As soon as you bring your new puppy home, it’s vital to schedule a veterinary checkup to begin their core vaccines, ensuring their health and well-being. This initial visit plays a key role in your puppy’s protection and care, with veterinarians emphasizing the importance of these essential vaccinations during the first check-up.
First veterinary check-up
During this check-up, the veterinarian will examine the puppy’s heart with a stethoscope to check if it is within normal frequency and rhythm, listen to its breathing to see if it is normal, take its body temperature (don’t panic if they tell you it’s 39-39.5, that’s normal for a young puppy), check for external parasites like fleas, ticks, and lice, examine its baby teeth, and check its musculoskeletal system.
This check-up doesn’t take long, and it’s essential to maintain positive energy in the examination room so that your puppy doesn’t become afraid the next time it comes for a check-up.
After the examination, your veterinarian will suggest deworming your puppy of internal parasites, regardless of whether the breeder told you it has already been “dewormed.” The medication for internal parasites is given orally and is dosed according to the puppy’s weight. If the puppy has worms, they will be visible in the next few bowel movements. Either long worms like spaghetti or small eggs like grains of rice. If you notice worms, it is recommended to clean your puppy again in three days.
After this double dose, your puppy will be clean. Until it reaches six months of age, you should deworm it of internal parasites every month. After six months, you will have this obligation every three months.
Please note that dosing is according to the puppy’s weight. If you are unsure how much the puppy weighs and how much of the medication to give, it is best to go to the veterinarian and have them give the medication. In every veterinary clinic, there is a scale for animals, and at any time, they can accurately measure and dose accordingly.
First core vaccine
The first core vaccine for puppies should be given after they turn 40 days old. During this time, the puppy is usually still with its mother or breeder. If the puppy has already received one or two vaccines before you got it, make sure the breeder gives you the puppy’s health record book where the relevant serial numbers of the vaccines are attached, so that your veterinarian can know which vaccines have been administered.
It is very important to know that until your puppy receives all 3 vaccines, you MUST NOT take it outside or mix it with other animals. Your puppy should first build its own immunity before running freely in the park.
The first vaccine, or puppy vaccine, immunizes your puppy from the two most dangerous diseases that can infect it at this age, namely ParvoVirus and Canine Distemper. This vaccine should be given to the puppy when it is 4-6 weeks old. The vaccine is given subcutaneously and does not hurt.
The second round of core vaccines
The next vaccine that your puppy should receive after 21 days is a trivalent or pentavalent vaccine, which means that it contains killed or weakened viral particles from three or five diseases. These diseases are ParvoVirus, Distemper, Adenovirus Type-1, which causes infectious hepatitis in dogs, Coronavirus, which attacks the gastrointestinal system, and Parainfluenza virus, which attacks the respiratory system.
The third round of core vaccines
After receiving the second vaccine, your puppy should receive the last, or third vaccine, or the boosting of the second vaccine, after 21 days. With this vaccine, the veterinarian can decide to vaccinate the puppy for another disease, which is Leptospirosis, which can have many generalized symptoms, but most commonly affects the kidneys. This disease is a zoonosis, which means that it can be transmitted from your dog to you. If these two vaccines are not given together, the puppy will need to receive the Leptospirosis vaccine separately.
Need ideas on how to prepare your home for a dog? Check out this article on our website.
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