Your New Puppy
 
Coats Veterinary Hospital welcomes your new puppy into the practice.  Part of the joy of practicing veterinary medicine is watching your puppy grow and mature.  We recommend deworming your puppy and performing stool parasite checks as early as 2-6 weeks of age, as well as checking your puppy for any birth defects, ear mites and fleas.
bullet Vaccines:  Your puppy receives its first distemper/parvo vaccines at 6, 9, 12 and 16 weeks of age and 1 year rabies vaccine at 16 weeks of age.  (If your puppy is older than 6-9 weeks of age, then three vaccines are still recommended to insure adequate immunity.)
NOTE:  If you have a large breed puppy, a fifth vaccine is recommended at 21 weeks of age.
We also recommend vaccinating your puppy against kennel cough (which is a contagious bronchitis) every 6 months starting with the last distemper/parvo vaccine.  Even though kennel cough is most common for dogs where they are kept in large numbers, it can also be carried through neighborhoods where backyard dogs have contact.
Your puppy becomes full-grown at 1 year of age and will receive yearly boosters.
bullet Heartworm Testing/Prevention:  If your puppy is less than 4 months of age, it is too young to have adult heartworms and will be started on heartworm prevention during the administration of its puppy vaccines to prevent their development.  Your puppy will take this prevention once a month for life.  (See heartworm handout.) 
bullet Nutrition:  Your puppy needs to eat preferably a dry puppy food only until 1 year of age.  Then it can be slowly switched to an adult dog food.  We recommend Hills Science Diet Canine Growth for superior quality nutrition. 
bullet Spaying/Neutering:  Your puppy will need to be spayed (female) or neutered (male) as early as 5-6 months of age (before heat cycle or puberty occurs).
Our mission statement is practicing quality veterinary medicine while serving you and your pet with friendly, personalized attention.  We look forward to helping you any way we can.
Note:  See our petcare packages for more details.
 
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