You have taken an exciting step and adopted a new member of the family – we’re here to make sure that your furry friend stays as happy and healthy as possible. With that in mind, here is some information we hope will help you understand your puppy’s necessary health care.

Basic Tips!

Your puppy’s temperament and behavior are developed within the first 16 weeks of life. The more positive socialization time your dog spends around people and other dogs, the less likely they are to be aggressive or excessively submissive. However, we do recommend staying clear of dog parks or other areas with unknown dogs until they are fully vaccinated.

Watch your puppy’s stool. If you notice any diarrhea or blood, please contact us. It could be a sign of parasites, or other common yet serious diseases that affect puppies who have not yet been sufficiently vaccinated. All puppies need to be immunized and dewormed to protect them from disease. Our doctors will work with you to develop an appropriate vaccine and deworming schedule for your puppy.

Female dogs typically begin their first heat cycle between 6 and 12 months of age which can result in vaginal swelling and discharge. It is important to spay your dog around this time to reduce the risk of reproductive cancers, cysts and mass developments of the reproductive organs, and potential serious and life-threatening infections as they age. Hormones produced during these heat cycles can also affect the behavior and attitude of all dogs in the household.

Male dogs also become reproductively mature around 6 months of age. We recommend neutering between 6 and 18 months of age depending on the breed and size of your dog.  Intact male dogs are more susceptible to prostate cancer, prostate infections, and cancer in the male reproductive system. Hormones produced from intact males can also affect the behavior and attitude of all dogs in the household.

Many of the serious behavior problems seen in adult dogs are rooted in incomplete or improper socialization. Yet adopters of young puppies often don’t even learn what socialization really is, or why it’s so important, until it’s too late.

Socialization is a process that needs to be well under way before your puppy is 12 weeks old. Between three and four months of age, the developmental stage known as the critical socialization period ends, and your puppy is more likely to be apprehensive about or even fearful of things he has never experienced before—whether or not they are a real threat. As they mature, untreated fear can manifest as anxiety and aggression.

Socialization doesn’t just mean play with other puppies and appropriate adult dogs. It means exposure to people, places, things, sounds, smells, surfaces, other animals, and experiences that they will need to be comfortable with. Your puppy should meet several new people and have several novel experiences every day. They should encounter the mail carrier and heavily perfumed women and smokers and beards and men in hats. They should make happy visits to the vet and the groomer and take other car rides to nowhere in particular. They should hear thunder and fireworks and trucks, watch a vacuum cleaner and a bicycle and a wheelchair in action, meet a dog-tolerant cat, and walk on grass, concrete, gravel, mulch, and manhole covers. If you live in the city, take a field trip to the country, and vice-versa. 

But exposure alone isn’t enough: this exposure needs to be positive. Your puppy needs to learn that all these things are safe, or even better, that they predict good things for them. (This is extra important during “fear periods,” times when a bad experience is more likely to have a lasting effect. The first of these usually occurs between eight and 10 weeks; the second some time during adolescence.) Your job is to create a little canine optimist. Take things at your puppy’s pace and use space to avoid overwhelming them. Don’t force confrontation. Bring treats with you on socialization outings and use them to proactively create positive associations as soon as a new type of thing appears, without waiting for your puppy to get scared. 

Finally, enrolling your puppy in a well-run group class before the age of 12 weeks provides not just a wealth of socialization opportunities but also a head start on formal training and professional guidance on common puppy issues. Puppies should not wait until they are fully vaccinated to attend a class—for more info, check out the current position of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, the professional organization for veterinarians who specialize in behavior. 

The process of creating and maintaining positive associations with new experiences shouldn’t stop at 16 weeks. But if your dog is already four months or older and showing fear, the solution may not be the same kind of exposure recommended for puppies who are still in their critical socialization period. Contact a qualified behavior specialist to help you get back on track.

Selecting a crate

We recommend that all pet-owners choose a carrying crate that allows the dog to have access to the most mobility. It is important for the dog to be able to turn around and stand up. The crate should also have a top that is easily removed. Provision the crate with comfortable, washable bedding preferred by the dog. Some dogs will prefer a cushion or towel as a resting site while other dogs prefer an object of clothing (such as a t-shirt) worn by a specific person. Place the crate on an elevated resting site favored by the dog when recumbent. This location should be out of reach of cats and small children in the home. Please ensure that the crate is fastened to a stable area or secure enough where it will not move or fall. First attempt to make the crate available to your dog with the crate door open to establish a feeling of comfort for your dog. If the dog does not readily use the crate at first, remove the top. Later, when the dog is consistently using the lower portion of the crate, add the top section, leaving everything else the same. If the dog avoids use of the crate (which may be the case if the dog had a prior negative experience in that crate), consider another type of carrier, such as a soft-sided model.

A crate is a place to confine a dog. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing depends on how you’re using it. Confinement can be a very effective management tool in a larger training plan. Crating is often the easiest way to prevent reinforcement for unwanted behavior while you’re shaping up all the acceptable alternatives: A puppy in a crate can’t be peeing on your floor or chewing up your couch, and an untrained adult dog can’t be bowling over visitors or surfing the counters as you cook. A secured crate is one of the safest ways to transport a dog in a car. A dog who can relax in a crate has more options in life—they can participate more easily in dog sporting events or workshops, will be more welcome in unfamiliar homes and hotels, and may feel more comfortable staying at the vet, groomer, or kennel.

But over confinement can contribute to a host of problems, including hyperactivity and (not surprisingly) anxiety about the prospect of being confined. Dogs with pre-existing separation anxiety often panic more with the crate. What constitutes over confinement is up to the dog to some extent, but as a general rule, I don’t advocate crating without a significant and enriching break for more than four hours at a time.

And whatever you may have heard or read about dogs being “den animals”—a common contention that there is little evidence to support—most dogs will need to be taught to enjoy being crated for even that long.

You may have noticed that I don’t often offer explicit training “recipes” in this column. That’s because successful training is in large part about how you set and adjust your criteria—the training steps should be calibrated to the individual dog. But here are some guidelines and techniques that have worked well in my experience.

Where to put the crate

Most dogs like to be around their people, so right off the bat, a crate in a well-trafficked area will probably be more appealing to the dog than one that’s isolated. For new puppies, who are often confined overnight to help with housetraining, you might want two crates: one in the main living area and one in your bedroom.

Meals in the crate

For most dogs, any place dinner is served can’t be all bad. Feed your dog in the crate, with the door open initially. Consider feeding out of a Kong or puzzle toy to extend the time spent in the crate and provide the opportunity to forage, a natural behavior considered enriching for dogs. To increase a new dog or puppy’s comfort with being in the crate alone, you can begin to step away a little as he is engaged in eating. Come back while they’re still chowing down.

Introduce fun activities

Many crate-training tutorials advocate leaving the crate open all the time so that the dog can explore it freely. Problem is, unless the crate has been rigged (say, with extra comfy bedding studded with hidden treats) to be much more appealing than all the other locations where a dog can relax, many won’t seek it out in favor of the couch, a dog bed, or even just the floor.

So we can use a bit of reverse psychology. The crate is full of tantalizing goodies, but the dog can’t just walk in and get them. He actually has to “ask” to be let in.

• Generously sprinkle kibble or treats into the closed crate.
• Let the dog sniff and paw at the crate. When they come around to the door, open it for them.
• The instant they stick so much as a nose inside, say “yes” (or click, if you’re using a clicker) and then start a party, rapidly dropping more treats through openings at the sides and back of the crate for 15-30 seconds.
• As the dog is finishing up, place one more treat outside the crate. When the dog comes out to get it, wait quietly.
• With not much happening outside the crate, many dogs will reinvestigate, if not outright walk back into, the crate. The instant the dog sticks their nose past the doorway, start the party again. The food is now becoming contingent on moving into the crate.
• If the dog doesn’t investigate the crate at all, repeat the first steps until they begin to do so.
• Close the door between sessions.

Developing behavior

When the dog is reliably heading back into the crate without bait, you can begin to wait for more than a nose in before starting the party. I usually use a clicker for precision in letting the dog know what the current criterion is: initially a paw or two, then all four paws, then all four paws for a few seconds, then turning around in the crate, then sitting or lying down.

At this point, you can switch to giving the dog a Kong or puzzle toy to work on independently. Unless your dog is a puzzle master, it should be easy for them to get food out of the toy at first—the main goal here is that they still gets lots of reinforcement, just not from you. The toy can even be tied to the inside of the crate so that it can only be enjoyed by staying put.

From here, you can add steps like closing the door briefly, closing the door for longer, moving away, leaving the room, and leaving the house. These are stages where it’s especially important to watch an individual dog’s responses and adjust your plan accordingly. A qualified trainer can help you set criteria and troubleshoot as needed.

You can also add a cue at this stage if you like—though opening the crate door has already become one. And in the meantime, don’t forget to teach your dog what you want them to do when they’re not confined. The more effort you devote to that, the less you’ll need to rely on the crate.

Dental health is as important for your dog as it is for you. Dogs have 42 teeth and no way to care for them on their own. Brushing their teeth at home is helpful, but just like you, they will still sometimes require a thorough cleaning or even oral surgery. Normal amounts of bacteria in their mouth lead to soft plaque on the teeth, which eventually hardens to tartar. You may observe tartar as the yellow-brown buildup near your pet’s gumline. What you cannot see is that bacteria also infiltrates under the gumline, where it causes inflammation of the gums and loss of bone at the root of the tooth. This is what we call periodontal disease, which can cause many issues such as bad breath, tooth decay and fracture, and even heart, kidney, and liver disease.

The procedure we use to treat periodontal disease is called a Comprehensive Oral Treatment, or COT for short. This is a very common procedure at Baxter and Cleo Veterinary Clinic – in fact we perform about 4-6 of these procedures each week! Most pets will require multiple COTs over the course of their lives to keep their mouth healthy. We recommend brushing your cpet’s teeth at home to help prolong the period of time between professional dental cleanings. You can do this by obtaining either a pet toothbrush or a soft-bristled toddler toothbrush, and pet-specific toothpaste (as human toothpaste can contain ingredients that are harmful to pets if swallowed). Using circular motions, brush the outsides of your pet’s teeth, focusing on the large canines and molars. Brush for 1-2 minutes or as long as your pet will let you. Brushing every day is ideal, but realistically if you are able to brush 1-2 times a week it will still be very helpful to your pet’s oral health. Starting to brush at a young age will accustom your pet to the process. You may need to use treats and positive reinforcement to encourage your pet to accept their teeth being brushed. You can work your way up from touching your pet’s mouth, then lifting their lip, then letting them lick the toothpaste, then brushing their teeth.

We also recommend steering clear of treats and toys that can be harmful to the mouth. A general rule of thumb is that anything your dog is chewing on should have a little give. Hard items like antlers, bones, hooves, and some synthetic toys can easily fracture teeth and cut into gums. Durable rubber and nylon toys are much safer to chew on.

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Brushing Your Pet’s Teeth

You know all that doggy butt-sniffing that we humans seem to find either appalling or hilarious? Ever ask yourself what that’s all about? You may not think of that dog in your bed as a predator, but at heart, they are. And like all predators, your dog has anal sacs (anal glands) located on both sides and slightly below their anus. They produce fluid with a distinctive odor that identifies them and tells other dogs their sex, approximate age, health status, and other things.

Healthy anal glands express, or empty, this fluid when the dog has a bowel movement. Unfortunately, some anal glands don’t work as they should because of inherited malformations, or because of a history of poor-quality foods that produce poor-quality bowel movements. If the anal glands don’t empty properly, they can become impacted, making bowel movements difficult or painful, and potentially leading to infections or abscesses.

It’s not uncommon for a rescued dog to have a history of anal gland problems. Your dog may damage the delicate tissue around their anus in their attempts to relieve their own discomfort, so if you see them biting at their hind end, or scooting it along the ground, take them to the vet.

Impacted anal glands can often be relieved by manually expressing, or squeezing out, the fluid they contain. This is a very smelly process, but if you’re game you can have your vet or groomer teach you how to do it. Most people whose dogs need their anal glands expressed periodically prefer to pay to have it done.

If your dog’s anal glands get impacted frequently, ask your vet whether a diet change may help. If that doesn’t work, and if your dog has repeated infections or abscesses from impaction, the anal glands may need to be removed.

Rabies Tag & Certificate:

A rabies vaccine is required by state law. A tag must be issued as proof of vaccine, which is required at most boarding facilities, dog parks, groomers, and for domestic and international travel. A rabies tag is provided by Baxter and Cleo Veterinary Clinic when your pet receives a rabies vaccine, as well as a certificate proving the lot number and expiration of the vaccine, as well as the veterinarian who administered it.

Just like us, pets may require unexpected medical treatment. Many people only consider emergencies such as getting hit by a car but your pet is probably more likely to have a bout of GI upset, eat a toy, or develop issues like arthritis or allergies, all of which can be costly to diagnose and treat. When the unexpected happens, pet health insurance can help prevent finances from playing a role in determining what care you can provide for your pet.

Pet health insurance typically involves a monthly premium, so you may be asking yourself, “Is this an investment I want to make?” When determining if pet health insurance is the right fit for you and your pet, it’s important to note the many ways it can improve a bad situation:

• Pet health insurance gives you peace of mind should your pet end up in an unexpected emergency, you will never have to deny them the care that they need. Whether it be an ingested thread or a scuffle at the dog park, pet health insurance lets you rest easy knowing your pet is covered. 
• Pet health insurance allows pet owners to prioritize the best possible medical care for their pets. Alleviating some of the financial burden of a pricey procedure or treatment ensures pets will receive the best possible care – no questions asked.
• Pet health insurance protects pet owners who know they cannot afford a medical emergency out of pocket.  

Do Your Homework

Pet health insurance is not one-size-fits-all. There are cat-specific and dog-specific plans. There are plans that only cover sick visits and emergencies, and others that offer wellness coverage. There are plans that cover the full cost and other plans that have deductibles or cover a percentage of the total invoice.

• No pet health insurance will pay for pre-existing conditions so the sooner in life you insure your pet, the more it will cover.
• Some pet health insurances have special exclusions that are breed specific so be sure to ask them.
• Make sure your preferred clinic accepts your provider (Baxter and Cleo Vet accept all major plans.
• Research to find one that makes sense for you and your pet’s needs. Contact representatives to ask additional questions.  
• Get a quote. Most insurance providers will provide a calculator that will give you a quote for monthly premiums for your dog or cat based on their age, location, and sometimes breed.

How It Works

Pet health insurance providers typically require an exam to start so they have a baseline for the current health of your pet. If your pet is due for a wellness or a puppy/kitten exam, this is the perfect time to apply for pet health insurance. 

One you have pet health insurance, if your pet has a medical visit, you would submit your claim (online, by mail or by fax.) Typically they only require an invoice and a medical note to support the claim.

Pay the invoice at the time of service and have reimbursements directly deposited into your bank account. Some insurance companies are able to coordinate paying the veterinarian directly if paying out of pocket first is not possible.

We all want the best for our pets and providing them with the care they need can be made much easier by utilizing pet health insurance. Still have questions on how it works? Don’t hesitate to give us a call. We are always here for you and your pets.

No Insurance? No Problem! We also accept CareCredit.

CareCredit helps you pay for out-of-pocket healthcare expenses for you, your family, and even your pets! Once you are approved, you can use it again and again to help manage health, wellness and beauty costs not covered by insurance.

Any ingestion of human medication, or veterinary medication beyond a prescribed dose should also be treated as a medical emergency. If you suspect your pet has ingested anything dangerous, please contact your veterinarian Cats additionally can be very sensitive to chemicals not specifically intended and tested for cats so be very cautious about using over the counter shampoos, wipes and parasite preventatives. Cats are also very sensitive to lilies in the “true lily” and “daylily” families. The entire lily plant is toxic including the stem, leaves, flowers, pollen, and even the water in a vase. If treatment is delayed by 18 hours or more after ingestion, the cat will generally have irreversible kidney failure so keep lilies out of your home!

Lastly, the following foods may be dangerous for your pet to ingest:

• Alcoholic beverages
• Apple seeds 
• Apricot pits 
• Avocados
• Cherry pits
• Candy (particularly chocolate and any candy containing the toxic sweetener Xylitol) 
• Coffee (grounds, beans, and chocolate-covered espresso beans)
• Garlic
• Grapes 
• Gum (can cause blockages and sugar free gums may contain the toxic sweetener Xylitol)
• Hops
• Lilies
• Macadamia nuts 
• Moldy foods 
• Mushroom plants 
• Mustard seeds 
• Onions and onion powder 
• Peach pits 
• Potato leaves and stems (green parts) 
• Raisins 
• Rhubarb leaves 
• Salt 
• Tea (because it contains caffeine) 
• Tomato leaves and stems (green parts) 
• Walnuts 
• Xylitol (artificial sweetener that is toxic to pets)
• Yeast dough

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Common Household Poisons

Seek medical attention immediately if your pet is suffering from any of these symptoms:

• Difficulty breathing
• Bloated, distended, swollen or painful abdomen
• Inability to urinate or defecate
• Ingestion of dangerous foods, poison, plants, or other materials
• Falls, hit-by-cars, large wounds, broken bones
• Inability to deliver puppies or kittens
• Inflammation, swelling or other irritation to the eye
• Loss of balance or consciousness
• Severe hives or itching
• Penetrating wounds (especially in the chest or abdomen)
• Seizures
• Staggering, stumbling, head-tilted, sudden blindness
• Profuse vomiting or diarrhea