Two weeks after bringing our 8-week old puppy home, we scheduled her first visit to what will become her regular vet. As she’s not sick, this is what they simply call a ‘wellness exam’. Every puppy needs to do this and as most vets do this for free, you just can’t beat it. Skipping this exam and waiting until your dog may become sick is going to not only hurt your dog, but will likely cost a small fortune.
As can be expected, she was very excited to see all the other dogs and people in the office. And the ladies behind the counter didn’t disappoint her and returned the love.
She was weighed (just over 10 lbs at just over 10 weeks), her ears were checked, her teeth were checked, and they listened to her heart. Her vet was also nice enough to trim her nails.
At the Humane Society she had already started her vaccinations, so today we only had to give her the Distemper booster. In 3-4 weeks we’ll go back for the last Distemper booster and her Rabies booster.
They also sent us home with a Puppy Kit from Frontline Plus (aka Heartgard Plus) with a single dose of ivermectin/pyrantel. This is your basic heartworm medicine, but in this case it’s a preventative measure to avoid ‘ascarid and hookworm infections’ in dogs.
Total charge was $10 for the distemper booster. Not too shabby.
(Creative Commons photo courtesy Army Medicine, Flickr)
