I took in an extremely young pit bull pup and now I'm not sure how young is too young!?

Question

Reyna is an absolutely gorgeous pit born on Christmas Day and she has been under my care for approximately a week now. The previous owners assured me that she was ready to take home.. she has been weaned, she is on solid food, she has her vision, motor skills, etc. and she is no longer in need of any milk replacement.

Ever since I've had her, I've noticed that she has had little white worms in her stool. I bought a Safegard 3-in-1 dewormer from the petstore but on the pack it doesn't specify whether or not 4 weeks is too early to deworm. Should I simply wait about two or three more weeks? More and more worms are starting to appear daily. Is there any harm in deworming her now?

Also she often shakes and trembles violently when she is sleeping or awake. I have heard that this is normal for puppies in order to develop their nerves and motor skills, is that true?

Last but not least.. is it too early to start attempting to housebreak her? I have made no attempt as of yet. THANKS!

Answer 1

Your dog is just 4 weeks old and should still be with its mother. Take a sample of the stool, worms and all, to the vet so that he can give you the proper medicine for the puppy. Shaking and trembling is a bad sign. Tell the vet while you are there and find out how to take care of a puppy that is that young. Anyone that would let a puppy go at 4 weeks has no business breeding dogs and I would not believe much of anything they said. Go get professional help and do it quickly. Your dog could have distemper.

Answer 2

She sounds too young for adopting BUT, I have a rescue I got at three weeks old and she did fine and so can yours. Please don't use the pet store de-wormers. Some are too strong for young pups and don't kill all the kinds of worms. Sounds like your pup has tape worms (for one ) and that needs a stronger specific type of worming medicine. PLEASE consult a Vet since she is so young and definitely wormy at the least. Your vet can also tell you about the shaking in case it is not just your puppy dreaming. You can absolutely start to work on housebreaking her. At her age, start her out with going to an outside spot where other dogs don't frequent (until she has had her first sets of shots) and take some tiny treats with you. Tell her to "Take a Break" or whatever you say and praise her when she goes and give her one tiny treat.
Get her on as regular a schedule as possible with feeding, play, etc and if you utilize a crate or kennel cab to help train her, it will make it much easier. Get one that divides to allow for growth and don't put food or water in it. Don't put her in there for long in the day and use it at night. You can put a sheet over it if she starts getting upset.
A puppy can only hold their bladder for an hr per month of age. When you first start training she will probably need to go more often than that at times.
Any time you see her circling/sniffing pick her up and take her to her spot and repeat the praise.
If she has an accident, tell her "NO potty inside" and take her directly to her potty spot even though she has already gone. If she even pretends to pee or just squats a little, praise her and pet her.
Don't use the kennel as punishment and don't over use it.
I used mine for when I wasn't home to supervise them or when I was home and couldn't supervise.
My pit-mix learned real quickly. By three mos old she was completely potty trained. I still used the cab though, until she was about a year old for when I couldn't supervise so she didn't start bad chewing habits. She put two holes in the wall in her chewing stage once her adult teeth were coming in.
That stopped.
You have a great breed. Young puppies often have a lot of initial parasites and mine got a little infection, uti. Once her immune system was built up and she was stronger, since then she has been a very healthy dog.
I wouldn't advise using do-it-yourself pet meds except for maintenance. Especially not with a compromised pup.

Answer 3

Your puppy is way to young. Take the puppy to the vet immediantly you were lied to. They will be able to worm her and check her out. The worms could kill her they are parasites and they may be contributing to the shaking and trembling. Go to the local pet store and get esiblanc puppy milk supplement some canned puppy food mix it together so it forms a gruel. Try and get them to hold onto her until shes 8 weeks old. Puppies taken away from there mother don't learn the proper social skills necessary. The wormer you got is for six weeks and up (See source). The Drontal Plus is safe for 3 weeks and older you can order that on 1800petmeds.com. I wouldn't potty train her outside yet its too cold and she could get an URI (upper respitory infection) buy some puppy pads at the store and try and use that.

Answer 4

Your puppy needs to be taken to the vet no matter how young it is. You're supposed to have it checked out when you buy it. I'm not sure what to tell you about the trembling or worms, but it's better to have a vet answer that for you. The youngest age a puppy should be taken away from it's mother is 8 weeks by the way.

Answer 5

Four weeks is far too young to take a puppy home, a puppy usually has to be eight weeks old before the new owner can take him home. There's a reason that puppies need to be with their mom for that long. They learn important developmental skills that they can't learn away from their mom. For example, a puppy taken away from it's mom that young may not learn bite inhibition. Puppies learn not to bite hard by playing with their littermates. At four weeks old, the puppy hasn't had a chance to learn that yet.

Take the puppy to be evaluated by a vet. He can prescribe a worm treatment that's safe for use on younger puppies.

Hope this helps...

Answer 6

as for the worms you can't give them the medicine from a pet store or walmart until it reaches 6 to 8 weeks old becaue they can do more harm then good. i would talk to your vet before you give your pup anykind of medicine!!Pitbulls are not as bad as everyone thinks its the owners who choose to make them the way they are not the dogs themselves. I love animals of all kinds and this breed of dog wouldn't have the reputation that it does if people didn't make them mean fighting dogs. I don't think the guy who made the first response has the right to tell you to get rid of it just because someone he knew got bit by one as long as you treat the dog and trains it well it won't be mean!! Check out www.myspace.com/KoRnGuRl666 I have 2 videos of pitbulls that were abused by people who don't take care of the breed the right way and they never get adopted because people think they are such evil dogs!

Answer 7

You need to take her to the vet so she can get dewormed, heart worm, and all her shots- most important being rabies, distemper and parvo boosters.
Shaking is a sign of parvo and distemper so you definitely need to take her to the vet.
House breaking is all up to you- better to start her young rather than when she's leaving crap piles to big to fit in the toilet.
And you still need to supplement replacement milk in with her solids(hopefully you are smart enough to be giving her puppy food and not dog chow).
Good luck with your pit.
With proper care and training she'll be a loving member of your family.

Answer 8

never buy a pet store dewormer. if you adopted a dog, be prepared to pay for the vet. a puppy needs all their shots, and let the vet deworm her. crate train her ASAP. if you don't, she will never learn.
take her to the vet ASAP. he/she will tell you the best way to care for her. dry food only (better for teeth), and lots of water. no human food. puppies are weaned at 6-8 weeks. don't believe everything to previous owner says. did you research the breed at all before you bought her?

Answer 9

puppies usually get dewormed at birth...if its from a good breeder they would already know that.. i also suggest not buying stuff from the store and to bring her to a vet and get their dewormer..you need to treat is ASAP...b/c depending on the worm..a human can actually catch it! its never to early to start potty training her..i say the younger the better!!!im not sure about the shakes! when shes sleeping it could possible mean shes having a bad dream but im not 100% sure i really think you need to bring her to the vet to make sure shes "healthy"!! good luck with the lil cutie!!

Answer 10

She needs a sturdy walk each day, and it extremely should be carried out first ingredient interior the morning. The longer you're making her wait round for a %. walk, the better the prospect she is going to take fee of the events of the day. and obviously you received't like the way she takes fee. you'll also pick to grant a minimum of a pair of different on a daily basis classes of activity with you -- a romp interior the outdoor, an obedience artwork out, an afternoon or evening walk. I artwork my Pit with a flirt pole interior the outdoor, and made a hurdle for him to bounce through putting a board between 2 cinder blocks. you'd be desiring to go away countless butcher bones round for her to fulfill the favor to bite. perhaps that could get intense priced, yet truly no longer as intense priced as a settee. And crate her once you may't supervise her. in case you artwork, flow domicile at lunch to enable her out to bathroom. through the age of about 18 months, i began leaving my Pit on my own interior the domicile for short classes of time. He develop into so chuffed to be left napping in his tender doggy mattress that he behaved himself. I close the mattress room doorways so he's not tempted to run via the domicile. If I were you, i does no longer enable her be napping in my mattress. It in common words makes a obdurate, bossy canines extra obdurate and bossy. yet Pits also do pick to thrill their vendors, so in case you may seize her in an act of destruction and sternly tell her off, she may imagine two times next time. you'll only should be sneakier than she is with a view to seize her.