I have a litter of just 5 week old puppies and the smallest of the litter, a very light yellow male(white actually), seems to do this thing where if he seems unsure about something he circles and circles. I have never seen this type of behavior with any puppies in my previous litters. Just seems a little odd to me...is this normal or could there be an issue with him?

I personally would want to check that one out, it could be nothing, or it could be neurological. Worth a call to the vet, in my humble opinion. Good luck with your little one and do let us know what you learn.

No it is not normal. I seem to remember a similar thread here about that behavior. Can't remember the outcome. Hope you can figure it out. But I would hold onto him for a while before homing him.

This probably isn't it, but I once had a puppy that could not walk straight. He seemed normal until they were up and moving around and then seemed to be neurologically damaged. As he grew, I realized that one ear just hung down limply. It turned out that he had no functional ear on that side. He was deaf in that ear and without a functional sense of balance. He eventually learned to accommodate, walked normally and lived with some friends of mine until he was 13 or so.

Here's the previous thread. For a clickable link, I will also post it below in Website link.
http://pub12.bravenet.com/forum/static/show.php?usernum=976632990&frmid=4&msgid=863353&cmd=show
I see that the poster then had an email address listed. I don't know what the outcome was, but the puppy was improving on antibiotics.That OP had an email address listed.
Good luck.

Pup from a litter my boy sired did this and it turned out to be liver shunt. :o(

O.K., it's the behaviorist in me. Can you give a bit more information? Does this behavior only occur when he is confused about something, or presented to a new situation? Can you get him out of the behavior? (i.e. pick him up and place him in a familiar situation, or just touch him, or what?

To me, without knowing more, it sounds like a displacement behavior...something an animal does in response to a stimulus (in your case something unfamiliar/unsure of), that appears out of context.

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Kathy

I have a litter of just 5 week old puppies and the smallest of the litter, a very light yellow male(white actually), seems to do this thing where if he seems unsure about something he circles and circles. I have never seen this type of behavior with any puppies in my previous litters. Just seems a little odd to me...is this normal or could there be an issue with him?

I've seen this twice, 1st time, the puppy turned out to be deaf. It took a while to figure out what the issue was in spite of numerous trips to different vets. Note the girl has learned to adapt and her family says that others would never guess she could not hear. She was born at only 5 ounces.
2nd time the boy took a good 25 minutes to revive at birth. In speaking to our vet he felt sure it was a neurological issue. We kept him a little longer that normal and had outgrown it by the time he went home.
I would take him out by himself away from his litter mates just to be sure he can see and hear. Assuming he can do both, check with your vet on their opinion. Ours had seen it several times before and in most cases they outgrew it just as our little boy did.

I have had this puppy away from his littermates and he seems to hear me fine as I call him or make a noise and he comes to me. I've also rolled balls in from of him which he has tracked so I'm pretty sure he can see.
I took him in to my vet today and he thinks there may be a neurological issue with him or perhaps a liver shunt. He drew blood for a bile acid test and other blood work. Should get results tomorrow. I'll update tomorrow when I can. Thank you so much for responding to my original post.

Good luck, Kathy. I know what a worry it can be.

Thinking of you.

L.

Let us know what your vet says Kathy, hopefully it is one of those weird things that just go away.

We were honoured to be the proud owners of a rescue some years ago : Baby Benjamin. He was expected to be blind with a hole in his skull. (meningeoencepholocele).

He circled constantly, when he was confused, or excited. We found out that he had tiny tiny optic nerves and the image never got to his brain to interpret it as an image. He was blind. His eyes looked normal, had normal response to light and movement and stuff, but the images never made it to the brain.
We went to the Head of Neurology because of his behaviour of circling, but neurologically he was fine.
his other senses were ultra keen. movement was not 'seen' but felt and heard, and he could follow a ball rolling across the floor without even seeing it. he'd chase a hoola hoop across the grass too as it made subtle noises.
I don't know what an opthalmologist can detect for you at 5 weeks of age, but this could be your pup's vision having an issue.
If our Benjamin was unfamiliar, or overly stimulated, he'd circle constantly.
(for interest, some of his story from back then can be found here: http://www.labmed.org/ss_babyben.html)

Best of luck to you and your little. Sure hope it's a simple fix for you and not a vision issue.

UPDATE: The blood work came back on my puppy and it looks normal and there is no liver shunt. My vet is going to put him on an oral antibiotic to treat for a possible infectious encephalitis to cover the bases. He feels that there is a 20% chance this is the cause but also stated it could be a whole host of other neurological issues. We will try this and go from there and hope that perhaps he will outgrow it as some of you stated.
Thanks again for responding and your kind words. I really apprecaite it.