I have a 12 week old golden retriever puppy. She was underweight when we got her due to a poor diet, which we changed and she began to put on a bit of weight but she is still too thin for her age and height. She is fed four times a day with a mixture of meat and complete food as she couldn't eat dry food on its own. She was wormed a month ago and is being wormed again at the moment. She has a good appetite, and doesn't refuse food anymore. She has loose stools and goes many times a day, more than normal. She had her 2nd jab on tuesday and the vet expressed concern for her weight and the loose stools i mentioned and is going to test a sample of poo which i gave her today. After reading some posts today it sounds like she could have colitis, as i had noticed a slight mucus substance when cleaning up after her. What worries me the most however is how tired she is. I know puppies sleep a lot, particularly in warm weather but she seems to sleep more that most. She does have brief periods of activity but seems to sleep all afternoon. For example today she went to a puppy party at the vets. There were about 7 puppies all rushing around playing and she just slept under the chair, for the whole 2 hours. She continued to sleep in the car and on returning home for another hour or so. Is this normal? She does get car sick and i wondered if this could be connected to the tiredness, although she does sleep a lot even when she doesn't go in the car. She also drinks an awful lot. In your experiences would you say the tiredness is a symptom of illness or just a lazy puppy?

hmmm - theres a lot of questions there, a lot being dependent on her diet...

I'm not familiar with colitis, but I am sure someone on here will let you know..it certinaly wouldn't hurt to try her on Naturediet...and all dogs seem to love it... why not give it a go and see if it perks her up a bit? If she is not getting the correct vits from her food then it will make her lethargic, and at 12 weeks I would still expect her to sleep a lot, but maybe not that much?

More people will be along soon with advice - but in the meantime, get a pck of Naturediet and see how you go with it :)

I'm a very novice owner myself, but I do have a nearly 5 month old Golden puppy. I can't help with the feeding, but perhaps it would be useful for people to know which complete you are feeding? Naturediet has been talked about a lot recently, and Dylan likes it a lot - perhaps worth a try?

With the sleeping, when Dylan was younger, he was asleep much more than he was awake. Then he started to be awake almost all day (about 2 weeks ago). With the hot weather of the past few days, it has been common for him to sleep most of the day. More specifically, he wakes anout 9am, has breakfast and a play, then is asleep by 10.30am. He than sleeps on and off until about 1pm (when I give him a small lunch). A quick play, then he has been sleeping on and off until his evening meal at about 5.30pm. He then wakes up more in the evening. However, if he was in a room with seven other puppies (as yours was) there is no way he would sleep. Dylan was also car sick to begin with, but that didn't stop him from playing at the puppy party. So if it were Dylan, I would think there was something wrong.
But as I said, I'm new to dog ownership, so this is just my experience.

HTH,

Sarah

I would be a bit concerned that her diet may be too rich for her - meat combined with complete will be pretty high protein, and may be upsetting her tum. Meat with mixer may be better. She does seem very sleepy, though. (When she sleeps all afternoon, what has she been doing all morning?) This could be for umpteen reasons - the weather, being slightly off-colour with a tummy upset, and combined with drinking a lot.......I would mention it to the vet though, if you're worried.
:)

She is on pedigree puppy complete and a small spoonful of pedigree meet, just to give it some moisture, as she couldn't eat dry food when we got her. She was on wafcol but we though perhaps that might be the problem as its made from fish and is pretty smelly! We started changing it slowly yesterday and it already seems to be making a difference, she hasn't slept as much and seems to have put on more weight already. Her stools are also alot firmer and a nicer colour. She was also wormed yesterday on advice from the vet. It does sound like sleeping a lot is a retriever trait in puppyhood, but as you say no puppy could sleep through a puppy party - two dogs got into a fierce fight - lots of screaming, barking and growling - took ages to pull the terrier off as it had set its jaw - and she didn't even open her eyes!! She was playing with my other dog al ot yesterday morning, but she did have some naps during the morning. I do wonder if she was feeling car sick though, as she growled at some of the dogs that came near, yet she is quite bold with the many dogs she has met at puppy training so she isn't particularly scared. I think i shall just have to wait until the vet calls with the results from the fecal sample i gave them yesterday ... and work incredibly hard on reducing the car sickness. I took her for a slow 5 min journey in the car and by the time we had got back she had been sick. I think it must be due to anxiety.

Do you soak her food? My pups are 11 weeks old and I still soak their food on the advise of my vet, she said if its dry they will drink lots! Also as previously mentioned a mixture of complete and meat is probably way too rich for her tummy, especially if she hasn't been used to it, so maybe a combination of rich food and lots to drink has upset her tummy.

Good luck