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Puppies
We recommend scheduling your new puppy’s first visit within 48 hours of adoption. At the first visit we will check your puppy’s overall health, look for congenital abnormalities, deworm and vaccinate your puppy if appropriate.
What should you expect from your veterinary visits for the first six months of your puppy’s life? Below is a general guideline for most puppy visits, but your veterinarian will tailor your puppy’s visit to his or her particular needs.
8 weeks
- Wellness Examination: Every wellness exam includes evaluation of the eyes, ears, teeth, and skin. The doctor will auscult the lungs and heart and palpate the abdomen, lymph nodes and joints.
- Distemper vaccination: This combination vaccine will protect your puppy from the following viruses: distemper, adenovirus, parainfluenza, and parvovirus. These viruses can cause pneumonia, vomiting, diarrhea, seizures, and death. All dogs should receive the distemper vaccine.
- Kennel Cough vaccination: This vaccine protects your puppy from the Bordatella bacteria which causes a cough and sometimes pneumonia. This vaccine is recommended for puppies who will be participating in puppy kindergarten or obedience classes. It is also recommended for dogs that go to the groomer or will be boarded at a kennel.
- Fecal Examination: Examination of the stool will check for intestinal parasites, some of which are contagious to people.
- Deworming: Most puppies have been dewormed by the breeder but often an additional course of deworming is recommended. Some of the most common types of intestinal parasites are shed intermittently and are not always found on the first stool sample that is checked. Multiple doses of dewormer are often required to clear all intestinal parasites.
- Heartworm prevention: Heartworm disease is a potentially fatal disease spread by mosquitoes. We recommend heartworm prevention once monthly, year round, for all dogs. Since heartworm preventatives are based on a puppy’s weight, we will often dispense a single dose at each visit until your puppy reaches its mature weight. The heartworm preventative also helps prevent the most common type of intestinal parasites.
- Flea and tick prevention: We recommend using flea and tick preventatives once monthly, year round, for all dogs. As with the heartworm preventative, this medication is also based on weight so often we will dispense a single dose at each visit until your puppy reaches its mature weight.
12 weeks
- Wellness Examination.
- Distemper booster vaccination #2.
- Kennel Cough booster vaccination #2.
- Rabies vaccination: Rabies is a virus usually spread by the bite of an infected animal. Rabies is fatal in all mammals and contagious to people. This vaccination is required by law to be given to all puppies between 12-16 weeks of age. Whether to vaccinate your puppy at 12 or 16 weeks will be decided based on your puppies size and health.
- Deworming/Fecal examination: Often a second dose of dewormer or second fecal examination is needed based on your puppy’s history.
- Heartworm prevention.
- Flea and tick prevention.
- Puppy Kindergarten: At twelve weeks your puppy is old enough to attend puppy kindergarten. These classes teach basic obedience and are a vital part to your puppy’s socialization. Ask our receptionist when the next class starts.
16 weeks
- Wellness Examination.
- Distemper booster vaccination #3.
- Rabies vaccination (if not done at 12 weeks).
- Heartworm prevention.
- Flea and tick prevention.
Optional Vaccinations
- Lyme vaccination: This vaccination is recommended for dogs considered to be at risk of exposure to Borrelia burgdorferi, the bacteria that causes lyme disease. Lyme disease is spread by the deer tick. We recommend vaccinating dogs who live in areas with ticks or who go camping or hiking in areas where ticks can be found. This vaccination can be given as early as 9 weeks of age and must be boostered 2-3 weeks later.
- Leptospirosis vaccination: This vaccination is recommended for dogs considered to be at risk of exposure to Leptospirosis. Leptospirosis is a bacteria spread through the urine of infected dogs, livestock, and wildlife. The bacteria can cause life threatening liver and kidney disease. We recommend vaccinating dogs that live in areas where there is a lot of wildlife or dogs that go camping, hiking, swimming, and who drink out lakes, ponds or streams. This vaccine can be given as early as 12 weeks of age and must be boostered in 2-4 weeks.
5-6 months of age
- Pre-operative blood work: Prior to performing any surgery, including your puppy’s spay or neuter, we perform blood work. The blood work is often done 1-2 weeks prior to surgery but can be performed up to 30 days prior. The blood work will check for any abnormalities that would put your pet at increased anesthetic risk allowing us to tailor your pet’s anesthesia to his or her individual needs.
- Spay (ovariohysterectomy) or Neuter (castration): We recommend having your puppy spayed or neutered prior to reaching sexual maturity. For females this will avoid unwanted pregnancies and greatly reduce risk of breast cancer when she becomes older. It will also eliminate the risk of uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and pyometra (life threatening uterine infection). For males, performing a castration eliminates the risk of testicular cancer and reduces the risk of prostatic enlargement that can predispose males to life threatening prostatic abscess and infection.
- Microchip: We recommend placing a microchip at the time of your puppy’s spay or neuter. If your puppy becomes lost a microchip will identify you as his or her owner and lead to a safe reunion.
Kittens
We recommend scheduling your new kitten’s first visit within 48 hours of adoption. The first visit will check your kitten’s overall health, look for congenital abnormalities, and deworm and vaccinate your kitten if appropriate.
What to expect from your veterinary visits for the first 6 months of your kitten’s life? Below is a general guideline for most kitten visits, but your veterinarian will tailor your kitten’s visit to his or her particular needs.
8 weeks
- Wellness Examination: Every wellness exam includes evaluation of the eyes, ears, teeth, and skin. The doctor will auscult the lungs and heart and palpate the abdomen, lymph nodes and joints.
- Distemper vaccination: This combination vaccine will protect your kitten from the following viruses: panleukopenia, rhinotracheitis, and calcivirus which can cause upper respiratory tract infections, vomiting, diarrhea, low white blood cell counts, and death. All cats should receive the distemper vaccine.
- Feline Leukemia and Feline Immunodeficiency Virus (FIV) test: Feline leukemia is spread by contact with infected cats and FIV is spread through the bite of an infected cat. Many cats infected with these viruses will initially appear healthy but at some point, often months to years later, the infected cat will become sick with anemia, leukemia, lymphoma, increased susceptibility to other infections and eventually death. We recommend testing all kittens especially before they enter a home that already has other cats. We recommend repeating this test 60 days after adopting your kitten because in some cases, it can take up to 60 days from the time of exposure until your kitten tests positive.
- Fecal Examination: Examination of the stool will check for intestinal parasites, some of which are contagious to people.
- Deworming: Some kittens have been dewormed by the breeder or the shelter but often an additional course of deworming is needed especially since some of the most common types of intestinal parasites are shed intermittently and are not always found on the first stool sample that is checked.
- Heartworm prevention: Heartworm disease is a potentially fatal disease spread by mosquitoes. Although heartworm disease is less common in cats than dogs, it can be fatal in cats and there is no treatment. Heartworm is even a concern for indoor cats since 25% of all heartworm positive cats are indoor cats. We recommend using heartworm prevention year round in both indoor and outdoor cats. An additional benefit to using heartworm prevention is that most heartworm preventatives also help prevent intestinal parasites.
- Flea and tick prevention: We recommend using flea and tick preventatives once monthly, year round for all cats.
12 weeks
- Wellness Examination.
- Distemper booster vaccination.
- Feline leukemia vaccination: Feline leukemia is recommended for all outdoor cats. Current American Association of Feline Practioners guidelines recommend also vaccinating indoor cats the first year of their lives. Cats are most susceptible to feline leukemia during the first year of their life and despite our best intentions, many kittens will sneak out of the house and if this happens they should be protected against feline leukemia. Once a cat has reached two years of age it will no longer need this vaccine if it is kept indoors.
- Rabies vaccination: Rabies is a virus usually spread by the bite of an infected animal. Rabies is fatal to all species, including humans. This vaccination is required by law to be given to all kittens between 12-16 weeks of age. Whether to vaccinate your kitten at 12 or 16 weeks will be decided based on your kittens size and health.
- Deworming/Fecal examination: Often a second dose of dewormer or second fecal examination is needed based on your kitten’s history.
16 weeks
- Wellness Examination.
- Distemper booster vaccination.
- Rabies vaccination (if not done at 12 weeks).
- Feline Leukemia booster vaccination.
5-6 months of age
- Pre-operative blood work: Prior to performing any surgery, including your kitten’s spay or neuter, we perform blood work. The blood work is often done 1-2 weeks prior to surgery but can be performed up to 30 days prior. The blood work will check for any abnormalities that would put your pet at increased anesthetic risk allowing us to tailor your pet’s anesthesia to his or her individual needs.
- Spay (ovariohysterectomy) or Neuter (castration): We recommend having your kitten spayed or neutered prior to reaching sexual maturity. For females this will avoid unwanted pregnancies and eliminate the risk of uterine cancer, ovarian cancer, and pyometra (life threatening uterine infection). For males, performing a castration eliminates the risk of testicular cancer and reduces the risk unwanted urine spraying.
- Microchip: We recommend placing a microchip at the time of your kitten’s spay or neuter. If your kitten becomes lost, a microchip will identify you as his or her owner and lead to a safe reunion.
