New Puppy Need Advice!
 

Ok so I went to my county's animal service pound today and there was an "8 week old" german shepherd puppy who came with 50 other dogs from a hoarding place.

She only weighs 6 pounds, do you believe that she is 8 weeks old? Also I didn't even think about this when I adopted her but is she basically a sure thing for hip dysplasia?

Also she dreams and twitches alot when she sleeps is this okay?

Thank you for considering this girl:)

She could be 8 weeks, perhaps underfed from her previous hellish living conditions. My boy was 10 pounds at 8 weeks. All are different. If she's not exactly 8 weeks I'm sure she's not far from it.

She could have absolutely fine hip & elbows....you wouldn't know for sure until an X-ray was done at 6 months for prelims. I'm sure there was no thought that went into her breeding...but again I would not say for sure she will have HD.

Twitching in her sleep is normal...my boy still does this sometimes:)

Yeah my worst fear is her having hip problems and I would ultimately have to put her down. My golden retriever just died a couple months ago and I am not ready to go through something like that again.

Probably hard to get completely accurate with the age under these conditions. I wouldn't fret over her having HD. You can Do X-rays later on or you can play, train, enjoy and see how it goes.

HD is the least of the problems in this breed. Normally HD is not a death sentence. Some dogs who have moderate or chronic HD never even have symptoms. For symptomatic dogs there are pain killers, and surgical interventions available.

There are things like MegaE and Degenerative Mylopathy that I worrry about a lot more, the various cancers that our dogs get are hard too. And back problems. And temperament problems. But, the breed is so awesome that we just take what we get and do our best to ensure they have the best possible lives, through good nutrition, keeping them fit, exercise and training.

I would be concerned first about parvo/distemper -- if no signs, good. Not sure if they gave first shots yet, but I would avoid high-dog-traffic areas until after the second set of shots. I would have your vet examine her and worm her, and make sure any parasites present are dealt with. That could be limiting her ability to use the nutrition that she is getting.

I would put her on a good food, large breed puppy or adult, I use Diamond Naturals, but there are other foods that have better ingredients. You want a good food with excellent nutrition. Wellness Supermix 5, Organix, Castor and Pollax, Solid Gold, Stay away from Purina, Iams, and Science Diet -- anything you can get in a supermarket. Nutro and Royal Canine and Eukanuba are mostly over-priced pet store foods with better than average marketing, With an excellent food, you should not have to supplement her, but you want for her to get good nutrition, and the proper levels of everything so that she can gain back some of what she lost in the rough start.

Thanks for rescuing her.

Honestly I don't really care if she might be smaller than normal shepherds; all I want is for her to be healthy and friendly

I am not concerned at all about how big she gets. I care about her immune system that is still developing, and her whole body with all its intricate systems having been malnourished. You want to give her excellent nutrition so she can gain the ground that she may have lost, this is not pertaining to the final height and weight.

She needs to have any parasites/worms evicted and good nutrition.

My fear is that if you go with a lower-quality puppy food/large breed puppy food your pup is going to gain weight hand over fist, but not necessarily the way you want her to gain. You really want slow and steady growth.