Congratulations on your new puppy!
Our staff is excited to have the opportunity to provide veterinary care for your pet. Today your puppy has received its first examination, deworming, and vaccinations. After this visit, we recommend seeing your puppy every 3-4 weeks until 16 weeks of age. These initial visits are very important to the overall health of your pet.
Our typical schedule is as follows, but may vary according to your pet’s needs.
First visit – 6 to 8 weeks of age:
- Physical exam
- Distemper vaccine (distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, parvo) and bordetella
- Deworming and intestinal parasite screening
- Heartworm prevention and flea/tick control
Second visit – 9 to 12 weeks of age:
- Physical exam
- Distemper booster and bordetella
- Leptospirosis vaccine if appropriate
- Deworming and intestinal parasite screening
- Heartworm prevention and flea/tick control
Third visit – 12 to 16 weeks of age:
- Physical exam
- Rabies vaccine (if closer to 16 weeks of age)
- Leptospirosis vaccine if appropriate
- Distemper booster
- Heartworm prevention and flea/tick control
Fourth visit – 16 weeks – if necessary
- Physical exam
- Rabies and leptospirosis if not received previously
- Distemper booster
- Heartworm prevention and flea/tick control
The doctor will make additional suggestions after evaluating your puppy.
Nutrition is very important for long-term health. We suggest that you feed a high quality diet such as Science Diet, Iams, or Royal Canin appropriately selected for your pet’s life stage.
Our recommendation is that you have your pet spayed or neutered between four and six months of age. These procedures will offer many benefits and contribute to a long and healthy life.
We encourage you to socialize your puppy as much as possible at this point. It is beneficial to expose your new pet to a variety of different experiences while protecting them from infectious diseases by avoiding high traffic dog areas (dog parks, pet stores, etc).
Parasite control is an essential part of veterinary care. Intestinal parasites are common in new puppies; 70-80% of puppies and kittens have roundworms. This is an important issue for your family as well since several of these parasites can be transmitted to people, especially children. For this reason, we routinely deworm our new pets twice during these initial visits and check stool samples on a regular basis.
Another key to sound parasite control is heartworm prevention. Heartworm disease is a potentially deadly illness transmitted by infected mosquitos. Since it is easily preventable, we strongly recommend that your dog be given heartworm prevention on a monthly basis year round. Monthly heartworm prevention also aids in the control of certain intestinal parasites.
Fleas and ticks are very common in central Illinois and can pose a variety of health concerns, such as tapeworm infections and Lyme disease. To minimize these potential risks, we recommend using monthly flea and tick control for your pet.
If you need assistance outside of our regular business hours, the Tri-County Animal Emergency Clinic is available at 672-1565.
We look forward to getting to know you and your pet in the future!
-The staff of Meadowbrook Veterinary Clinic