Hello everybody! 16 days ago I brought home a 10 week old pure bred male Siberian Husky! He's very happy, but after a few days he got sick and we had to take him into the vet because he had excessive diarrhea and vomiting. The doctor told us he had a little bacteria in his system so she gave us an antibiotic and and anti nausea medicine and told us to give him that until it was gone. He ended up becoming perfectly fine after a few days and he was happy as can be again, however his stool has never gotten solid, it remains soft, and he has only gained 1.5-2 pounds in 2 weeks. He's 12 weeks old now and only weighs 11.5 pounds which seems incredibly small to me based on previous huskies I've had and most of the husky forums I've come across. Any ideas as to why? You can't see his ribs he's not too skinny but the soft stool and lack of weight gaining is starting to make me feel like I should do a return trip to the vet before his scheduled vaccinations on the 31st.

Every line is different. I would talk to the breeder and see what is normal for their particular dogs. Every line grows at a different rate. It could just be that her dogs grow slower than others, which isn't a bad thing. If he feels right, isn't skin and bones, has energy, then I wouldn't worry so much about the weight. Puppies being a little light is far better for their growing joints. If they grow too fast their joints can become loose and they will have issues later on that will be painful and can affect their performance if you decide to run with them, bikejore, or other heavier activities.

What are you feeding and what was the breeder feeding? Having another stool test done would be a good thing. Parasites like Giardia and Coccidia don't always show up the first time they are tested for. It might take a couple tries, especially early on in the infestation. He should have been wormed coming from the breeder but if they didn't or didn't use a good wormer some things can slip by. Especially if the poop really stinks. Both Giardia and Coccidia will make them smell rank.

I appreciate the reply, he has had 2 deworming vaccinations, one with the breeder and one at the vet I take him to, his poop has almost no scent at all, it's just very soft. The breeder was feeding him a food called Retreiver Hi Protein, and they don't sell that around me so I gave him Purina Pro Plan all life stages, once he started to get sick I changed his food to Under The Sun Chicken for Puppies.

A lot of food changing in a short time can cause problems. It will take some time for a puppy especially to get used to a new food. Neither the Pro Plan or the Under the Sun are grain free and some Siberians have problems with that. Not all, but many do. Under the Sun is high carbs and low protein as well. It can take a few weeks for a pup to get used to a food, that is why slow transitions are recommended. If it doesn't start to firm up in a week or two of being on the new food then you may have to look into something that is grain free. In the mean time a tablespoon of canned plain pumpkin can help firm him up as well.

Jake, Welcome to the forums.....I agree with Jenn. Just wanted to add, when I brought home my 10 week old gsd puppy she weighed about the same as your pup does now. Gsd's are slightly larger than huskies. Huskies are considered a medium breed, so the weight actually doesn't concern me at all. A pound or two light at this age, and from the transition of different foods as well as leaving the litter can make some puppies loose a tiny bit of weight. The other piece of advice is, if the pup is still having diarrhea I would put off the vaccinations. Vaccinations should only be given to healthy animals. Adding the pure plain canned pumpkin should help, once the pup is successfully having good poops, then vaccinate.

Hey Jakethomas!

I agree with the comments made here when people say each dog is different. To put it into perspective for you, Echo who is my purebred CKC reg'd Siberian, only weighed 10 lbs at 12 weeks =P. He has always had a clean bill of health at the vet and to this date is growing very proportionally (never had that awkward skinny growing phase or where ears are proportionally larger than his head, etc...) and is still very small for the average husky, but still grows daily.

So don't worry, your husky will hit his growth spurt when he does. Enjoy him while you can as a puppy cause they grow fast! I certainly didn't mind having Echo more petite for a longer period of time!

Cheers!

Your dog is fine. My dog was just 10 pounds at 12 weeks