Your New Puppy
We here at Critter Creek Veterinary Hospital would like to congratulate you on the new addition to the family. We realize that both you and your new puppy will be in for lots of changes and needs in the upcoming months. This part of our site is designed as an overview of your new puppies' needs over the first year of their life.
The Initial Exam
This is one of your puppies' most important visit to the veterinary office. Not only does it give the veterinarian a complete chance to examine the puppy, bit it also allows our helpful staff to answer any questions you might have about your new family member. This can include but not limited to vaccinations, heartworms, internal parasites, feeding guidelines, spaying/neutering, and any other needs of your new family member.
Vaccinations
Just like with babies, puppies also need a series of vaccinations to build up immunity to certain diseases such as distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, leptospirosis, and parvovirus. These vaccinations should be repeated every three to four weeks until your puppy is sixteen weeks of age. The reason we booster so frequently is to allow the vaccinations to over-ride the maternal antibodies and allow the puppy to build up their own immunity and antibiotics to fight off these diseases.
De-Worming
Since certain worms can lay latently in the mother's systems not to be released until the birth of their puppies, it is a good idea to de-worm your puppy a minimum of two times. The most common worms that we see are roundworms and tapeworms. As stated earlier, roundworms can be passed from mother to puppy at birth. On the other hand, your puppy can develop tapeworms fro the ingestion of the flea (which is the intermediate host). It is also strongly recommended that you bring in a fresh stool sample from your puppy to check for other internal parasites such as coccidia and giardia. Since these are protozoan's, the de-wormer will not treat for them and if positive, other medications may be needed.
Heartworms
Heartworm is a growing concern across the United States. This worm lives in the heart and adjacent vessels, If left not treated or prevented, the heartworm can cause severe heart damage over time and can be a reason for sudden death. We strongly recommend starting all dogs on prevention as soon as possible. Usually, it is required that you have your dog tested prior to the start of prevention, but since it takes 8 months for a positive result to show up on an antigen test we should start you puppy on a heartworm prevention immediately and test at one year of age.
Flea Prevention
In California we have fleas all year around. Even though it is more noticeable in the hot summer months, it is not uncommon to see fleas in the depths of winter.
You should not leave your puppy's first visit without starting them on either Frontline, Comfortis or Revolution. These products are only sold through veterinarians, and are much safer than the over the counter spot on products.
Feeding Guidelines
It is of the upmost importance that your puppy start out their life on a high quality puppy food. Your puppy needs more vitamins, minerals, calories and other nutrients than the adult dog. You should be feeding a high quality puppy food that is recommended by your veterinary professionals. There are many good brands of food on the market such as Science Diet, Iams, Eukanuba, and Pro Plan. Any of these companies products would be of good nutrition for your puppy. We proudly carry and recommend Science Diet by Hills and carry a large variety of their products. Please ask how you can try this puppy food free by taking home a 5 pound bag of Science Diet puppy food.
Spaying/Neutering
It is recommended that you spay or neuter your puppy at four to five months of age. First of all this will keep your puppy from either going into heat or straying to find a female to breed with. Also dogs that are spayed prior to their first heat cycle run a 90% lower risk of mammary tumors and/or ovarian cancer. Males that are neutered run a much lower risk of prostate cancer and problems latter ion in life. Please feel free to discuss this procedure with your veterinary staff.
