So we picked up our new female puppy Nova a week and a half ago, and we've had a few odd problems with her already, I'm looking for some general advice on what would be considered normal, and what I should consider serious or a problem.

She was exactly 8 weeks when we got her and had her 2nd shots the day before, she was very timid, which I was expecting but not to this degree, she was afraid of everything in the house, and tried to hide herself wherever she could. She ate normal first night, and the digestive issues started the 2nd day we had her.

She had very soft poops the 2nd day, and threw up overnight, then we saw the worms in her poop the 3rd morning. We took her to the vet right away and they gave us some soft canned food to help her appetite, some probiotic, and a second dose of deworming. Things really haven't improved much since then although it's only been 10 days since we went to the vet. Since her poops were still messy I eliminated the soft food and probiotic in case that was actually making things worse. She's had 90% soft runny poops since we've had her, not watery, but very mushy, no worms since then though. She also yelped just once while trying to poop in the morning, I feel really bad for her but nothing seems to be working.

She has almost no interest in eating, and doesn't care about snacks, we've tried a few different things just having her taste them to see if she really likes something, she'll be interested for maybe 2 minutes then gets disinterested. That makes training pretty hard. She's also terrified of literally everything, mostly cars, but also people, dogs, trees, anything moving or that makes a noise, she lays down and tries to hide during her walks. I can't get her going with treats because she doesn't want them. Nothing has happened since we got her that would explain her behavior, I talked to the breeder and he said it's definitely odd because she was very social with her siblings.

The food we're giving her is the exact one the breeder was giving her, which we figured would be fine since she's already eating it. But she eats maybe half of each of her 3 meals a day, sometimes all of it, sometimes none of it. The vet said she looked a little skinny but her weight was 10.8 pounds at 8 weeks which seems to be normal?

It's not all bad however, she's taken to her crate right away and sleeps most of the night getting up once to go pee still, she learned sit, down, stay, look at me etc within a few minutes. It's the digestive issues I'm mostly worried about, and having her already at the vet I'm not really sure what else they can do but just charge more money for more visits and testing, I wanted to see from experienced owners how much of all this is normal and what isn't

Thanks !!

I just went a round with my 8 y/o Husky and digestive issues - so bad that I seriously wasn't sure she wasn't trying to die on me.  Thankfully no but to say I was "concerned" would be an understatement so I can sympathize with how you're feeling.

Assuming that you're giving her plenty of attention during your "non-working" hours, it sounds like she may just be one of those "scaredy dogs" (I have one, he knows about thunder long before I hear it, I have a 60+ pound dog under my chair!)  With a puppy this shouldn't normally be a problem, they're undergoing a massive amount of change and everything can be scary.  The (wrong) approach that many people take is to try to comfort the pup (and then you end up with a 60 pound dog under your chair) In my opinion, picking it up, telling it that everything will be okay simply tells the pup that it will be rewarded if it acts scared.  The better approach is to leave the pup on the floor and go about your normal routine, maybe pet her a bit as you normally would, let her understand that "those things that go bump" are normal and nothing to be afraid of. Expect her to be nervous on walks because there is so much "out there" that's scary, maybe try walking in your backyard more and letting her gradually explore the loud, scary world as she get comfortable.

The fact that she was "very sociable with her siblings" doesn't matter a whole lot - she knew them; she's been taken from that known, safe environment into one where she knows no one and nothing!  It's going to be a matter of time, some pups adjust overnight, some don't.

Okay, you got the worms taken care of so we'll assume that isn't a problem.  You don't say whether she's straining while she's defecating so I'll assume not.  Many of the food problems can tie directly back to not being comfortable.  At 8 weeks, I'd still expect her to be rolly-polly puppy but not so round as she was at 4 or 6 weeks.  Sibes are notoriously thin (I like to say sveldt) and many vets expect them to be more filled out like a lab, for example.

*I* won't venture much on the food issues since you leave out a lot that I'd like to know.  I have no idea if you're a stay at home mom with 15 kids (now that can be scary!) or a bachelor(ette) living alone.  You said that she sleeps in her crate all night with one wake up (man, did you get lucky!), but you don't say how much time she spends in her crate during the day.  What food is she eating, one designed for a puppy specifically, I hope - but again, you don't say.

From your last paragraph, it sounds like you got a good, smart pup (they all are.)  This last is going to be easier to write than do, you have concerns and you may be passing those to the pup in your behaviour - and believe me they'll pick up on it - but she won't know why you're anxious so she just reacts to that anxiety.  Try to relax.

Soft poop in new pups is pretty normal, with or without worms. A lot of it has to do with the stress the pup is under leaving all its littermates and coming to a new home. They are also just babies, even human babies produce a lot of mush since your pup had worms, that also has a lot to do with it. I personally feel you should probably still be giving the probiotic the vet gave you. It should only be helpful. The soft food, ugh, has its pros and cons but one of the pros is that it contains a lot of moisture, and being that your pup is having mush poop, she needs that moisture to help rehydrate herself. Biggest con for me is that it is soft food, so it's not really helpful in giving her firm poop. In any event, I think you could still give the probiotic atleast.

The scared thing. Your breeders statement isn't helpful. She may have been outgoing and stuff there, with all her littermates around, but now she was taken away from all that, she's basically "alone" now and will have to adjust to that. I think all brand new pups have some degree of fear, most of mine have. I had one who would stop in his tracks when he heard someone rolling out their trash can. My current two would stop in their tracks if they heard a dog barking inside their house/yard. The only ones that had issues with things like leaves blowing across the ground were not new pups anymore, they were around two, and on a walk one night, something on the ground moved, similar to leaves blowing, only it was a rattlesnake, when the girl sniffed it, she jumped so far back it took me with her, lol, and the boy of course jumped back then too but since that night, it took awhile for them to get over it...they were jumping at leaves blowing across the ground, at night, for quite a few months. I would say with your pup though, just getting used to things, being exposed to different things, in time and with growth, will get over her fears fairly quickly. Basically I don't think it's something abnormal.

And...my two were both at around the 7lb range at 9 weeks so your pup is doing pretty good. How much are you feeding her per day?

Thanks for the detailed reply, a lot of what you're saying makes sense, the fear and hiding from literally every passing car/person/dog during walking I know should eventually subside, we're trying to work through it, it'd be a lot easier if she got excited about treats lol

To your questions, yes she is straining when defecating, or at least it seems that way, she's staying in that position after she's done like she needs to go more, but nothing more comes out. The whimper during her poop this morning is what made me more worried for her.

We're a run of the mill family of 4, with 2 other dogs. I work from home twice a week and my kids are home from school for the summer so she's barely been alone much at all, crate time is normally just overnight, or the odd time for a nap or a quick errand. This will change once kids are back in school

She's eating "NOW Fresh" puppy food, we're in Canada so not sure if the US also has this brand. The vet had us try Royal Canin canned food, I was a little surprised they suggested this since I know switching a pups food abruptly like that can cause issues, which is part of the reason I went back to the Now brand when it didn't seem to be working, but then again that food doesn't seem to be working either. I can't tell if she's uninterested in her food and treats because her tummy hurts or because she just simply doesn't like it.

I'll be going back to the vet soon for a followup but I'm wondering how long I should let her continue with the soft stools and just take her back in sooner.

Okay, NOW Fresh has a good rating on DogFoodAdvisor (my go-to reference for foods I don't know) so I'm not displeased with that choice.

I didn't ask how much she was getting at each meal ... the biggest offender for loose stools is overfeeding and with a puppy, it's easy to overfeed. Before you try the chicken and rice, you might just want to cut her ration back by, oh, let's say 1/4 and see if that helps.

You might want to try a couple of days of boiled chicken and plain rice. You don't get much more 'soothing' for an upset tummy. Since she is just a puppy, I'd let her eat her last 'normal' meal and then switch to the chicken and rice the next morning. If she likes it, don't let her overeat - that results in loose stools.

The probiotic shouldn't cause any distress <he says> but you're right, a change in food can cause loose stools as their bodies adjust.

Jimmy (@artic_wind) comments, you know I do rescues so I don't really do puppies ....

I’d probably recheck with your Vet, at this point she may be starting to get dehydrated. I’d also ask them to send out a fecal test to check for Giardia, because with my experience (I’m a Vet Tech) it really sounds like that might be what you’re dealing with. I would also keep her on a GI Food, I know royal canin makes a good puppy prescription diet that really helps and since it’s formulated to be easy on the stomach you don’t have to worry about the switching food things. It also is preloaded with probiotics.

The behavior sounds like she was unfortunately not from the best breeder and highly unsocialzed, which is just going to take time. Just because she was active and good with her littermates doesn’t mean she was around people much, poor thing.

We're feeding her 1 + 1/2 cups a day, spread over 3 meals. Plus she'd be getting maybe another at most 1/4-1/2 cup in her Kongs when she goes to bed/overnight.

I think we'll try the chicken/rice combo and just see if that makes any difference, would that just be regular boneless chicken breast you'd buy at a grocery store? Googling says to use canned chicken but I can't see that being very healthy and probably has more sodium?

Regarding the breeder, I suppose you never really know what goes on behind the scenes, but they appeared to be good people with many years experience breeding Huskies, mom & dad were registered, they were a family with 3 kids and we made sure to even take the 7 hour round trip drive out to meet everyone first before deciding, the pups all played with the kids well and the parents were extremely well mannered. We didn't take the decision lightly and put a lot of thought into all of this, which is why I feel a bit disheartened by the issues we're having already, I'm hoping this is all just a bit of bad luck and clears up, she is only 9 weeks afterall and needs our time and love to get comfortable.

I appreciate all the feedback thanks again.

n4esa2 wrote:

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I think we'll try the chicken/rice combo and just see if that makes any difference, would that just be regular boneless chicken breast you'd buy at a grocery store? Googling says to use canned chicken but I can't see that being very healthy and probably has more sodium?.

Yes just boil boneless chicken breasts from the store.

That doesn't sound like a lot of food so I'd be thinking that's not the problem. Trying chicken & rice for a couple of days might help, if not then a vet trip is definitely in order. (( There's alway the possibility that she's one of the rare dogs allergic to chicken but that's such a small possibility I wouldn't consider it, yet )) And yes, generally just simple boiled chicken - breasts are good and easy.

With two other dogs there, can you tell how much she's drinking? It's rough with the three of mine - I just watch what comes out ...

@Jennet&Embry made the comment that it might be Giardia and if this doesn't clear up after a day or two on chicken and rice then more tests are definitely in order.

You don't mention who the breeder is and at this point, I don't really care. You have a pup who's not feeling well, that's my concern. That they had two sets of shots before they left the breeder and the quality of the food they were given says a good bit to me.