I had a little female pekingese that was 8 weeks old and weigh at only .12 lbs (not even 1 lb yet). She was mostly nursing from her mom. But her mom was out of milk when she was 8 weeks old. The little pup used to lick the soften puppy food and drink water from the bowl. But she got sick and didn't want to eat or drink on her own. I took her to the vet that day when she became lethargic.
The vet gave her some fluids,dextrose, and put her on some can food.
He also dewormed her but didn't vaccinate her yet. When the pup was at the vet, she did start to lick some of the can food when we spoon fed her.
She looked like she was getting better. Later that evening, her condition seems
to go up and down. She got weak again, so I gave her some dextrose for her low blood sugar. She looked like she gain some strength again. But she didn't want to eat. So I tried to force her to eat some of the can food that the vet told me to give to her. She was very reluctant to eat or drink water. So I only gave her about half a teaspoon. She seemed to be walking fine at around 10 pm. When she pooped, it was only a dot of black water stool. I put her to sleep at around 11pm. I checked on her at 2am. She looks weak again so I gave her some dextrose and let her sleep. At around 7 am, she still looked weak so I gave her some dextrose again and tried to feed her. As I was trying to spoon feed her, she just stop breathing. I called the 24 hrs animal hospital and they said they couldn't do anything if she had stop breathing. I was just so stunned and devastated. I called my vet but he wasn't working and returned my call the next day. He told me that she might have had something internally wrong with her or had a birth defect. I'm just upset that I couldn't do something to help this tiny pup. I wished that we could have done something different for her so she wouldn't have to die. If you have gone through something similar to this situation or have any suggestions to what could have been done differently to help this peke than please let me know.

No, the vet didn't test her for parvo. I wished he had done some test on her so we could have treated her.

Hi Helly.....are you a veterinarian....you seemed like you are more knowledgeable
than my VET. All he told me was that it was probably a birth defect and the puppy dying was just the way of life...like he cared because I already ended up with the big bill and money is in his pocket. I thought that was pretty heartless and ignorant. I will never go see him again.

Originally Posted by Helly

If your puppy didn't weigh a pound at 8 weeks, and wasn't eating solid food, I suspect there was, indeed, an internal, congenital problem. And it was probably something that couldn't be treated.

One of the most common reasons for fading puppies is brucellosis. It's an infection the mother would have had during her pregnancy, and it causes still births and birth defects. The mother should be tested, just to be on the safe side. If she's been infected with brucellosis she should be spayed, because future litters will also be affected.