New Puppy & Kitten Care
New Puppy Care
We want to provide you with some simple and very helpful tips for your first few months with your new puppy
New Kitten Care
We want to provide you with some simple and very helpful tips for your first few months with your new kitten.
Getting a new kitten is an exciting event. Our first recommendation is to schedule an exam with one of our experienced veterinarians to get a personalized vaccine schedule and go over any questions you might have. Some things to consider is the pets lifestyle, what kind of food is best, what sort of preventive medications does my puppy need, can I take my puppy on walks and much more!
DISEASE PREVENTION
LEPTOSPIROSIS INFO
Due to the wet weather, both the environment to harbor the bacteria has increased and the high ground water levels are driving rodents in particular closer to homes and pets. We are having increasing incidents of confirmed cases throughout the country and specifically confirmed positive cases in the Roseville area.
What is it? Leptospirosis is a bacterium that is primarily found in water, or wet areas.
What does it do? It can cause kidney and liver failure in pets and it is transmissible to people. The symptoms that you may see are; loss of appetite, vomiting, weakness.
Where does it come from? It is spread in the urine of animals, commonly rodents, opossums, skunks, cattle. The bacterial can live for long periods of time in water and is easily picked up in stagnant pools. This can be open water, puddles, or urine on concrete.
How can my pet get it? It can be picked up by drinking water or from inhaling when animal smell urine on the ground. So the biggest risk areas are moisture on solid surfaces such as concrete and stagnant pools of water such as ponds, puddles and edges of rivers.
Is it dangerous to people? Yes. People most frequently contract it through inhaling particles when cleaning up urine from their pets, or from contact with rodent urine.
What can you do to avoid this infection?
Vaccination, some myth’s and facts
Leptospirosis vaccine is greater than 80% effective. It is different from the vaccines that many people are familiar with, distemper, parvo and rabies vaccine are all viruses, leptospirosis is a bacteria. The vaccine does not create an immunity that is as long lasting and needs to be boostered every year.
Some of you may have heard the vaccine is dangerous, or small dogs should never get it. This is not true. It is a slightly more reactive vaccine than the rabies vaccine, but the risk of reaction is not as high as people think, and far lower than the danger of contracting infection. Small dogs do have a slightly higher incidence of vaccine reactions than large dogs, but it is not a problem for small dogs overall.
So who should get their dogs vaccinated? In the current environment with the heavy rains we are recommended vaccinating dogs of any age that have not previously had a confirmed adverse reaction to this vaccine.
If you have questions do not hesitate to contact our clinic for advice.
Who should consider vaccination?
Nearly everyone should consider having their dog vaccinated at this time. We will gladly evaluate your dog’s personal medical history and let you know if we have any concerns, otherwise we are encouraging everyone to vaccinate their dogs this spring.
New Puppy Care
We want to provide you with some simple and very helpful tips for your first few months with your new puppy
- We recommend heartworm prevention be given every single month starting at your first visit. We start out with month to month doses as your puppy grows to be sure the right size for weight is dispensed.
- We recommend an effective flea product (and possibly tick depending on where you live and where you will go) given regularly year round. Don’t take the winter off! The fleas can take advantage of you. There are a lot of products around today that the fleas are immune too. Ask us which product might be best for your pet.
- Desensitizing. This is very important in the young puppy to get them used to having sensitive areas handled, such as ears, mouth, and toes. When your puppy is very relaxed (not during play time) gently pick up the toes and give them a soft squeeze, only the point that your puppy notices but does not resist. Play with the ears, lift up the lips and check the teeth. The goal hear is NOT to hold the puppy tight and force him/her to do this, be gentle and slow and teach that it is not frightening. This will make for stress free nail trims and ear cleaning down the road!
- Brushing teeth is best started young, it’s ideal to do daily, but at the minimum 3 times a week.
- Be careful of toys, anything too hard to push your thumb into and make a dent can break teeth (puppies and adults). If you have questions about toys please talk with the doctor.
- Risk of disease. Your puppy’s immune system is not at its best until 16-20 weeks of age, this means that even though you are doing vaccines there is still some danger of viruses like Parvo until this age. Parvo virus can be alive in the dirt for 1-2 years. If you have additional questions about what is or is not safe, please talk further with the doctor.
- You should have already discussed your puppy’s personalized vaccine schedule with the doctor. If you have any questions please ask.
- There are a lot of things to help get your puppy off to the best start, most importantly, ask us your questions!
New Kitten Care
We want to provide you with some simple and very helpful tips for your first few months with your new kitten.
- Toys and games are a big deal with a new kitten. Chasing toys is a natural predatory behavior in cats and they will chase what you teach them when they are young. It may be cute to have the kitten attack your hands and feet when they are 2 pounds, but it is not fun for anyone at 2 in the morning when they weigh 10 pounds. Teach them to chase cat toys, some great examples are feathers hanging on a string, wind up mice, rolling balls. If the kitten goes after hands and feet, WALK AWAY, teach them game time is over when they do that.
- Scratching posts should be available to your kitten and cats. Both vertical and horizontal should be provided because they assist stretching. Rope wrapped types are best because cats are texture sensitive and they will scratch what they learn to as a kitten. If you use the card board type then they will have a tendency to shred boxes in the house. Plain carpet is not a good idea because that trains them to tear up all carpet.
- We recommend an effective flea product (and possibly tick depending on where you live and where you will go) given regularly year round. Strictly indoor animals do get fleas. Don’t take the winter off! The fleas can take advantage of you. There are a lot of products around today that the fleas are immune too. We will recommend the most effective products available during your exam
- Desensitizing. This is very important in the young kitten to get them used to having sensitive areas handled, such as ears, mouth, and toes. When your kitten is very relaxed (not during play time) gently pick up the toes and give them a soft squeeze, only the point that your kitten notices but does not resist. Play with the ears, lift up the lips and check the teeth. The goal here is NOT to hold the kitten tight and force him/her to do this, be gentle and slow and teach that it is not frightening. This will make for stress free nail trims and ear cleaning down the road!
- Brushing teeth is best started young, it’s ideal to do daily, but at the minimum 3 times a week. Generally kittens are easier to train than puppies when started young.
- Meal feeding is best. Obesity is a big problem in cats and it helps to manage if they are not used to having a bowl of food out all the time.
- You should have already discussed your kitten’s personalized vaccine schedule with the doctor.
Getting a new kitten is an exciting event. Our first recommendation is to schedule an exam with one of our experienced veterinarians to get a personalized vaccine schedule and go over any questions you might have. Some things to consider is the pets lifestyle, what kind of food is best, what sort of preventive medications does my puppy need, can I take my puppy on walks and much more!
DISEASE PREVENTION
LEPTOSPIROSIS INFO
Due to the wet weather, both the environment to harbor the bacteria has increased and the high ground water levels are driving rodents in particular closer to homes and pets. We are having increasing incidents of confirmed cases throughout the country and specifically confirmed positive cases in the Roseville area.
What is it? Leptospirosis is a bacterium that is primarily found in water, or wet areas.
What does it do? It can cause kidney and liver failure in pets and it is transmissible to people. The symptoms that you may see are; loss of appetite, vomiting, weakness.
Where does it come from? It is spread in the urine of animals, commonly rodents, opossums, skunks, cattle. The bacterial can live for long periods of time in water and is easily picked up in stagnant pools. This can be open water, puddles, or urine on concrete.
How can my pet get it? It can be picked up by drinking water or from inhaling when animal smell urine on the ground. So the biggest risk areas are moisture on solid surfaces such as concrete and stagnant pools of water such as ponds, puddles and edges of rivers.
Is it dangerous to people? Yes. People most frequently contract it through inhaling particles when cleaning up urine from their pets, or from contact with rodent urine.
What can you do to avoid this infection?
Vaccination, some myth’s and facts
Leptospirosis vaccine is greater than 80% effective. It is different from the vaccines that many people are familiar with, distemper, parvo and rabies vaccine are all viruses, leptospirosis is a bacteria. The vaccine does not create an immunity that is as long lasting and needs to be boostered every year.
Some of you may have heard the vaccine is dangerous, or small dogs should never get it. This is not true. It is a slightly more reactive vaccine than the rabies vaccine, but the risk of reaction is not as high as people think, and far lower than the danger of contracting infection. Small dogs do have a slightly higher incidence of vaccine reactions than large dogs, but it is not a problem for small dogs overall.
So who should get their dogs vaccinated? In the current environment with the heavy rains we are recommended vaccinating dogs of any age that have not previously had a confirmed adverse reaction to this vaccine.
If you have questions do not hesitate to contact our clinic for advice.
Who should consider vaccination?
Nearly everyone should consider having their dog vaccinated at this time. We will gladly evaluate your dog’s personal medical history and let you know if we have any concerns, otherwise we are encouraging everyone to vaccinate their dogs this spring.