Playing, fear or just a silly puppy?

I have my guesses but figured I'd toss this one out to you guys too.

Buster has identical stainless steel food/water bowls. He has no issues with the water bowl, drinks a ton of water.

Feedings start with him standing a couple feet away barking at the bowl. Eventually he'll walk over, sniff the bowl and start shaking his head (as if he's telling me no!) and then hop back several steps. After a while he'll get the courage to sneak up to the bowl (Saint puppy pushing 40lbs does not sneak well!), grab a mouth full of food, back up several steps, drop said food on the floor and eat it from there.

Move the bowl towards him and he moves away from it. Thinking he had an issue with the bowl (shouldnt since his water bowl is identical and he has no issues with that), I tried a plastic pie plate. I got a more intense reaction, he moved away and tucked his tail (very, very rare to see him tuck his tail).

Dumped the food on the floor (same food he had in the bowls) and he's now very willing to eat it.

 

could be just a wierd puppy thing. Keep feedng him normally and don't try and change it, that will show him that he should be afraid of it.

 

Sorry it took so long to get back to this. We had a tummy bug hit the house.

After about a week of him refusing most of his food, I gave in and started putting it on the floor near his water bowl. We need him to gain some more weight, this way he's at least eating what he needs.

He's 13 weeks today, weighed in at 33.2lbs this afternoon. He could use a few more pounds, we've been battling worms (with the help of the vet...love the vet we're seeing!) since he came home. Did another test this afternoon, still has round and tapeworms...at least we got rid of the hooks.

 

internal parasites are HARD to get rid of. A couple vets i've spoken to say you will never 100% get rid of them. they are born with them and will die with them and the best people can do is the monthly treatment to keep them at bay and not get overly infested. I know i'm battling tapeworms with two of my adults i got from another breeder. They've been wormed every 2 weeks with Praziquantel, Panacure and STILL having them appear in their stools... YUCK!!!

Puppies especially are hard to get rid of round worms...they walk all over and lick their paws, put everything in their mouths and nothing you can do will kill the eggs. The only thing i was told would kill eggs is high high flame.

 

This is about the only part of my sweet boy Im not enjoying....the "bugs". If Buster needs monthly worming, thats what we'll have to do. Whatever it takes to keep my guy comfy and putting on the weight he needs. At 33lbs, he still looks thin...vet says its due to him being so wormy. We've been fighting these nasty things since we brought him home, we'll continue to fight as long as we have to.

I have to watch Buster constantly when we're outside otherwise he will pick up something...sticks, rocks, a mouth full of grass...if he sees it, he wants to taste it. Kinda reminds me of my girls as toddlers...

He's worth every second we put into him, every penny spent on him.

 

i reccomend starting him on either interceptor or oral ivermectin. they take care of everything including heartworm, only thing they don't cover is tapes.

 

The vet put him on Panacur, I will keep the others in mind though. Mixed that with 1tbsp of peanut butter and a tiny bit of apple sauce (just enough to add a little moisture) and Buster thought he was getting a treat. If his tail would have been wagging much harder I'd probably be bruised...silly boy was a bit excited to take his meds.

I would have used a bit of canned puppy food but Buster wants nothing to do with it.

I think she said we're dealing with rounds, whips and tapes. 3 weeks ago he also had hooks. Simply looking at his poo, Ive never seen anything abnormal. The first time we had him in for his first puppy visit. This time I noticed a bit of diarrhea....he's taken out on a leash for his potty walks, makes it easier for me to know whats normal for him and when we need to call the vet.