Pet Care Basics (Dogs) - All Creatures Animal Clinic

Pet Care Information

This page contains Dog Care Information :: go to Cat Care Information

A new dog, for most people a new family member, demands a large investment of money, time and love. In order to fully benefit from that investment it helps to have a firm knowledge of the many appropriate veterinary and behavior issues that you need to address:

Vaccines - Distemper is a designer shot. There are many different "distemper" vaccines on the market. Most include Distemper, Hepatitis, Para Influenza and Parvo viruses. There are four strains of Leptospirosis that can also be included, and the Corona virus.

Distemper vaccines should be started for puppies between 6 and 8 weeks of age, and repeated every 2-4 weeks thru a minimum of 16 weeks of age. The interval between vaccines is dictated by the risk of disease in the area, most clinics repeat vaccines every 3 weeks.

If a puppy's vaccines are stopped before 16 weeks of age, it is possible that they will not develop a long lasting immunity. What we are trying to do with the shot series is protect the puppy at its most vulnerable age from disease, but if they still have the maternal immunity it will neutralize the vaccine instead of the puppy developing its own protection.

Most clinics use Distemper without Lepto for all the vaccines, except the last two in the series, then Lepto is included. There are a lot more vaccine reactions to Leptospirosis, 2 vaccines are all that are needed to develop a year long immunity, therefore it is included in the last 2 shots of the series. Most breeders only use distemper without Lepto.

Rabies, Kennel Cough (or Bordetella) and Lymes vaccines are never a part of the Distemper vaccine. In most areas Rabies Vaccines are required by law to be given by 6 months of age, they can be given any time after 3 months, most clinics give them at 4 months. The interval between Rabies vaccines is dictated by the law of each state based on the risk of Rabies in that area.

Kennel cough and Lymes are given on an individualized basis, depending on the life style of that dog. Kennel Cough is similar to the human cold, the vaccine is demanded by good quality boarding, grooming, puppy classes, doggy day care places. It can be either a series of 2 shots 2-4 weeks apart and a yearly booster, or an intranasal vaccine which most clinics re-booster every 6 months.

Lymes is carried by the deer tick, different areas have different levels of disease. It is also initially a series of 2 shots 2-4 weeks apart followed by a yearly booster.

Separation Anxiety - Most dogs will have never been alone until they are brought into your household. Part of successfully raising a puppy is helping them to become self-confident, and independent. To do so they NEED to spend some time alone, to learn that the sky won't fall in! The easiest way to help a dog avoid this disorder is to leave them crated at night in a room of their own.

Be careful not to unintentionally encourage hysteria by rewarding it with lots of attention. Reward CALM behavior, and you will see more calm behavior. The painless way to accomplish the very first separation is, lots of exercise, a big meal, give them a chance to go to the bathroom, and then go watch a movie or go shopping for several hours. Hopefully the puppy will be tired and will be sleeping when you return.

Heartworms - Heartworms are a mosquito borne parasite. When an infected mosquito bites the dog it deposits the infective larvae under the skin where it hibernates for several weeks. Then it migrates into the blood vessels where there are 5 stages of the life cycle. Once it reaches L5 it migrates to the right side of the heart where it lives.

When they are fully mature they reproduce and send millions of microfilaria circulating throughout the blood stream. It is a very slow life cycle, 6 months from bite to adult heartworm. It takes a full 2 months for L5 to develop. L5 is the stage of the larvae that is killed by our preventative medications.

Puppies can be started on heartworm medication without any testing the first year. The tricky thing with puppies, is be sure not to under dose, and puppies grow very fast so usually medication is dispensed monthly based on the weight until they are full grown. There are a huge variety of heartworm monthly preventative medications on the market at this time, most will also help with intestinal parasites and some also control flea problems.

In most areas heartworm medication is recommended to be used year-round, if you do want to stop over the winter, please remember that you do not kill the larvae at the time of the mosquito bite, but in fact it can be up to 2 months after the bite, so you should continue the preventative at least 2 months into the cold weather to be safe.

Intestinal Parasites - There are a HUGE variety of intestinal parasites that can affect dogs. Some of them can also be transmitted from your dog to people. There are no medications that will kill all of the parasites, so the best approach is to check stool samples and worm appropriately. In order to be sure that your new dog is in fact parasite free we would recommend at least 2 negative stool samples spaced one month apart.

External Parasites - The good news is that we finally have some really good medications available to prevent and control fleas and ticks. For the last 10 years there have been a variety of non-insecticidal medications on the market. They are safer and better than the previous insecticides. Most of these medications are available only from veterinarians, but some are making their way over the counter.

Housebreaking - There are two basic reasons that you can housebreak your dog. The first is instinct not to mess in the den, and the second is surface training, whatever surface the dog most commonly uses to eliminate on, they will seek out in the future. When a puppy is very young they will recognize only a very small area as their den (a crate is perfect) but as they get older the den will enlarge, some dogs carefully go into the neighbors yard to go the bathroom because they have expanded their den to include even the yard. Keeping the puppy crated when you are not able to watch them, and then repeated trips outside will eventually lead to success.

As the puppy begins to understand what you want, the next problems becomes communication...how can they tell you when they need to go out? What has worked well in our house, is a string of bells on the doorknob, if you ring the bells every time you take the dog out, they can learn to ring the bells to let you know when they want to go out. Some dogs will pick up the bells very quickly and others take a very long time.

Diet/Body Condition - In the wild dogs eat for caloric need, as very young puppies dogs will always do this, but after puberty most American dogs start to eat for pleasure and obesity is a large problem. With a puppy under 4-5 months we recommend that you feed three meals a day, and let them choose the amount, give 20-30 minutes access to food.

Basically the reason for meals is for housebreaking purposes, not because they would eat too much. As adults it is best to feed based on body condition - not following what the food bag tells you to feed! When a dog is the proper weight the ribs should be easily palpable just under the skin, but there should be good muscling (picture spare ribs just under the skin). As they become to thin, you can feel too much rib, not enough muscle. When they are fat you have to push through a layer of fat to feel the ribs. If they are thin, increase the volume of food, if too fat increase the exercise and reduce the volume of food. Exercise is crucial in maintaining a good weight.

You do get what you pay for in the pet food market. Generic food is generally very low quality food, name brand diets are researched and balanced, and premium diets have a much better quality of ingredients. We feed and recommend Eukanuba. Iams is the best quality diet you can buy in the grocery store. We are constantly adjusting the volume of food our dogs receive.

Obesity - There are 2 types of dog who will overeat unenhanced dry dog food, nibblers, and volume eaters. Nibblers initially eat for caloric need but if they are fed too much, they will eventually be tempted to eat. Volume eaters ignore caloric need and just go for a ton in the tummy! Nibblers just need to have the volume of food properly adjusted, volume eating dogs are a little trickier.

The usual approach to low calorie dog food is to make it high fiber and low fat, this is true for most over the counter low calorie diets. The only disadvantage of this is, lots of poop! Smaller more frequent meals and increased exercise and help many dogs. If you are struggling, low calorie people food can also help, vegetables, rice cakes, sometimes even ice cubes.

RE is a prescription food made by Iams called Restricted Calorie Diet that has a different approach, it is basically like rice krispies dog food, the biscuit is puffed full of air to make it volume expanded. They have tried to build muscle to better burn fat sort of like an Atkins diet. What we recommend is try something and weight the dog every month or so, if its not working, try something else!

Neutering: Spay/Castrate - If you do not intend to breed your dog it is always in their best interest to be neutered. Female dogs have a 30% incidence of best cancer if they have had 3 or more heat cycles. If they are spayed before the first heat cycle, the incidence is only 0.05%!!! There is also a large problem with uterine infections in the female dog. Dogs cycle the same whether they are pregnant or not, so there is a high progesterone level for the first two months after the heat cycle in all females (when the dog would be pregnant) if they are not pregnant, the progesterone levels leaves them more susceptible to infection.

This pyometra (uterine infection) is more common in older dogs but can happen after any heat cycle and generally requires emergency ovariohysterectomy to save the females life. The last problem for the females is that they NEVER go through menopause, they will cycle until they die. But the heat cycles are generally less obvious as the dog ages, so occasionally a female will be accidentally bred at an advanced age because the owner wasn't aware that the dog was in heat.

For males there are less medical issues, prostatic enlargement and cancer is the main medical problem of remaining intact, behavior issues are greater. Neutered male dogs are less likely to fight other dogs, and stray from home.

Dental Care - Kidney, heart and liver disease have been proven to be tied to poor dental health, so it is important to the overall health of the pet, as well as the teeth and gums to keep the mouth clean. The dental tartar in a dog always starts on the upper outer surface of the teeth, canines and molars, so the most important thing is look there!

Stretch the gums back and look at the upper molars so you know if you need to be doing something. There are a lot of ways to help with dental care, diet, chew toys, brushing and Pfizer has launched a vaccine that deters bacteria growth in the mouth and subsequent periodontal disease! Most pets will eventually need a professional dental cleaning to remove accumulations of tartar.