Scales of Justice

No, it won't hurt.

Constant diarrhoea or sloppy droppings are certainly not the norm for GSD pups. This may reflect some underlying health issue. Droppings should be dark brown and formed like a sausage. (sorry for the descriptives!) I would be taking a number of samples of his droppings over a couple of days and having them checked at the vets for worms and I would ask the vet to check for coccidiosis. If the pup were mine I would obtain some Trizine from the vet and use it for at least 5 days.

Arby, Friars balsam does both - disinfects and dries it out

Best thing for hotspots is Friars Balsam (from chemist for about $4). Dries the hot spot out in about 2 days. I've heard a number of vets say that tea tree oil is actually poisonous to dogs. I never buy any product for a dog with tea tree oil in it.

She probably has a condition called "mega-oesophagus". The symptoms fit. This is a congenital condition where the oesophagus loses its elasticity and some food wells up in the oesophagus and won't go into the stomach. This is probably why the puppy is lean. To treat a puppy with the condition, you need to feed sloppy food - add far more water to the food than for a normal pup and mix the food to a sloppy consistency (no big lumps). Feed more meals and a smaller quantity in each meal per day. (You need to be careful to make sure there is enough food in the mixture and not all water). Feed the puppy on its own and feed it with the food bowl at head height so that the food "slides" down the gullet with gravity. There are varying degrees of this condition where the very serious ones are put to sleep, but the not so affected ones can get by quite well by feeding as I said above - they quite often "grow out of the condition" and eat like a normal dog later in puppyhood.

Here's how I overcame the problem to some degree. I put a flat ceramic bowl of water underneath the hanging bowl of water. The idea is that she can stand in the ceramic bowl while drinking from the hanging bowl. They only want to get their feet wet so once they have their feet in the bottom ceramic bowl they are happy to just drink from the hanging bucket while paddling in the ceramic bowl.

I've used Fidos Flea and Tick shampoo and had no problems at all. I've found it works well for about 3 days. Edited to add: I just remembered it wasn't the shampoo I use, it's Fidos Flea and Tick Rinse.

Try feeding your puppy in the crate and on that cushion. Put the feed bowl in there and make her go onto the cushion to eat. Remove the bowl a little while after she has eaten. She will probably want to go and pee and poop straight after her meal. She will probably want to go somewhere else to pee other than where her dinner bowl sits. Once she has pee-ed (elsewhere) then you can remove the dinner bowl from the cushion. I also don't believe in putting paper (for toilet purposes) where you don't ultimately want the pup to pee. It gives the pup the message that at some time it is permissible to pee in the crate and you don't want that in the long term. Encourage the pup to pee outside the crate at all times.

Probably fly eggs - the beginnings of maggots.

I forgot to mention - don't freak out about the antibiotics - the antibiotics are probably not a bad idea as some bacterial problems can become systemic and cause allergies.

I would be changing linseed oil for fish oil (Maxi EPA).

What diet have you got him on? You will need to make sure he gets a VERY BALANCED diet in the future. Buy a Large Breed formulation of a premium food, Eukanuba, Proplan etc and feed only that - no extras. These foods are balanced for proper growth of large breeds and substitute foods (meat, chicken etc are not meant to be given with them). Once you get the BALANCE right you may see an improvement. Large Breed formulations have a lower calcium intake for large breeds than for smaller breeds and the object is to make sure the dog does not grow too fast. Make sure you keep protein levels down to about 26% as in large breed foods. It may sound "cruel" not to give the puppy anything else except the large breed formulation, but in this case you have to be "cruel" to be kind. They key word is BALANCE. Anything extra that you give this dog will disturb the balance.

I don't believe they will hurt his teeth. Mine have been doing it for years (playing with plastic drink containers and milk bottles).

I wouldn't be ignoring the behaviour or you will have one dominant dog being Alpha over the household. Dogs who dominate humans can be dangerous, especially to little children. The humping behaviour is a dominance issue also. Avoid waking her by touch. Call her name to wake her and get her to come to you to get a reward. Why do you have to constantly wake her from sleep anyway?

I would go to a new vet and get a second opinion

If you can predict that as soon as he comes inside he will pee, why don't you follow him around and wait for him to pee inside, then as he starts peeing interrupt his peeing by saying a very firm NO and remove him while he is peeing, to the backyard. If you can get him to finish the pee outside reward him profusely. You will need to follow him around inside quite a bit before the penny drops.

morphjk, Please continue with follow up worming - again in two weeks and again a couple of weeks later.

I can't help feeling a little like MrsD, I would not sell a german shepherd to a family where both parties work shift work. I don't think a german shepherd is for you and your lifestyle. In fairness to you though, you probably have a german shepherd which has high drives and these types of GSDs most often do not make good pets. As someone above (can't remember who) said, you have a working dog that needs more attention than he is getting. This boy needs things to do when you are not home. He needs to amuse himself with large marrow bones, kongs with food in (someone suggested above), a tyre hanging on a rope from a tree, rope hanging from a tree - any form of distraction and amusement that he can find for himself. Desexing may help. Please, please do not leave this boy tied up on a check chain.

This is not necessarily so, as C7 covers corona virus. I have never used C7 until recently when there was a big outbreak of parvo/viruses. I spoke to the vet about the viruses which were going around and he told me to get the C7 because he was finding that dogs vaccinated for Corona (which is the C7) were in fact faring better against the recent outbreak of gut viruses which were being attributed to parvo, many of which were quite possibly not parvo but corona. I will not use C7 as a rule in future, but should there be another bad outbreak of viruses like there was recently, I will consider it again. My dog had no adverse reactions from it at all and I had no trouble with viruses either.

Dogs usually get into such a poor state for one of a few reasons: Neglect by not being fed; worm infestation; other illness. I wouldn't be taking any chances

Hookworm and Whipworm are not readily visible in droppings. Don't rely on visual examination. They also don't always have diarrhoea or visible symptoms with worms, especially if with adult tapeworm. I would also be worried about the risk of passing worms onto my other dogs. Worming (not heartworm treatment) would be my first port of call. If she were to be infested with hookworm, while she is not treated she may put hookworm eggs into your soil and once there, it would be a big problem for any dogs on the property for the future.

Kamuzz, I would worm first and foremost. If she is wormy no amount of food will make any difference. I would feed a Super Premium food such as Eukanuba Performance or Proplan Performance which both contain 30% protein and 20% fat (much higher than normal adult foods) and you can actually get her to eat less bulk and still put on weight. They also contain top nutrition for dogs which are working or for one reason or another need better nutrients. These foods also contain the Omega and fish oils which you were asking about. What are her droppings like? If she doesn't put some weight on visibly using the above foods within about 10 days, I would get her tested for other health issues.

Mystiqviewbcs, My vet told me the same thing. Not to rely on much against ticks and that collars were appearing to be more effective.

Some teeth quickly and have all their adult teeth by 5 months of age and others do not have them all until 6 months as a rule, but I have heard of cases where premolars have been as late as 9 months before completion.

Probably sleeping more now because of the heat