Scales of Justice

4 and a half months is far too young to x-ray for hips anyway. Would not contemplate getting hip x-rays at 4 and a half months old, so would wait till at least 8 months of age for hip x-rays unless you decide to wait as the breeder suggested till 12 months.

I agree with Settrlvr, Picture yourself in the puppy's shoes. Your a tiny baby, dependent on company of your siblings or other warm body. You are not self sufficient for anything. Suddenly, you are taken to a new place, haven't had much time to find somewhere secure or find out what may or may not hurt you out there in the big world, put in a strange place and left to yourself. This puppy is clearly not ready to be left totally alone. Bring the puppy into your bedroom in a crate at night and you will see an amazing difference. Take small steps to leave your puppy in a secure place with a bone and go out for 10 minutes, then return. Continue until your puppy can spend much more time on its own. Slowly your puppy will acclimatise to life on its own. You will be far less likely to have separation anxiety this way.

Could be a staph infection. I would show it to the vet.

First place of call for an itchy and skinny puppy is worming, and follow up worming in a couple of weeks. Once you are sure there are no worms - put the pup onto a good quality dry food (Proplan is good) which has the right blend of oils and omega 3 and 6 for coat. Perhaps also add some sardines occasionally to the diet. Edit: for spelling

Neo-Sulcin is a formula containing sulphonamides which are excellent for gut complaints.

Demodex mites - very common in adolescent GSDs. See the vet for treatment.

It is not unusual when a dog's bowel receives piles of grass through it that it can irritate the bowel and cause blood to come out with the grass. The grass is undigested and very abrasive on the bowel. I would watch him closely and try to stop him eating grass if you can to see whether the blood ceases.

I agree Poodle Wrangler. Whilst female GSDs weigh usually from 25kg to 30kg, male GSDs can weigh up to 40 kgs and in some cases even more (usually from 32kg - 38 kg). That is a large breed in my estimation.

The BARF diet may promote slow growth, but slow growth is not the only issue here. The important criteria is a correct balance of nutrients and with a BARF diet YOU are balancing the nutrients - how can you be sure that the correct ratio of calcium and phosporus and glucosamine/chondroitin is being administered along with all the other necessary nutrients in a growing pups diet? With large breed dog foods the research has already been done on the correct ratios of nutrients and for my money I would not want to make any mistakes which can be irreversible.

With large breeds such as GSDs it is important to get the balance right. That is, a balance of exercise and feeding which allows the puppy to develop at a steady slow rate to ensure optimum outcomes for the adult skeleton. This means, not too much exercise, or not to little, but sensible exercise which does not put stress and strain on a growing body. It is important that a growing large breed does not indulge in exercise where injury can occur whilst the bones are green and the muscles are not fully developed. Walking is very good exercise for a growing pup within reasonable limits so I would only be walking your pup when she recovers (assuming that it is a soft tissue injury). Regarding hip x-rays nothing can be definitive at 6 months of age and I doubt that hip dysplasia could be diagnosed at that age with any certainty, but that is not to say that you will or won't have a problem. X-raying and positioning dogs for x-ray plates is a fine art and should be done by someone who has experience placing dogs for these x-rays, but a definitive analysis of the hips will not be able to take place until 12 months of age. The other aspect of rearing a healthy puppy to adulthood is the feeding. I'm not sure what you feed her, but I imagine your breeder would have advised you to use a premium balanced large breed dry food and this is one area that I feel is very important to make sure that the diet is totally balanced. This Large Breed dry food is formulated so that large breeds do not grow too quickly, therefore minimising the risk to joints. If I were you and I was not already using one of these I would change your puppy's diet to a fully balanced food to make sure you get maximum benefits for the further development of your pups skeleton.

Like I said above, it is a balancing act. Sometimes you have to take risks if you want to socialist your pup. It is difficult to know what is safe and what is not but I believe the main thing to stay away from is known doggy areas where "pet" people take their dogs such as off leash areas, parks as well as footpaths where people walk their pets because you don't know whether any of these people actually immunise their pets or not and any area frequented by dogs is more likely to be an area source for infection. Most people know someone with a dog, perhaps a neighbour, friend or work colleague. Perhaps arrange with someone to have a doggy visit day where they come to your place or you go to theirs and bring dogs along for socialising.

Ahona, I would consider a veterinary environment one of the worst places to take a young puppy (not fully immunised) for reason being, as stated above, vets are where sick animals congregate. Even if a vet could guarantee a "sterile room" as you say, what about the other puppies attending the class? Any one of them at any time could be carrying parvo or bringing it to your pup. I'm not telling you this to make you afraid of going to a puppy training class but just to point out that your reasoning is a little misguided. As I said above, socialising an unimmunised puppy is a balancing act. I have always taken puppies out before the 12 week immunisations and have never had a problem, but then again I am very careful that I do not expose my pups to "doggy areas". I go to shopping centres where there are not many dogs and places where less dogs are congregating and I meet friends with puppies where I know those puppies are healthy.

Jed, If you do a Google search on Parvovirus and Airbone you will come across many sites, both human and animal which state that Parvovirus is spread by airborne droplets and some sites which say it is not. Here is a link for Human Parvovirus, if you check page 18 you will see they say it is airborne. This is the Dept of Heatlh WA Govt. http://209.85.173.104/search?q=cache:GPEtd...;cd=8&gl=au I wouldn't like to say that it is or it isn't but I wouldn't like to take the chance if I was in an environment 20 metres or so away from an animal which had parvovirus and say to myself well, I'm 20 metres away I should be safe here with my pup, its not airborne - would you?

Ahona, What makes you think puppy preschool is any safer than the beach? Any young animal which does not have its final immunisations could be at some risk anywhere. Parvo can travel in the air and could travel from a neighbour right into your own backyard without even taking your pup out the gate. Socialising/exercising a young pup is a balancing exercise - trying to make sure the pup does not miss out on vital socialising but reducing the risks as much as possible. I would personally feel safer taking a puppy to the beach and carrying it to the water to swim (on its own) than attending a puppy school where you have no idea where any of the attendees have had their puppies exposed. kja, I would take the puppy to the beach to swim but I would definitely not let the puppy sniff around areas where dogs have been or contact any other dogs. And that goes for anywhere you decide to take your puppy.

Get the vet to check prostate problem

The severity of symptoms will relate to how much venom has been injected. A dog can show symptoms as soon as half an hour to an hour or it can take much longer. Symptoms vary according to the types of snakes which bit too. Brown snake symptoms are depression, neural symptoms (staggering, dizziness,) breathing difficulty and paralysis. Black snake symptoms usually are related to internal bleeding - very red gums, bleeding into the tissues and organs etc. General debilitation. One of the tests done to determine black snake bite is centrifuging of the blood to determine whether there are any changes in the blood chemistry.

Coccidia is treatable. If I really wanted the pup I would buy it but I would isolate the pup from my other dogs while treating for coccidia. There should be no long term problems once the puppy is in a clean environment and not under any form of stress. You should not make isolation so bad for the puppy that stress is created because of isolation.

I would imagine lead exercise until the stitches are out. I don't think a half hour walk would be a problem.

Proplan now have a sensitive skin and coat formula based on fish. I changed one of mine onto it because she had skin allergies and she has improved quite a lot.

May be genetic but may also be imbalance to calcium:phosphorus. Make sure you have the pup/dog on a balanced diet.

What Puggles says does make sense. Nevertheless, if I were you I wouldn't vaccinate and I woudn't expose the puppy to any areas which are more likely to precipitate him picking up a virus. That is I would not take him anywhere where dogs collect ie. training, parks (especially off leash parks) or doggy areas. Puggles, dogs can get demodex so badly that the upper layers of the skin crust over and the demodex move into the lower layers of the skin where it is impossible to eradicate. At this point their immune system is so compromised that recovery is impossible and the demodex becomes worse and worse and totally out of hand. When it gets that bad, vets recommend euthanasia.

I would not vaccinate at this point. Demodectic mange can be prompted by immune problems and vaccination at this point will only add strain to a compromised immune system. Provided the puppy has had its 12 weeks needles I would delay 16 week needles until demodex has receded - hopefully it will only be a week or two.

Spleen cancer is common in GSDs - I would keep a very big check on her - perhaps if the blood doesn't improve an exploratory exam would be the way to go. Dogs can live without their spleens, so if it might be cancer starting, now might be the time to act.

Pale gums is a sign of pain in dogs. He is probably in pain from his injury. Aspirin is not for dogs.

Friars Balsam from chemist - about $4-5 - clears them up quickly