What did your vet say when you took your dog to see him/her?  Haven’t been to a vet yet?  What are you waiting for?

Took to the vet. Gave her steroids

So, steroids.  Did the vet tell you this was the result of an allergy?  

If so, the first thing you must do is get all grains out of her diet, including treats.  No more sharing the odd cookie or corn chip with her.  Go to a good pet store (not the grocery store or a big box store) and ask to be shown to the grain-free dog foods.  Then start reading labels.  You want a dog food that lists real meat as the first 2, or even better, 3 ingredients.  Real meat is easy to recognize, it will say Elk, Bison, Turkey, Lamb, Pork, Salmon meal, Whitefish meal, etc.  Meal is the entire animal ground up and dried – a good thing.  Avoid chicken and beef – many dogs are reactive to those two proteins.  Do NOT buy any food that lists ‘by products’ as an ingredient, this is a sign that you will be paying premium price for a sub-standard food.

Read all treat packages – they sneak a lot of grains into treats.

To help with the itching right now – rinse your dog daily with a mix of vinegar and water (1/3 vinegar, 2/3 water – organic apple cider vinegar is best if you can afford it.  Use white vinegar if your dog is a very light color since apple cider can stain the coat.).  Flush the mix through her coat, working it down to her skin, then let her shake and dry – don’t rinse it out.  The vinegar helps calm the itch.  You can do this several times per day on the naked skin since it will dry fast – you don’t want her to go to bed damp though.

You can keep a bowl of this mix at the door (use fresh mix every day) and dip her feet when she comes in from outdoors – this helps keep down the amount of pollen and mold spores she tracks into the house.

Cover your furniture with sheets or towels where ever you allow her to nap – then toss those covers in the wash every week.  Same with her dog bed or crate liner.  If she sleeps in bed with you – cover the foot of the bed with a sheet or beach towel – and wash it weekly.  This keeps down the amount of pollen and mold spores on those surfaces too.  Vacuum each day with a HEPA filter in your vacuum.

If the vet suggested Benedryl use Zyrtec instead – it seems to work better for dogs.  The generic is fine, and use the same dose as the Benedryl – one pill in the morning and one at night.

If she has any hot spots (raw open wounds), dab on witch hazel with aloe vera (find in any pharmacy over the counter) and let it dry.

Consider feeding your dog a raw diet – google “BARF diet for dogs”, “raw diet for dogs”, “biologically appropriate diets for dogs” to learn more.  It is a little intimidating at first, but after the first 6 months you will see such changes in your dog that you will never go back to dry bits out of a bag.  And your dog will smell wonderful!

Keep in mind that a naked dog will feel warmer to us – we are used to having a layer of insulation (fur) between our skin and theirs.  Normally a dog’s temperature is 102.5 degrees F and we are only 98.6.

If your dog has a skin infection you will need to continue to work with a vet – don’t let your girl get worse! 

Intact bitches will fight, especially if they’re of a breed known for same sex aggression.  You need to get all three desexed…the bitch he mated with needs to be desexed NOW, before puppies happen.

Also, be prepared to crate the bitches separately.  Once bitch fights start, depending on the breed, they may never stop.

Your lack of experience speaks volumes, Erick.

What sort of health testing have you done on them? What is your intention for breeding? Who is your mentor? What happens when a puppy gets stuck and you need an emergency cesarean on the dam? How do you know these dogs SHOULD be bred?

Please, leave breeding to people who’ve put the time in to learn more about their breed. Please. Don’t contribute to the overwhelming number of dogs in shelters.

I am being mature.

There is no easy answer to the aggression problem. This could have been started with irresponsible breeding (the other bitch shouldn’t have been permitted anywhere near the breeding couple while they were tied). This could be hormone related. This could be due to questionable temperament of the dogs living in your yard. In truth, you will most likely have to deal with bitch fights until you start crating both bitches and rotating which is permitted out of the crate OR until you rehome one of them. Bitch fights only escalate.

Beyond that, I have said my piece. Take my advice or don’t, but don’t complain about the advice you’ve been given. You bred irresponsibly, and now you risk having puppies with questionable temperaments. It would be irresponsible to allow this pregnancy to come to term for that reason alone.

I agree with Laura on all counts – breeding dogs should be done by people that understand a breed, want to improve the breed, or breed dogs for a particular purpose, and have a full understanding of how to go about it. NOT because they want some cute puppies or because they think they can make money selling the pups. It is okay to be a novice at this – but you should have educated yourself by reading a few books, or finding a mentor long before you threw three dogs together and hoped for the best. And especially with huskies! All the Northern breeds are closer in temperament to wolves than most other breeds and typically will fight to keep other females from breeding, and may kill other female’s litters if they can get at them. You have created a very dangerous situation for your two girls – you need to rethink the way you are keeping these dogs, what you want to do with these dogs (how would you even run them as a team if they want to kill each other due to your mismanagement? Pretty serious consequences to have some cute pups.

You need to remove the tick.  If you aren’t comfortable doing so, take your dog to the vet NOW to have it removed.

No – the human version of the herpes virus is not transmissible to dogs.  I would be more worried about obstruction, depending on the size of your dog.

“Buy a cat. I presume you mean adopt a cat? ”
Yes, you are correct.

“It is too noisy, too chaotic,”
I have considered this factor, actually. The house I’m living in is actually not loud or chaotic at all 99% of the time.

“and there are too many people coming and going.”
As long as they watch to make sure that the cat is not going to dart through the door when they exit, it should be fine, yes?

“Most college kids lack resources for all of the possible needed pet care items, and especially lack resources should emergencies happen.”
This is, obviously, something I have considered. I wouldn’t even think of adopting a cat unless I had secured a decently paying job and had sufficient savings to cover most emergencies.

“I just strongly believe that this is not a stable, healthy, safe environment for a cat. I have seen too many misguided attempts at pets in college. Please wait until you are out of school.”
I will certainly consider your advice and concerns seriously before I make this decision. Thank you for your time!

Take him to the vet.  Whatever this is (and my unexperienced layperson’s opinion says it COULD be a luxating patella), it’s not something you can fix at home.  It may require surgery.

This puppy needs surgery.  Call your vet NOW to discuss this. 

I agree with Laura, this puppy is too young for the amount of freedom you are giving him. Tether him to you with a leash when you can’t watch him like a hawk until he is 6 monrhs old or even older.  It takes months to house train a puppy