Labrador Pup - Small for his age?

[amusingduck]

Hi All,

We got a Labrador pup on Saturday.

I'm a little concerned that he seems rather small for his age. We were told that he was 8 weeks old, but he only weighs around 5lbs. Apparently the normal weight for a lab of 8 weeks is 11-17lbs. He seems healthy (ribs not visible, but can be felt with a light touch), eating and drinking fine.

I thought perhaps he's not actually as old as we've been told? His features don't look as developed as some Labradors I've seen from similar ages.

Any thoughts?

Thanks


PS - Heres a picture of the little bugger! http://i.imgur.com/ZbSGpBx.jpg

[pad58]

True he dose'nt look very old ,ours looked bigger at that age.
If he's eating ok and acting normal, running around like a loony, chewing at everything don't worry, maybe he's younger than you where told.

[ED209]

Looks really small, even Lucy who we lost in feb with kidney failure looked bigger than that at 8 weeks.She was only 16 weeks when she died with what we believed was a birth ilness and she had developed more than that at the same age.

Our new pup poppy is now 10 weeks and is huge compared to that pic, she was much bigger even at 8 weeks.

I would get the pup to a vets if i was you, hopefully it will just be a small dog but best to get it checked out.

[bexVN]

I'd be amazed if your pup is more than 6 weeks unless she was the runt of the litter. As above get a vets appt today if poss for an assessment and advice.

Did you see the pups when they were younger? How many did the Mum have? How big are the parents?

If she is healthy she should be fine but they may delay vaccinating her for couple weeks.

[amusingduck]

ED209 said:

Looks really small, even Lucy who we lost in feb with kidney failure looked bigger than that at 8 weeks.She was only 16 weeks when she died with what we believed was a birth ilness and she had developed more than that at the same age.

Our new pup poppy is now 10 weeks and is huge compared to that pic, she was much bigger even at 8 weeks.

I would get the pup to a vets if i was you, hopefully it will just be a small dog but best to get it checked out.

bexVN said:

I'd be amazed if your pup is more than 6 weeks unless she was the runt of the litter. As above get a vets appt today if poss for an assessment and advice.

Did you see the pups when they were younger? How many did the Mum have? How big are the parents?

If she is healthy she should be fine but they may delay vaccinating her for couple weeks.

Hes already booked in for 5pm today. There was one other puppy that we saw which was slightly bigger, but not by much.

Hopefully he'll be fine, and just a small pup!

[ED209]

Any news on this one?

[Fishtigua]

Our little Lab puppy was the runt of the litter. Tiny and wouldn't eat properly. We fed him a bit of porridge to keep him going. Then some more, and more, AND MORE!

He almost ate us out of house and home, grew to be hugely tall and thuggish. They can grow up to be real Labs even after a stuttering start.

[AdiT]

Could just be a small one. I saw a 18mth old Beagle yesterday that was perfectly Beagle-like except only the size of a Jack Russell.

[Karyn]

Our pup, despite being Queen of the Litter, was one of the smallest pups there*.

As long as they're healthy and feeding/watering well, there shouldn't be any issues. Although as Bex says, jabs are a consideration - perhaps delay until vet is sure that pup is old enough.


*she never did grow as much as we thought she would - she's easily mistakable for the miniature type of her breed!