PUPPY CARE

Congratulations on the latest addition to your family: a new puppy. Few things in life are as satisfying as the loving companionship a new pet can provide. We also would like to congratulate you for wanting to know more about protecting the health of your puppy. Taking the time to learn all you can about what's best for your pet is the first important step toward a long, rewarding and healthy relationship. Most importantly, it shows your commitment to be a responsible pet owner.

YOUR HEALTHY PUPPY

At no time is this relationship more interesting, challenging and rewarding than during the first 12 to 18 months of your dog's life. It is a time when your dog will experience rapid behavioral, physical and physiological change. From age 3 to 12 weeks, your new friend will begin to assume adult characteristics and learn to respond to its environment. It is the first time your puppy is capable of learning specific lessons and a perfect time to work on house-training and simple obedience commands. Learning is easy for puppies at this age and with positive reinforcement, their lessons will quickly become committed to memory.

Many other changes occur as your puppy grows. For instance, the antibodies received from its mother to help protect against disease are soon replaced by the puppy's own antibodies. For the immune system to develop correctly, proper nutrition and veterinary care are required.

RISK FACTOR MANAGEMENT

Veterinary care should begin as soon as you get your new puppy. During your first appointment, the veterinary health care team will plan a management program to promote wellness throughout your puppy's life and to identify and modify any risks to its health. This is called Risk Factor Management.

A risk factor is a condition or characteristic that can cause illness or injury to your pet. Some risk factors, like the inherited tendency of some breeds to acquire certain diseases, cannot be eliminated but can be minimized through preventive planning. Others, like overfeeding, which leads to too-rapid growth, obesity and many other health problems, can be modified or avoided all together. How well these controllable risk factors are managed will help determine the length and quality of your puppy's life.

Managing risk factors for pets is very much the same in the field of human medicine. To reduce your own risk of heart disease, for example, and to help you live longer, your doctor might recommend that you lower your level of stress, quit smoking, exercise more and pay closer attention to your diet. Similar situations hold true for your pet.

Your veterinarian will be able to discuss the risk factors for your puppy based on information that you provide, the results of physical examinations and diagnostic studies, and on basic knowledge of disorders that commonly affect puppies of the same age, breed and sex. Your role is just as important. In fact, each member of the family needs to follow your veterinarian's advice every day to keep your puppy in good health.

IDENTIFYING AND MANAGING THE RISKS

Although your veterinarian can identify any risk factors that are unique to your puppy, the risks listed here have the potential to affect most or all puppies. What you do at home, along with the help of your veterinary health care team, will preserve your puppy's wellness and create the potential for a long, healthy life.

1. Infectious diseases are very common in puppies.

Although most puppies are born with antibodies against certain diseases or receive them in their mother's milk, these antibodies disappear after several weeks. Unless your puppy is protected by vaccinations, it will be susceptible to various infectious diseases. Some common examples include:

Distemper;

Hepatitis;

Leptospirosis;

Upper respiratory disease;

Parvoviral enteritis; and,

Rabies.

Several of these can be fatal. To reduce the risk of infectious disease, follow your veterinarian's advice for vaccinations. Typically, these include several in a series when your puppy is between the ages of 8 and 22 weeks.

2. Internal parasites affect virtually all puppies.

Many authorities believe that most, if not all, puppies acquire an intestinal parasite called roundworms (ascarids) from their mothers. Other intestinal parasites that commonly infect young dogs are:

Hookworms;

Whipworms;

Giairdia;

Coccidia; and,

Tapeworms.

These parasites can debilitate your puppy, causing diarrhea, vomiting, anemia and even death. Heartworms are parasites that live in a dog's blood vessels and are a major risk factor for heart, liver, lung and kidney disease. They can be fatal. Your veterinarian can advise you on the best ways to control and prevent internal parasites.

3. External parasites in puppies include fleas, ticks, ear mites, mange mites and certain fungi which cause "ringworm" (even though it isn't a worm at all). When you groom your puppy, check the skin carefully for evidence of parasite infestation.

Fleas cause skin disease marked by scratching and hair loss, especially along the lower back. Finding fleas, flea debris ("Flea Dirt" - flea feces, which look like black pepper), or tapeworm segments (shaped like cucumber seeds) on your pet's coat are signs of flea infestation.

Ticks appear as brown or white parasites attached to a pet's skin.

Mites are microscopic and they cause mange.

Ringworm fungus causes a circular patch of hair loss almost anywhere on the body.

Your veterinarian can diagnose skin disease and use safe insecticides and fungicides to rid your puppy's body of external parasites and reduce the number in the environment. Your veterinarian also has brochures that will help you understand and control the life cycle of these parasites.

4. Grooming is an important part of your pet's health. A poorly groomed coat is a risk factor for external parasites and skin problems. Just a few minutes each day will reduce these risks before they become serious and your pet will love the extra attention.

5. Neutering at an early age prevents unwanted pregnancies and protects the animal against tumors of the reproductive organs. Spaying performed before the first heat cycle eliminates the risk of mammary tumors, which are the most common tumors in female dogs. Early neutering also improves behavior by reducing roaming, urine marking, and aggression between male animals. Because neutered pets generally live longer than non-neutered pets, failing to neuter is an important risk factor that can greatly affect the quality and length of your pet's life.

6. Environmental conditions can increase or decrease your puppy's health risks. Outdoor animals not properly socialized to their environments tend to disregard yard boundaries and the hazards of motor vehicles. They also are exposed to extreme weather conditions, infectious disease, internal and external parasites, accidental poisoning from plants or chemicals and injury from people or other animals.

Your veterinarian's health care team can give you specific advice for making your puppy's indoor and outdoor environment clean, safe, comfortable and dry, but every responsible dog owner should develop certain good habits. For example:

Make plenty of fresh drinking water available each day;

Remove fecal waste from the yard to lower the risk of internal parasite reinfection or transmission;

Play with or walk your puppy at least once a day for 20 - 30 minutes to help avoid obesity; and,

Obey your local leash law.

7. Inappropriate behavior is an important risk factor because it produces undesirable pets and is the primary reason for euthanasia in dogs. Again, look to your veterinary health care team to help solve your puppy's behavioral problems before they become unmanageable.

THE ROLE OF PROPER NUTRITION

Throughout life, your pet should be fed a nutritionally balanced food specifically formulated for its age and life style. Feeding puppies poor-quality foods of low digestibility may slow their growth rate, cause poor muscle and bone development, and decrease resistance to infectious disease. Table scraps and some pet foods may also contain excesses of nutrients that could harm your pet over time.

Proper nutrition, fed in appropriate quantities, is crucial to the healthy development of your puppy. Overfeeding can cause obesity and accelerated growth, and can predispose large breed puppies to malformed joints (hip dysplasia), crooked limbs, and inflamed bones and joints. Too much dietary calcium during growth may also contribute to skeletal abnormalities and lameness.

Therefore, it's important to feed a high-quality food formulated for growing puppies and proven nutritionally adequate by clinical feeding trials. HealthBlend "Puppy" brand puppy food is an excellent example. Use a food formulated for growth from weaning until your puppy is 12 to 18 months old (check with your veterinarian for the proper length of time for your puppy). To minimize the skeletal risks from overfeeding, make sure your veterinarian agrees that the feeding recommendation on the label is right for your puppy.

Generally, puppies should be fed at least twice a day (three times for toy breeds), but food should not be left out all the time. At each feeding, give your puppy all it will eat in 10 to 20 minutes, then take up the food until the next scheduled feeding. A good way to house-train your new pet is to take it outdoors for a period of time right after its meal.

If your puppy seems to be getting fat (you should be able to feel its ribs) or if skeletal problems arise (signaled by lameness), see your veterinarian. Never supplement a good puppy food with table scraps or other food. Meat, scraps, or other supplements can create dietary imbalances and addiction to the wrong kinds of food.

Avoid the risks of excessive calcium by feeding a high-quality puppy food. Low-quality foods containing more than 2% calcium can lead to health problems, and many commercial foods exceed this amount. Although calcium supplements are sometimes recommended for puppies, they are unnecessary if you feed a high-quality brand like HealthBlend "Puppy".

SUMMARY

Preserving wellness is a goal we at All Creatures share with you. Your veterinarian understands the risks to a puppy's health and how these risks can be reduced or eliminated. Keeping your puppy healthy begins by identifying those risks and then managing them. Regular checkups, professional health care, routine exercise, and your own involvement through home care are vitally important to your new puppy's health. And so is nutrition designed for your puppy's changing needs.

We hope that you will find this information helpful in your quest for better pet care. If you have any questions or comments, please call your veterinarian's office, or feel free to e-mail us.

David E. Hammett, DVM
and the Staff of All Creatures Veterinary Clinic, PC