a 4 week old pit puppy acting strange. Urgent.

Question
QUESTION: My neighbor has a four week old puppy,yesterday, as well as earlier today he seemed to be doing fantasic, but suddenly all he wants to do it lay there, and barely pick his head up. it's weird for him to be acting so strangley. We were wondering if he isn't getting enough from his mom, can we possibly feed him some warmed up milk? Or what could we do to help him. Thanks.

ANSWER: Warmed up milk will do nothing good for him. He must have gotten cold, or is sick from worms or even parvo.

Without knowing more about the bitch or the rest of the litter I can't tell you more. You can always get PUPPY milk replacement at the feed and pet stores and use that. We prefer Nurturall but Esbilac will work also. Follow the directions on the can/box.



---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you. He passed on a few hours ago, they are worried about the other though. They now have puppy formula. The other four seem to be fine. If one had worms, which he had, do they all have them? Can they be treated before six weeks? And also is it posible for a mother dog's milk to go bad?

Answer
Yes they all have them and no, most of the time you cannot treat them before 6 weeks. If the bitch isn't nursing at all you might want to ask the vet if there is a safe pill or liquid to give them for roundworms.

A bitch's milk doesn't go bad per se, but if she is sick or unthrifty herself from having worms or heartworms, etc, she might not produce enough milk. The milk can be tainted from diseases and medications also.

It's pretty rare for that but it does happen. Just remember no cows milk for any of the pups. You might want to find out what the bitch is eating too. If she isn't on a high quality Puppy food then she might not have enough milk.

Lactating bitches need to be on free-fed puppy food while pregnant and lactating. This is very important.

I hope the rest of the litter does well.