Puppy update...

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severnmiles

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She's tolerating Nero now, but if he comes too close the tail goes straight between her legs. Met the old GSD (yes, she's still going!) when she came out for a run and was terrified and went through the same ritual of bearing teeth, growling, snapping and tail between her legs. Tried eating everything going, plastic feed bags, paper from the pig feed bags, stones, twigs, horse muck but I was with her all the time so she didn't actually manage to eat anything. Took a few more pics. Then fed her and boy has she got an appetite to match a horse, had to be careful not to over feed her but she's had 3 good (not too big) meals today. She's so light that I can pick her up with one hand, can't even pick Lilly up with two hands (only the front end!).

Anyway, pics...

Top view...
Image097-4.jpg


In comparison to the sister from the same litter...
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To prove she has a healthy appetite...
Image129-5.jpg


Look at the tail...
Image132-1.jpg


Anyway, hopefully onwards and upwards from here on, she's a really sweet 'person' underneath it all. Will post updates to the future
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The fact that she is eating such weird things reminds me a bit of a Shepherd we had years ago who had malabsorption syndrome, basically his body just couldn't absorb the nutrients from his food and so no matter how much you fed him he was always starving. He used to steal and eat flour from the cupboards
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It might be worth mentioning it to your vet just so they can rule it out.
 
She has to go back in two weeks if there is no weight gain. The vet saw it that because she looked thin that she hadn't been fed correctly and as a result ate the 'weird' stuff. Time will tell.

Out of interest did you have the GSD from a puppy?
 
Am so gald that she is back with you. Am sure with your knowledge that she will be back to peak soon.

You just can never be sure about the 'new' owners, so glad that they had the nonse to give her back to you. That is one blessing.
 
Sorry, bit slow to reply, not on here much at mo. Yes the dog was homebred, it was over 30 years ago but the eating everything yet being really thin rang a bell. However, is far more likely to be as your vet says and she just hasn't been fed properly, hope she starts gaining weight soon. As far as I recall with our dog he actually developed it as a mature dog, he certainly had no problems as a puppy , was possibly 4 or 5 when symptoms first appeared.
 
Ahhh, that's what I was wondering, what he was like at 6-8 week old puppy as she didn't have the problem then. Wow 4 or 5 is quite an age to develop it.

The only thing I would have thought though is that anyone with an underweight dog would surely visit a vet to discover if there was a problem and if so the vet would have found the problem/disease(?) you described?
 
I wish I could remember exactly how it developed but the brain cells have failed me
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It took a lot of tests before a diagnosis was reached . In the case of your pup did the owners take her to the vet, were they even aware she was too thin? In view of her obvious lack of socialisation etc possibly not. I bet you're so glad they at least honoured the contract and asked you to take her back. It is so hard isn't it when you think you have found a great home and something like this happens. I have to my knowledge only had 2 dogs I bred end up in rescue, and they wre traced to me by tattoo numbers. The reason the owners gave for not contacting me was that they were too embarrassed ! I was so angry, anyone can hit hard times but what the heck is the point of signing a contract and then ignoring it. Look forward to hearing updates on your girl, and hoping she soon gains some weight.
 
Yes, exactly, that's one thing I'm really pleased that they returned her.

What a shame regarding your two, even though it's a contract you can only go by their trust, even though there have been court cases with dogs that have been tattoed or chipped that weren't returned when a contract had been signed and the breeders have always won. Bet you were pleased to get yours back. It's a shame that they were embarrassed
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but I can understand that people do get embarrassed....
 
It really is sad to see the difference between the sisters. Thing is, I can't help wondering how much more evident her condition would look, if she'd been f. ex. a Greyhound, and not had a well disguising spitz-coat. On other hand, I've seen pictures of only skin and bones Greyhounds, so sadly it doesn't seem to help much.

I can understand that you're really pleased they at least did one thing right, by returning her to you.

from Sweden.
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