My 6-week-old runt puppy is weak and not eating. How to help?

You can try supplemental feeding with dog milk replacer and keep him warm and next to the mother and others if possible. Sometimes there is an underlying medical problem with the runt and in spite of your best efforts they do not survive. Dogs and other animals have litters with several pups because there is often one or two that don’t live. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach to help you care for Lucky.

Provide additional heat support as needed. Be careful to not cause burns though. You can pick up some Esbilac or Pet-Lac at the local Petco and supplement the runt. Keep track of his weight to confirms adequate gains.

Hello there! I'm sorry to hear about your runty puppy. If the mother won't feed him and you can't get him to nurse, it's unlikely that he's going to survive for very long. Sometimes, small or runty puppies have internal abnormalities that prevent them from being able to nurse properly, and these pups generally don't make it without aggressive care. I highly recommend that you bring this pup in to the vet first thing in the morning for evaluation and treatment - even if that treatment may mean humane euthanasia. Keep him warm and try to feed him warmed milk replacer at least every few hours. If he appears to be very lethargic or is having breathing difficulty, you may need to bring him to an emergency vet tonight. There is a 24-hour hospital near you - here is their information: Animal Emergency

At 4 weeks they are still fully nursing so you will have to supplement for forumla. 4 weeks is s good time to start introducing puppy food. You can start with canned food with some water added to make it thinner and softer and place a small amount in his mouth to get him interested in it. Once he starts doing well with that you can decrease the amount of water and start soaking dry food to add to the canned until he is fully weaned. They do make a supplement called Nutrical that is helpful for young puppies that are weaned but not eating great

This one likely has a medical condition that is keeping him from being as strong as the others. The best thing to do is have him evaluated by a vet. There may be something that can be corrected. It's very important for them to have the mother's milk, so the best thing you can do is remove the bigger ones every three hours (day and night) to allow the little one to suckle. You should also get some milk replacer for dogs at the pet store. There is feeding guidelines on the box. Sometimes mom may be dry, so if the pup is suckling for a long time (over 5 minutes), then he's likely not getting enough milk from mom and you should offer the milk replacer. Feeding can be reduced to every four hours when he is four weeks, and transitioning to puppy food can happen at six weeks. I hope that helps and the pup turns-out OK.

Hello. Better than the Cerelac, you want to use a syringable product like Hill's a/d or Purina Critical Care. If your vet does not carry these, then you can purchase pureed meat baby foods as long as there is no onion or garlic. If you cannot get this, then take any canned dog or puppy food & puree it at home in a blender adding just enough water that you can push the food through a syringe without the food blocking things up. Until your puppy can eat on its own, you can give 1 cc (ml ) every hour. This is just a tiny amount of food that hopefully Goofy will not throw up. You should also syringe a couple of ccs (mls) of water every hour, too. If any of these small amounts still cause the puppy to vomit, he will probably need to be hospitalized for intravenous fluids & continuing medications to control the nausea & vomiting. But if he will hold down these tiny amounts for most of the day, you may be able to nurse him through this. Good luck & thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

And in terms of the food -- he should be willing to eat wet food, if not dry food, at this age. So if he's not, I would highly recommend a check up with your vet to make sure everything looks ok. He may just need more time to adjust, but with such a young guy, he can get low blood sugar and dehydration very quickly, so it's important to act sooner rather than later.