shiver and cold feet on a 3 week puppie

by Betsy Scheiber
(Caracas Venezuela)

my Jack russel terries had 4 mix puppies the 19 of april, the last one was very tiny, she was born with 130 gr now she is 323 grm, she was, and is, very small compared to her brothers and sisters.

Then she got pneumonia she got milk on her lung, her vet who is on vacation told me to give her antibiotics, she is much better now still on antibiotics,she walks like a drunk person but getting better, she sleeps a lot we are feeding her because her mother does not do it much any more , we give her puppy milk, but she shivers and gets cold legs after eating or waking. Is this normal.?




Hi Betsy
This poor little girl has had a rough start, and she's still very young, and very small. It sounds as though you've done a good job of helping her out so far, but she's going to need a lot more help and care if she's to grow up strong and healthy.

It's not normal for a pup to get cold enough to be shivering in a well-heated room, but up until they're around a month old puppies can't regulate their own body temperature and rely on their environment to be warm enough. The smaller they are, the more difficult it is for them. I'd recommend that you keep this little one as cozy as possible - normally by this age 70 - 75F is warm enough, but you may want to raise that to 80F for this little girl. You can find more tips and advice about this sort of thing on my New Born Puppies page.

I'd strongly recommend that you have her properly examined by your veterinarian. Sometimes the 'runt' is just tiny because of it's placement in the womb, or genetics, size of the litter etc., but other times there are underlying health issues such as heart problems, and it's important to make sure that this puppy is healthy.

I hope this helps and wish you the best of luck with this pup.