puppy isnt pooping

Question
Hi Melinda,
My puppy is now 10 weeks old. Let me start by saying that I received him two weeks ago, his breeder has been feeding him puppy chows until I got him. When I received him we took him to the vet and found out that he had Kennel Cough, so for the first 10 days of having him I had to give him antibiotics three times a day. About 6 days ago I switched him to the brand wellness. I should probably also mention that his breeder fed him only kibble puppy chow and when I got him I decided to feed him canned food as well. So I switched his wet food a couple of times in the midst of deciding what the best food for him would be. Well anyhow, I got him the Puppy Wellness kibble and canned food. The first 3 days of feeding it to him I would mix the hard food with the puppy chow to get him used to it and gave him the canned food separately 3 times a day. When he seemed to really like this new brand and not have a problem with it I started giving him only Wellness brand without mixing it with puppy chows. Well, today is the 3rd day that my puppy doesn't poop. I don't know if this is bothering him because he doesn't even try to go to the bathroom. I took him to the vet yesterday and he gave him laxatives which did not help at all. His activity level seems to be the same. He is playful and seems to be feeling fine. I should probably mention that he weighs 2.7 IBs. If you have any advice please let me know because the vet wants to give him enema and I want to avoid it since he is still tiny.

Thank you in advance, Marta.

Answer
Marta,

The first thing you need to do is let the vet give him the enema.  Constipation in a puppy can be a serious thing.  Feces is toxic and the longer it is allowed to backup into his system the worse it gets.  

After you have gotten him to poop you can work on getting his system back to normal.  Basically what you did by changing his food (especially canned dog food) was send his system into shock.  Puppies have very delicate digestive systems and changing his food coupled with taking antibiotics his poor little intestines just couldn't handle it.  This is how I would handle it if it were my puppy.

Number 1 - Stop feeding him the canned dog food immediately.  Canned dog food (even for puppies) is to harsh for their digestive tracts to handle.  I do not recommend that you feed him canned dog food ever again because there is really no need to and it is better for their teeth if they eat the hard dog food.

Number 2 - Bring back the puppy chow.  To start you will need to put some puppy chow into a bowl and then poor hot water over it.  Just cover the dog food and then let it sit for about ten minutes or until the water has been soaked up into the dog food.  The dog food should be mushy at this point and you can mash it up until it is about the consistency of the canned dog food.  You will have to experiment at first with the amount of water but you should catch on fairly quickly.

Number 3 - Make sure your puppy has plenty of water at all times.  Water is extremely important to keep the toxins flushed out of his kidneys and to keep the digestive tract moist so that things keep moving in the right direction.  The moist puppy chow should help with keeping fluid in his system but he still need to be drinking plenty of fluids.

Over the years I have tried many puppy foods and I have always found that puppy chow causes the least amount of problems.  Yorkies can have temperamental digestive systems.  What adversely effects one may not effect another.  You should also know that dogs do not usually show pain unless they are in severe pain.  Your baby may appear fine but in truth he may be as uncomfortable as you may suspect if you were as constipated as he is.

Good Luck with your new baby boy.