german_shep_fan

Hi everyone I will try and make this post as short as possible. I have a male GSD who is 7yrs old. He has had alot of tummy upset since i lost my old girl last year and we ended up putting him on ZD cans and dry to help. This seems to have solved the problem so i had started taking him off the ZD and putting him back onto normal food (chicken necks, frames ect) however the other morning i had to call the mobile vet and he rushed over as i suspected he was bloating. He threw up all his dinner and then contiunally threw up white foam stuff and his tummy went pot belly like. He seemed to settle down however and vet checked vitals and he wasn't bloating however he palpated his abdomen and said his lower abdomen left heavier then normal and that his spleen felt enlarged. This was on monday, we checked again today and it still feels enlarged. He is coming again on monday to check him over and we are going to discuss doing a scan. My question is, is the only answer to an enlarged spleen in the GSD cancer? I lost my old girl last yr to spleenic cancer and my boy is my absolute heart dog. I am just SO worried i am going to lose him and the enlarged spleen is going to turn out to be something that is terribly wrong. Has anyone else ever had this happen and what was the outcome? Thank you.

Im not going to come in and post again as it will only go round in circles and achieves nothing. I know Angelsun will be back in the future though. Sorry Pockets but i will have to agree to disagree with you, I personally don't believe the dogs shown in that video were 'correct'and nothing will ever convince me that they are, just the same as i will never convince anyone here that the 'type' of shepherd i hold dear is correct (other then 'angelsun') I will leave gracefully as i know angelsun is bringing in the goods :laugh:

Agree with you there :) ugh what a pissing contest :rolleyes: considering 'Angelsun' has been involved in sheps for many yrs its a pretty rude statement. I know through the grapevine this discussion is far from ending.....

I agree, i now regret having my boy done at 7mnths. I wish i had waited for him to finish maturing. Vet thinks he would of been 5kgs of muscle heavier then he is now. That would of given me 50kgs of Troyboy :D I am in no rush to get my new girl done either :)

Just beautiful! A big fan of the whites What have you decided to call her? :)

lol yep, i don't like seeing thin pups or thin dogs, but overweight is probably also just as bad, you just need to find the right medium :) My girl is def not overweight but she is going to be much bigger then the standard height/weight for female gsd, expecting to go abt 40kgs at maturity, maybe a little more, not 100% sure yet. Yep if think he is a tad underweight add some extra food here and there, they grow so quickly at that age so they use so much energy just to grow. If the breeder isn't able to suggest what to give him to beef him up i would just give your vet a quick call :)

This sounds good :) Maybe you could also try some chicken mince and veges to beef it out a bit? :) I think generally 3 meals a day at that age is also good :)

Don't sweat it alyjam, you wouldn't be the first person to get a pup from a breeder a few days shy of 8 weeks. Sometimes it happens due to timing, location, family committment, illness etc. I'm sure his weight gain is appropriate, you have bought a large breed. :) We got the new girl a day earlier due to travel arrangements ect, breeder just wanted to make sure microchip went ok as well as checking for any reactions to vacc's ect :) Its not a sin to go a few days early :) This is all done by an ethical breeder before leaving at no earlier than 8 weeks. Leanne I always get a laugh out of this, there are many different levels of 'byb' i guess. I know one who is considered here a byb yet makes sure all of this is done before pups leave for their new homes :) OP Your pup is beautiful :) I hope you will stick around and post more pics over the next few mnths ect As a rule of thumb or so i was told recently by vet esp for shepherds abt a kilo a wk is a good growth weight. My baby girl was 6.5 at 8 wks but by 4mnths was 16.5 :) I haven't weighed her for a while but i am expecting at 5mnths she now over 20kgs :) As others have said if you can feel the ribs but not see them this is generally a healthy weight. If you are concerned though i would double check with the vet :)

Hope the little guy is better soon.

Thank you very much Persephone and Tiara :) Tiara i will PM you :)

I agree that the dog should probably be desexed and rehomed if no one in the family has an interest in it. However how much of a confrontation will this cause between yourself and your brother?

Sorry, not the best quality as they were taken with my ph. This arvo at the park Helping a friend's little bloke build mud piles :laugh: Chilling at home My boy at home :)

I don't know how these mongrels live with themselves Find them then lock them up and throw away the key. I hope these poor ppl find their dogs, though sadly they very well may not

So very sorry for your loss. Its even harder to lose them so young. Thoughts are with you

Perhaps also you could try feeding some munched up chicken frames? They might be less fatty then the mince, also chicken necks might be ok too, just cut off any excess fat :) Either that or as others have said some human grade mince :)

They were bred to hunt lions many years ago. They are now bred as pets. Given that most breeds were originally bred to have jobs, should we only have pets that thatwerent bred 100 years ago for a job? Should we only have pugs and cavs? I must say that the breed knowledge shown on this forum sometimes is astounding! Yes, that's why I made the comment.. I was being sarcastic ;) but now that I think about it.. if the world was full of just pugs and cavs it would be a better place :D Nothing against pugs or cavs but i also beg to differ ;) :D

Do you mean desex prior to 8wks? We mean before leaving home. For goodness sake we don't vaccinate till 8 weeks these days. Most vets (other than the RSPCA ones, who have been de sexing since 6 weeks of age) won't touch till the pups are at least 10 weeks or older. Most ethical breeders won't sell a puppy unless they have a signed contract of non breeding or the puppy is not capable of being bred from. Its fine! I was only asking what you meant. I agree, but as always ethical breeders will never make up 100% of the breeder population

thats sad. I was paranoid before i got my young girl fully vacc. I guess though even with vacc they can still be at a slight risk I know at our training school a few yrs ago head trainer was warning of an outbreak around the place but she can exaggerate sometimes so i took it with a grain of salt...

Do you mean desex prior to 8wks?

Why in this day and age is parvo even making a comeback? Is it because ppl have stopped vaccinating their dogs

Yes, that's usually the case. But shouldn't you also be pointing out that pups are not fully covered until about week 14, after their third vaccination, but are being admitted to puppy school as young as eight weeks. Yep, i guess that is the risk though, socialisation vs illness ect. My girl was out and abt seeing the world at 9wks and went to puppy school. Now she is in juvenile classes at 20wks and they did ask to see her vacc record. We were just discussing this in the gsd thread. It seems in many places the norm is just the 2 vaccs, here it has always been 3. I got the 16wk one done as well as KC as there was a recent outbreak with the local vet seeing at least 2 cases a day

Beautiful pups and mum :) I hope they all find wonderful homes!

Yep all our dogs, past and present have had like a million nicknames :laugh: Current two Troy - TroyBoy, finlay (his middle name) Littlest (his second middle name :laugh: )Marn, Fin Fin, Finy and the list goes on Thea - 'Thea Rose', Thee Thee, Theepee (for when she does inappropriate pees) theepoos (i am sure u can guess)thistle (dont ask, thats my sisters nickname for her) I am sure there will be more for her but she is only 5mnths old atm :laugh: Yep i am insane i know P.S both answer to all of the above Collectively they are 'the munchkins' :laugh:

Humane must be a misprint Damn poor Staghound owners had better watch out BSL will be on their tail shortly

Yep there is one at our suburb. I get a mobile vet now so the point it moot but we have always taken our 8wk old pups to puppy school ect so what will be is what will be for us i suppose. I had them out walking in the street at 8wks. Whilst there is a need to be careful i think ppl can also be overcareful too. One person at pup school wouldnt even let her dog out of her property (other then puppy school) till he was 16wks due to parvo risk. Took my boy to the vet for his 12wk shots when he was a pup and he sat in the waiting rm and on the floor in the consult rm, maybe we are just lucky but he turned out fine :) Was actually told by training school to stop carrying him everywhere anyway :laugh: