She’s quite the ball of energy and since labs are orally fixated everything that she can wrap her mouth around is fair game! My hands are her number one chew toy or at least she thinks they are. So are my pant legs. She doesn’t chew on Chris anywhere near as much as she does me. I think she likes the smell or taste of the hand soap that I’ve been washing my hands with so frequently.
If anyone has any tips on how to get her to stop chewing on my hands I’d appreciate some help!
The words NO, Sit, and Stay away or Leave alone have been used frequently, but have little effect so far!
I bought two books to help with training, but I haven’t had much of a chance to read them yet! I got a copy of Puppies for Dummies and The Fancy Pets publication Training Secrets for Labrador Retrievers (vol 7). I’ve read two chapters of Training Secrets and hope to read a bit more later today.
Just to be able to write a couple of blog posts I put the puppy in her crate. It’s nice to have a little bit of peace and quite for a few moments. She’s being really good in her crate. She can see me from where she is and she’s lying on her doggy bed, which is full of toys, watching me as I type.
Time to go outside again I think!
As usual if anyone has any puppy training tips for me I’d appreciate it.
Update: I actually wrote out this post on Monday but due to being busy with Midnight and suffering from a cold I think I didn’t get around to posting this until today. Midnight is doing better health wise. She’ll be on antibiotics and the other meds for a few more days. Her nose is wet most of the time now.
She’s starting to get the idea of what the puppy training pads are for and we’ve also been going outside frequently – like every hour or two! Maybe the accidents will get fewer and farther between soon.
The hand chewing is still going on. I really need some tips as to how to get her to stop chewing my hands. She’s starting to puncture the skin quite frequently. A groomer at Petsmart put me onto lightly pushing my thumb under her tongue to make her let go and that works (and doesn’t seem to hurt her) but she still thinks my hands are the best toys around.
I’m sorry she’s sick! Hopefully those meds will kick in and she’ll be in good health in no time.
I’ve heard the puppy pee pads are not a great tool for potty training because they just teach the dog that it’s okay to go to the bathroom inside. It gives a mixed message – and then you also have to wean them off the pee pads. I don’t have a personal experience with them one way or the other, but that’s just what I’ve read about them.
Be patient – she’s still so young. Labs are bright and eager to learn, so she’ll be learning all the commands you want her to in no time. 🙂
With your puppy being ill, it wasn’t easy to start training right away.
Poor puppy. I hope she is up and getting into far more trouble soon. And she will, because Labs have very energetic puppyhoods. But they are bright – she will learn soon enough.
She is stunningly beautiful. You are lucky.
Cheers!
Sick dogs are never a good thing. One of my airedale terriers has a bum knee that is so painful for me to see him with. After he gets some pain pills he feels great too, it’s because the medicine is working! I’m glad the medicine is working for your dog too.
What an adorable puppy! Sounds like he is on the mend and you are handling him appropriately. I agree that the pee pads will send mixed messages. I have used those in the past but I don’t remember much about them. I just take my dog out to pee. Sometimes he has accidents in the house but it’s always my fault because I ignored his warnings. But for the most part, my dog (Bailey) pees (outside) in the morning and then in the evening and he seems to be fine with that.
Crate training will be a huge help for you. As for chewing on your hands, make sure you have chew toy handy, close by at all times. Whenever he grabs your hand, replace your hand with the toy and tell him to chew the “toy”. Soon, he’ll learn the word toy and associate it with the things he is allowed to chew on. It doesn’t happen overnight, so be patient, it will happen!
Hope he’s feeling better.
Yes, I remember the trials and tribulations of the ‘Chew Wars’ very well. I now have a 3-year old pooch and am slowly rebuilding my shoe collection! I’m a big believer in rewarding the positive, ignoring the negative behaviors. So when he’s biting your hands, maybe curl them into a ball and look away so he can’t get to them. Then if when he stops trying, give him a good pat and a little tasty reward. It might not work so well until Midnight is a little bit older, but I found this method really helpful for training [url=http://pascoepopart.com/blog/labels/Obi-wan.html]my dog[/url].
Yes, I remember the trials and tribulations of the ‘Chew Wars’ very well. I now have a 3-year old pooch and am slowly rebuilding my shoe collection! I’m a big believer in rewarding the positive, ignoring the negative behaviors. So when he’s biting your hands, maybe curl them into a ball and look away so he can’t get to them. Then if when he stops trying, give him a good pat and a little tasty reward. It might not work so well until Midnight is a little bit older, but I found this method really helpful for training my dog.
Good luck!
The one suggestion I tell almost everyone who gets a new pet and wants them to learn to stop doing something or know their boundaries is to get a mini plastic spray can and fill it with water.
Whenever the puppy bites your hand, just spray her face with the water. It’s harmless and eventually she’ll get the hint not to do that. Don’t forget to firmly say “No!” when you spray her face. She’ll pick it up rather quickly as most pets do because they don’t want to get wet.
Since you live in Toronto, you can check out Dollarama. They have the little spray bottles that I’m talking about near their cosmetic section.
I’ve heard the spray bottle works, but never tried. Hugo, at just over a year, still wants to chew my hands – and it hurts. Midnight is so darned cute though, it’s probably hard to keep your hands away…
Dogs are very smart – she’ll have you trained in no time!
I hope she is feeling better by now. She is adorable. We only have a little dog. Even he is not really ours, our son left home and HIS dog still lives here lol.
I’m sorry to hear that your puppy is sick, but it is nice to know that she is doing better.
One good tip for stopping the nipping/chewing is to rub frozen butter on your hands. This way she’ll learn to lick your hands instead of chew.
Hope that helps!