Is there such a thing as TOO small??

[opthedogfather]

i was working the late shift at the emergency vet center last night, and we had a tiny 1 yr old chi come in, she only weighed 1lb 14 oz. she looked mutant...she ALMOST was to small to be cute....which sounds impossible, i know, but looking at her was painful, like looking at the starving nigerian kids....sad thing was she had parvo, and her owners just thought it was hypoglycemia, which would be bad in its own right, but that combined with the parvo spells trouble for a tiny little thing like her. makes me happy O.P. is...solid.....

[mustangbee]

Oh my, that is small. I hope she makes it.
From what I understand Parvo is the worst.
When my babies were puppies, I made everyone who
came in our home step in bleach.

[MellysMommy]

Wow that is very small. I heard that the smaller the dog the more health issues they will have, so I hope that that chi is ok.:(

[opthedogfather]

unfortunatly im not certain what happened to her, she wasnt there when i went in the next day, so more than likely, she went to her regular vet
it is very true that the smaller the dog, the more health issues, and its kinda funny, but its also the bigger the dog the more health issues, including breeds like Irish Wolfhounds and Great Danes.
Parvo is bad, but very treatable, with good care...I've seen so many parvo cases get better, it makes me mad when people choose not to treat...But some people wont listen to reason, or statistics...oh well

[Shanatink]

OMG that is so tiny! I hope she makes it. Its scary having little dogs and it is just so bad for their health trying to breed them that small. Im glad Tink is a healthy 8 lber.
I had gotten a baby chi before I got Tink that had parvo and she didnt make it. It was very sad. Parvo is a scary and horrible thing for a dog to get.

[Austinsmom622]

wow thats small i hope she gets better i think the tinys ones are cute but i would be so worried about it all the time there tiny bodies cant handle it like a larger dog

[trixiesmommy]

I thought Trixie was tiny at almost 3lbs :eek: I hope that chi is going to be ok.

[ichihuahua]

Parvo is my fear because we got our dog when someone was taking her to the pound...she was 4 mos. old with no shots and I had no idea where she'd been or what she had sniffed, etc.. She has had her first round of shots now, but I still worry.

However, I didn't think a one-year-old dog was at risk. So now I'm really worried that it could show up even later. I wonder if because of that puppy's small size the vaccinations either didn't "work" or the owners didn't get the full range, or something. I just hope that pup's OK.

Parvo strikes fear into me, but it's good to hear that it is treatable. I guess I thought it was a death sentence. I'm counting the minutes till my Dolly is fully immunized.

The bleach is a good idea, by the way!

[opthedogfather]

parvo can very well be a death sentence, if the virus progresses too far before being detected. but any dog is at risk at any time. ive seen fully immunized 6 yr old dogs with parvo. that dogs size probably didnt have much to do with her contracting the disease, but it could have everything to do with how her body handles it. keeping your dog a healthy weight for his body size is a start to keeping him healthy enough to fight diseases and the like. and of course, the vaccinations, the regular vet visits, and the almost fanatical vigliance that i myself know, from being a chi owner, is what keeps your dog safe. parvo doesnt need to be huge fear once your dog is vaccinated, but should always be stored in your mind as a possibility. until then, try to not to take her to dog parks, or out to places like petsmart and the like. no need to up your chances unnecessarily. i hope i didnt scare you...im just feeling informative today....

[ichihuahua]

I think you are being really sensible. I have often wondered when I went to Petsmart about all the dogs there, esp. the obviously young puppies. The last time we were there, we ALMOST stepped into some very, very icky nasty doggie diarhhea. Made me wonder how healthy that dog was! I was looking forward to taking my little one around with us, and I still will, but not to doggy places. I was already leery of those because I didn't want some big dog deciding to take a bite out of her.

I'm scared of parvo, but I'm also glad to hear that it IS curable. I'm working right now on building up Dolly's immune system with good food, stress-free living, etc...

Thanks for all the info. It's really great to hear from someone who works in the biz!

[chua]

im not sure id want to stick my nikes in bleach

[Ehunney]

I've seen chi's smaller. I think it all depends as long as their healthy.

[dawgcrazee]

It sounds like the pup wasn't well fed no matter the size. Perhaps if the same pup was well nourished, it would have weighed more.:(
Teri:rolleyes:

[ChiBree]

poor thing...I hope it made it