My puppy's face looks wrinkled and skinny after anemia. What to do?

Anemia in puppies can be caused by tick born infections and from intestinal parasites. There is also a small chance that a puppy would be born with a bone marrow problem. The doxycycline has a good chance of a cure, but I would highly encourage you to visit with your veterinarian about a broad spectrum deworming protocol to make sure that is addressed as well. Depending on how anemic he is will determine how long he takes to recover. However, if the medication is working you should see improvement within 2 weeks or so. A follow up appointment with your veterinarian would be a good plan. Best of luck and I hope he improves soon. Thank you for using Pet Coach.

Congratulations on your new puppy! Fergus is adorable! In the photos, he does not look particularly thin, but you can monitor his weight to make sure. He should be eating food formulated for puppies - the back of most bags of food has directions on feeding. You can definitely feed him a food specific for large breed dogs, but this is not necessary. He should be eating about 3-4 meals per day, which can be decreased to 2 meals per day once he turns about 6 months.

Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! To be able to help your pup, it is crucial to find out why he is not eating and most importantly why he is anemic. This may be due to an immune mediated condition or an infection of some kind. For this reason, I recommend that they proceed with diagnostics such as infectious disease testing and abdominal ultrasound to look for possible reasons. Therapy would be dependent on findings. Hoping for a speedy recovery!

Anemia in dogs is not usually cause as a result of iron deficiency, so this shouldn't be what you are looking for in food. generally to help a dog recovering from anemia (after the primary reason has been treated), you should feed him a high quality food with high meat content such as Orijen dry food for example.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Gaining weight after malnutrition should be a slow and steady process. I would suggest getting a good quality puppy food, and feeding him about 75% of the amount recommended on the bag/day for about 3 days, and then increasing to 100% of the amount recommended for about 1 week, and then 125% for a couple weeks until she is proper size. At that point you can cut back to the normal recommended amount. Also, I would recommend deworming her, as this is often a cause of malnutrition, and also make sure she is treated for fleas, and vaccinated. Best of luck with Pluto.

Hi, thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach! Poor Olive! It takes the bone marrow 3-5 days to respond to anemia before it starts producing and releasing new red blood cells. If the anemia is regenerative then I would assume the HCT would start to slowly rise. I would expect the HCT to start to improve in 5-7 days. I would have her PCV/TS or HCT rechecked in a week. I hope this helps!

Submit a stool sample to your veterinarian to check for intestinal parasites. Puppies frequently require multiple dewormings spaced 2-3 weeks apart to clear infection. A physical exam may diagnose may other conditions.If they are healthy, they can begin their vaccine protocol within the next week. In the meantime, they should be eating or transitioning to a high quality puppy food. This will put weight on them and aid in proper development.