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first time owner, lyla 10 weeks old female, any help or advise greatly appreciated

hi there forum members,this is my first post and the first thing id like to say is that ive used the valuable information on this site over the past week or so and its been immensly interesting and from what i can see it contributes enormously to the breed

we welcomed our first cavalier king charles spaniel into our home last thursday. a week to the day before then my previous dog, which was a german shepherd, had passed away a couple of hours after having a serious operation to repair a birth defect.

our new housemate is a 10 week old female who is Blenheim-coloured . my partner thought long and hard about which was the most suitable breed for us as we are due to have our first child in jan 2011 and wanted to choose a breed that was good with families and children and also had an ideal Temperament to visitors and new people.

a day or so after our new pup, lyla, became one of the family we started to notice that she had a tendancy for scratching her ears and sometimes becomes a little over enthusiastic about it. She is eating fine and very playful, full of energy and has bonded well with whoever she has met. she is a good size for her age and is learning very quickly

after reading through some of the information here i have become worried that the symtoms that lyla is displaying are those of SM, which i can barely stand to comprehend at this moment. i have made an appointment with my local vet but the earliest they could arrange a booking is for the 2nd of september.

i would hugely appreciate any information or advise that could be passed onto my by fellow members and i say thankyou in advance

lee
 
Hi Lee: welcome to the board! :)

I would be almost certain that you are just seeing something to do with parasites. Puppies often come home with fleas, earmites or rabbit mites and all of these would make them itchy. SM would only very very rarely show up in such a young puppy -- it is highly unlikely. You are right to make a vet appointment because you will need to have all the possibilities checked but I will almost guarantee that an exam is going to produce something like earmites. I have had them in my puppies and every kitten I have ever owned; they are very common and spread very easily. A telltale sign is generally dirty-looking ears if you look inside but they can be quite far down the ear canal.

Best of luck and come back to tell us what the vet says. Maybe another vet could see her earlier though just this once -- that's a really long time to wait for an uncomfortable little puppy.
 
hiya karlin,

its a massive relief to hear what your saying, i suspected that it could be mites, fleas etc but had suspected the worst after hearing of so many of this breed that have SM. is it possible to treat mites without having to go to the vet? its the only one i've ever used so i really want my usual vet to see her, but im about to ring them up and ask if there are any cancellations that i could use as time for them to see lyla,

i will keep the board updated when i know anything more,

thankyou

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just on a side note, im debating now whether my pup is actually only 10 weeks, she seems very large for her age. what does everyone else think?
 
Our new puppy did the "ear scratching, scare a poor new to Cavaliers mom to the search feature" thing :rolleyes: ;), but turned out she had ear mites too (her ear gunk was brown, not black like I'm used to with nonfloppy eared dogs, just fyi ;) ). It did seem to help some (while we were waiting to go to the vet) for me to take a "baby Q-tip" (you know the ones with the big ends?) and clean her ears, and then take a cool soft washcloth and wipe them out. I did it while she was sleeping, and then flopped her ears backwards so they would dry inside. It relieved her discomfort a good bit. I hope your girl is feeling better soon.

And this is our first Cavalier, so I can't really help with the size thing. But, just generally, she seems about the same size as Rose was when we brought her home at 12 weeks.
 
Advice: take lots of pictures, they grow up so fast! Also, training classes are a good way to bond with your new pup (not till after vaccines though).

I usually just pop by the vet if I suspect ear mites, but there are over the counter ear cleaning solutions for dogs that might help in the mean time. With the floppy ears spaniels have it's worth buying these solutions anyway to clean ears out at bath time.
 
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