Suspected abuse, what to do?

[purehuman]

The son and his girlfriend should find a home of their own.....they are responsible for the dog being in a crate all day...maybe that's why the little fellows ****ting through the eye of a needle.....it's their dog, they can find fault in the mother all they want, but that's not really helping the puppy out at all....They should have asked the mother how she felt about another dog in the house before they just moved it in....VERY irresponsible of them...and the poor puppies paying the price.

[foxywench]

agree with everyone else but have a very simple solution to see them through untill they can get their own place (though i hope this woman knows that given the son still living with mommy at 40, there NEVER moving out of mommies house...)

its a relay simple solution...
go to the hardware store and buy a lock with KEY ONLY acess...
anyone can instal it, its not hard, only the dogs owner and the son have the keys to the room, when there not home puppy can be secured in the room and the mother cant get acess to the room...

howver my bet would be this dogs tummy issues are stress induced.

[ssg II]

Great idea, Foxy. And you may be correct that stress is affecting the humans and canines.

However, the problem may be solving itself in the worst way possible.

Evidently, the mother is in much worse physical condition than anyone knew or the doctor had let on, which when viewed in retrospect may have been why she was acting the way she was. She had developed an infection (maybe MRSA, I'm not sure,) is in intensive care and even if she makes it through this, now they've discovered cancer and she could not survive surgery.

As one can imagine, the girlfriend now feels horrible for suspecting the mother, regardless. Such a sad, sad situation.

[foxywench]

oh no, such a shame, a massive infection and cancer on top could certianly effect personality and attitude, and the dog may have been picking up on the illness too.

[ssg II]

What's really strange is that they have taken the mother's dog to the hospice center and the dog growls & wants nothing to do with her. He is becoming very attached to the girlfriend but he and the puppy are still at each other's throats.

They're taking turns allowing one dog in bed with them one night, the other the next night. I don't think the dogs understand that. You're in or you're out. Consistancy.

Both dogs are now crated while they're at work, instead of just the puppy, and the son and girlfriend work different hours, so the dogs aren't cooped-up for more than 5 hours at a time. I suggested they put the crates next to each other, even at bedtime. "Hey, dude, I'm in lock-up, too!" Hopefully, they'll learn to get along.

Thanks for any advice!