We brought home an English Springer puppy on Friday. He is 8 1/2 weeks old. We took him to the vet on saturday to get his first jabs, but the vet would not give him the injections as he said the dog was a bit bloated and skinny looking for an 8 1/2 week old. (He did look quite pathetic on the day, and he clearly did not like being at the vets!) It seems that the breeder was feeding the puppy inappropriate food (Viking-not puppy food) and we have put the bloating down to this. We are in the process of gradually changing the food over to Hill's science plan puppy food. This is 24 hours on and the bloating has subsided. The puppy seems to be fine apart from this. He has no lack of appetite (We are feeding him 5 times a day.) He seems quite happy, considering he has just arrived and its all new to him. He plays with my 4 year old son and his tail is usually in wag mode.  He sleeps on and off during the day (he'll be up for a couple of hours; eat, play, toilet then he'll go into his pen and savage his teddy for a while before dropping off again). Is this normal behaviour? it seems fine to us but we have nothing to compare it to as this is our first dog. He did vomit tonight, about an our and a half after eating. He didnt seem unduly put out by this and he simply returned to his cage with a few whimpers when he was done. There was grass, tiny bits of twig and leaves but no worms visible to me in the vomit. He does like to try eating most things in the garden: grass, twigs, slugs etc, and i am forever pulling stuff from his mouth when he goes out to toilet. Is it likely that he has just eaten something untoward on his last outing into the garden? If anyone can offer any advise it would be welcome as our soon to be ex-vet is not the greatest of communicators and sent us home unjabbed with zero information after we had gone to him to get the fist vaccination. Of course he still charged £26 for the pleasure. I want to get the dog vaccinated asap as he will only toilet in the garden (he has been no firther than our back garden and there have been no other dogs in there in the two years we have lived in the house.)

This seems like a very good vet to me if he is unwilling to vaccinate a puppy when he is not happy with his condition.  All vets should examine and evaluate a puppy before doing so.  The fee you paid is for a consultation not necessarily treatment and seems within reasonable limits.  I would not be surprised if he does not charge you for the consultation again when you return with the pup but he would be perfectly entitled to do so as you will, again, be seeking his professional opinion.  Meantime your puppy should be fine in your own garden, although clearly he needs supervising over what he is picking up and eating and you can start socialising by carrying him about outside your home.

Hi Mattc,

Puppies have two speeds - full on and asleep.  They generally spend more time asleep than awake - however they are such a wonderful handful when they're awake you may not believe it.  :-) 

Your vet sounds okay to me - he or she was concerned about your puppy's health.   No reputable vet will vacinaate a puppy they suspect might be ill.   By the way, a bloated skinny puppy is often a sign of worms - did the vet ask you when he was last wormed?  If the vet didn't ask about worming, or, if you asked him or her questions that he would not answer, then I too would find another vet. 

Vomitting foreign objects is normal.  If dogs or puppies eat enough grass you can pretty much guarantee they will throw up.  Please watch your puppy in the garden and make sure he does not eat anything that could be dangerous, like twigs.  Many plants are poisonous too, see eating leaves and plants is not a good idea.  Slugs can carry a harmful parasite to dogs - so they should be off the menue.   Try distracting your puppy with a toy when he goes to pick up something he shouldn't.    Teaching the "leave it" or "drop it" command is helpful too.   Watching to make sure they don't eat something they should not is at least a year-long project!  (And for some dogs - one which never completely ends.)

Stacey

All good advice above :D

Just wanted to add, please make sure that there are no slug pellets about, these are really poisonous and could be deadly to a puppy ;) ;)

Thanks for the help Guys.
It was a bit daunting, our first visit to the vet. Thinking about it, the guy definately seemed to know his stuff, and he did make enquiries about the worming status of the puppy (now called Frodo.) I think the problem was that the guy is not one of the worlds "born communicators."  But, that aside, we weaned Frodo onto the new puppy food very quickly (48 hours) and his tummy has gone down markedly. I think that it is quite possible that he does have worms as he sometimes drags his bum on the grass, however i have not noticed any worms in his faeces and he has not thrown any up. He had drontal 1 week ago so hopefully we should be on the way to ridding him of those nasties soon. We also treated him with stronghold on saturday night, although i dont think that he had fleas anyway. The diarrhoea has stopped now that we have changed the food, so with a bit of luck he should be good to get his first vaccinations on Saturday. I have fenced off an area in the garden (about 25m squared) for him to play and poo in and will make sure that there is nothing untoward to munch on lying about on the grass so slugs and twigs will be off the menu.
Thanks again for the help and advice. I'll repost  in a few days with an update.

Ah, my puppy's dad's called Frodo! Good luck with your boy, keep us posted!

Hi Matt,

Congrats on your purchase of your puppy, and aren't they fun!!  Wait until they eat a hole through your wall!! (or maybe that was just my puppy - you think I jest!!!) 

I used Panacur wormer on all my pups, as it is easy to administer, they seemed to like it, and they were worm free completely when they went to their new mums and dads. 

You have done the right thing with the food, and it has worked so your next visit to the vet shouldn't be a problem, then you can introduce Frodo to the weird and wonderful world outside your back garden.  I am impressed you have 25 m2 to cordon off!! I would love a garden that would allow me to have that much 'doggy' area.  They will however, put everything in their mouths, just like babies, unfortunately, not attached to their 'hands' it usually goes south to their bellies, so loose all plants to be safe in that area if you're not sure as to what is dog friendly. 

If your vet is knowledgeable, and you are fine with his treatment and diagnosis (and it sounds like he is responsible) then I'm afraid the cost for the consultation is quite standard, and you may have to accept that he isn't a chatty type of guy.  If you have questions for the vet, ask them, and if you don't think you understand the answer, or you don't think the answer was enough, ask him to explain more thoroughly.  There's absolutely nothing wrong in a new 'mum and dad' wanting to know exactly what the problem is with their little one. 

Enjoy......

Clare x