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New Puppy

Useful advice for your new puppy

Providing essential routine care for your pet is all part of being a responsible pet owner. Remember that you can save money on the cost of treatments and services that keep your pet healthy and happy. Not only that but budget and spread the cost of routine care across the year by paying with direct debit. Check out our Pet Health Club page for more information.

General Health Check and Vaccinations

We recommend that a veterinary surgeon carries out a general health check on your new puppy within a couple of days of its arrival. It may be possible to coincide this with the first vaccination.

Puppies require a vaccination course of two injections which can start from six weeks of age.  We normally give the second vaccination four weeks later. We advise that your puppy is not allowed out until after the second vaccination. However, you puppy may go out in your own garden for toilet training and can mix with other healthy, fully vaccinated friend’s and family’s dogs within their own gardens. If you are thinking of attending a puppy party to get your dog socialised with other dogs, this can be done after first vaccination, provided that all puppies are vaccinated to this level.

The puppy vaccination course includes vaccinations against distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis and parvovirus. We also recommend vaccination against kennel cough if they will be attending kennels, shows or dog training. This can be given to puppies from six weeks of age. These vaccines are included with our Pet Health Club scheme. Annual vaccinations are required to maintain immunity for your dog.

Worming

Your puppy should have been wormed – provided with protection against roundworms - several times before you first collect him/her. You will need to find out when it was last done and then continue with a good worming plan. We advise that the puppy is wormed every two weeks until it is 3 months old and then every month until 6 months old.  After that, routine worming should be done every 3 months. This general worming will be against both roundworms and tapeworms. Please contact the surgery for advice on the best worming treatment available. We have easy-to-use scales at the surgery so we can obtain details of your dog’s weight for the worming.

The incidence of lungworm has, in recent years, increased as the British climate has warmed. This worm is transmitted via eating snails, or eating grass where snails have left a trail. If your dog eats snails or grass, or plays with toys that have been left out in the garden, treatment to combat this worm is also recommended. Worming treatment is included in our Pet Health Club.

Fleas

Most treatments available for protection against fleas are carried out monthly from 6-8 weeks of age. Products are available for use from 2 days of age, if necessary. Some flea treatments are also effective against worms, lungworms and ticks which avoids the need to treat these separately. Please contact the surgery to discuss the most suitable products for your pet. To help break the flea cycle by killing the eggs and larve, it is important to remember that your house should also be treated. Remember, regular flea, tick and lungworm treatment is included in our Pet Health Club.