We brought our 6 week old Shepherd puppy home from Ohio on Friday afternoon. He has been eating well up until last night. His stool is very soft, but it has been since we brought him home. He was dewormed on 6/17 and we changed his food to Hills Science Diet Large breed puppy. I attributed the soft stool to the mentioned. How long should I wait before bringing him to the vet? I have an appointment on Tuesday. Should I make an earlier appt. or should I wait and try to offer him another choice of food? His behavior has also changed. He seems depressed and is sleeping more. He is drinking water and his respirations seem normal though. I don't want to jump the gun if it isn't necessary...

Probably suffering from a little anxiety, he is only a baby, new home, new people, adjusting the only way he knows how. Change of food at 6 weeks, if he wasn't on entirely solid food yet could account for the soft stool. You say he is drinking water, that's good, respiration okay, good too. If you can get an earlier appt. to be on the safe side, do so, but this Monday. It is good that you are noticing changes in him. Don't worry about the sleeping, that's good, that's when they are growing.

Tick

More then likely it is worms. It could also be nerves. Nervous dogs get stress diarrhea.

Take your pup to the vet ASAP. The pup should have already been to the vet due to it being only 6 weeks old (which is entirely too young to leave mom and litter, not to mention illegal in many states).

Hills Science Diet is an aweful food. Its main ingredient is ground yellow corn. Last I checked, you're feeding a dog, not a pig. A good food I would recommend would be either Wellness puppy or Chicken Soup for the Dog Lovers Soul: Puppy -- Both foods have very good meat sources with little to no grains.

Baby puppies sleep a lot. You got him way too young. He's going to have spurs of energy and sleep a lot. You won't notice a change in his energy levels until he's a bit older, probably around 8-10 weeks.

You're going to have to hold this baby a lot.. Hes going to need a lot of comfort and security from YOU in order to grow up healthy.

If you have any other questions, please ask!

You're going to have to hold this baby a lot.. Hes going to need a lot of comfort and security from YOU in order to grow up healthy.



Yes, unfortunately people don't realize that young pups need a secure tactile environment, cuddling, hugging, stroking and it's a good time to get the pup used to your voice. Just like talking to a human baby.