Drinking Water Quality for your Puppy
You thought that one was a no brainer, right? Bascially so – but in regards to our teacup and tiny puppies – proceed with caution and give some thought to your drinking water quality before filling up its bowl or water bottle!
Reminder: The underlying theory for successfully raising our teacup puppies is to avoid hypoglycemic episodes by providing high density food served in a bite size easily manageable for our small furchildren, and by avoiding exhaustion due to too much exercise or other energy wasting behaviors. Hand in hand with the nutritional aspect of this, goes proper hydration via quality drinking water.
Poor quality drinking water – and that can be well water in a country setting as well as tap water in the city – can actually make your puppy sick and cause loose stools or even diarrhea. Both will cause dehydration, which leads to loss of appetite – which leads to low blood sugar levels - repeat after me – which leads to Hypoglycemia!
Reminder: The underlying theory for successfully raising our teacup puppies is to avoid hypoglycemic episodes by providing high density food served in a bite size easily manageable for our small furchildren, and by avoiding exhaustion due to too much exercise or other energy wasting behaviors. Hand in hand with the nutritional aspect of this, goes proper hydration via quality drinking water.
Poor quality drinking water – and that can be well water in a country setting as well as tap water in the city – can actually make your puppy sick and cause loose stools or even diarrhea. Both will cause dehydration, which leads to loss of appetite – which leads to low blood sugar levels - repeat after me – which leads to Hypoglycemia!
Provide Clean, Filtered Drinking Water!
Offering "clean" drinking water to your pup – filtered by a house, faucet or fridge filtration system – or purchasing bottled drinking water [ideally reverse osmosis filtered or destilled water, although if you use the later extensively, I strongly suggest a vitamin supplement as well] is generally recommended for new pups over giving straight tap water, whatever the original source.
Be sure to allow the pup access to water 24/7 - free choice - the same as with its puppy food!
If you are traveling a considerable distance to pick up your puppy, bring along a bottle of the water you are going to use at home, or ask the breeder to give you a bottle of theirs while you are on the road. Also be sure to ask the breeder for some of the puppy food it is used to be eating. A top quality breeder will have that included in the starter pack for your pup!
You do not want to use a number of questionable tap water sources in various different locations to water your puppy during travels [both now while you are getting your new pup, as well as later when you are traveling with your older pup or adult]. This surely will garantee loose bowels - really fun to clean up at home, worse while traveling in a car! NOOOT!
Be sure to allow the pup access to water 24/7 - free choice - the same as with its puppy food!
If you are traveling a considerable distance to pick up your puppy, bring along a bottle of the water you are going to use at home, or ask the breeder to give you a bottle of theirs while you are on the road. Also be sure to ask the breeder for some of the puppy food it is used to be eating. A top quality breeder will have that included in the starter pack for your pup!
You do not want to use a number of questionable tap water sources in various different locations to water your puppy during travels [both now while you are getting your new pup, as well as later when you are traveling with your older pup or adult]. This surely will garantee loose bowels - really fun to clean up at home, worse while traveling in a car! NOOOT!
Coccidia & Giardia
The stress and exitement of first weaning and then of moving into a new home – coupled with a new [especially when unfiltered] water source, can upset the intestinal flora of the stomach and may generate a growth burst of normally low volume Coccidiosis or Giardia protozoans [single cell organisms] that are present in most dog's intestinal tracts.
Unfiltered drinking water from questionable sources tends to teem with micro organisms that can - combined with other puppy stressors - enhance the growth of undesireables parasites such as giardia and to a lesser case coccidia as well.
While both are easily and fairly inexpensively treated with either Albon or Metronidazole when first noticed, they do generally require prescription medications from a vet, unless your breeder sends some home with you as a procautionary measure.
I personally strongly commend breeders for doing so, yet I often hear of vets blasting breeders that think ahead to this potential issue, by accusing them to "sell puppies with health issues" in the first place [da**ed if you do, and da**ed if you don't!]. It costs me about $5-7 to send home a syringe or two of Albon and 2 pills of metronidazole. It'll cost you easily $50-80-100 [subject to your location] at the vet for the office fee, a wellness check, a fecal and the same meds. Which do you think is better to do? Talk to your breeder!!!
Unfiltered drinking water from questionable sources tends to teem with micro organisms that can - combined with other puppy stressors - enhance the growth of undesireables parasites such as giardia and to a lesser case coccidia as well.
While both are easily and fairly inexpensively treated with either Albon or Metronidazole when first noticed, they do generally require prescription medications from a vet, unless your breeder sends some home with you as a procautionary measure.
I personally strongly commend breeders for doing so, yet I often hear of vets blasting breeders that think ahead to this potential issue, by accusing them to "sell puppies with health issues" in the first place [da**ed if you do, and da**ed if you don't!]. It costs me about $5-7 to send home a syringe or two of Albon and 2 pills of metronidazole. It'll cost you easily $50-80-100 [subject to your location] at the vet for the office fee, a wellness check, a fecal and the same meds. Which do you think is better to do? Talk to your breeder!!!
Required Treatment
An honest + quality vet [who is not just out to scare you or make you dependent on him, so he can line his pockets], will let you know that this is a common occurrence, and will treat it accordingly without drama and theatrics.
That said – both Giardia and Coccidia – will produce severe diarrhea if not treated early on, and in the process cause severe dehydration and damage to the stomach lining.
All that combined may lead to hypoglycemic episodes and the combination can in the worst case - actually lead for your pup to die! So in a case of persistent loose stools or diarrhea that is not caused by food changes or offering inappropriate people food – and if your breeder has not provided you with Albon or Metronidazole – please go and see a qualified veterinarian!!!
Do not wait for a day or two, to see if it goes away on its own - teacup and tiny puppies do not have the body reserves to deal with "waiting for a couple of days". Teacups are "take care of it today" type of dogs, and for that reason often not suitable for working folks who have 8 or 10 hour workdays without flexibility.
That said – both Giardia and Coccidia – will produce severe diarrhea if not treated early on, and in the process cause severe dehydration and damage to the stomach lining.
All that combined may lead to hypoglycemic episodes and the combination can in the worst case - actually lead for your pup to die! So in a case of persistent loose stools or diarrhea that is not caused by food changes or offering inappropriate people food – and if your breeder has not provided you with Albon or Metronidazole – please go and see a qualified veterinarian!!!
Do not wait for a day or two, to see if it goes away on its own - teacup and tiny puppies do not have the body reserves to deal with "waiting for a couple of days". Teacups are "take care of it today" type of dogs, and for that reason often not suitable for working folks who have 8 or 10 hour workdays without flexibility.
Diarrhea and Loose Bowels...
Click photo to learn more about High Calorie Supplements!
In case of diarrhea – even if your pup is not yet noticeably dehydrated, support it with an additional high calorie nutritional supplement such as Nutrical, Nutristat or Dyne as well as offer [preferably unpasteurized, raw] yogurt with live cultures from a spoon and a bit apple cider vinegar [raw with the Mother from a health food store is best, but any ACV will do in a pinch] into the drinking water. The former will add some probiotics to the stomach flora, the later will add some electrolytes.
Encourage it to drink frequently - clean and filtered or bottled people quality drinking water! Your puppy needs access to water 24/7 to maintain proper hydration. Change + refresh the water daily!!!
Some breeders recommend pedialyte for babies or toddlers – if you can get your pup to drink this – more power to you! Mine just give me "the look" and since I swear on real apple cider vinegar (ACV) anyways – they will often get that added to their drinking water. If needs be – syringe feed the yoghurt and the ACV water to make sure the pup gets some of it down, if it is not used to anything other than regular dog food and plain water.
Remember this: When you arrive at the vet, be sure to ask for a fecal that includes both giardia and coccidia. These are usually not visible under normal fecal solution slides and need to be prepared seperately. Not all vets do these routinely - so be sure to ask for it!
Encourage it to drink frequently - clean and filtered or bottled people quality drinking water! Your puppy needs access to water 24/7 to maintain proper hydration. Change + refresh the water daily!!!
Some breeders recommend pedialyte for babies or toddlers – if you can get your pup to drink this – more power to you! Mine just give me "the look" and since I swear on real apple cider vinegar (ACV) anyways – they will often get that added to their drinking water. If needs be – syringe feed the yoghurt and the ACV water to make sure the pup gets some of it down, if it is not used to anything other than regular dog food and plain water.
Remember this: When you arrive at the vet, be sure to ask for a fecal that includes both giardia and coccidia. These are usually not visible under normal fecal solution slides and need to be prepared seperately. Not all vets do these routinely - so be sure to ask for it!