What to Expect When You’re Expecting…a Fur Baby!

What to Expect When You’re Expecting…a Fur Baby!

               The excitement of bringing home a new puppy is unrivaled to most, but there can be a lot of uncertainty and questions for new pet parents or if it has been awhile since a new four legged fur baby has been in your home!

               Puppies and kittens make frequent veterinary trips in the first few months of their life to ensure lifelong health. Booster shots, food nutrition, learning about safety precautions and training are all things that new pet owners should understand, and talking to your veterinarian is the best place to start.

               It can be scary for your new fur baby their first few nights at home, and in order to make them feel safe it is important to give them their own space in a quiet, warm area to relax. It is also important to get them in for their first exam within the first week of adoption. We will break down the different core vaccines for both puppies and kittens as well as other simple treatments to guarantee pet health.

Puppies:

• Bordetella
•  Bordetella bronchiseptica is the most common bacterial agent responsible for kennel cough in dogs.  This vaccine is required for boarding but is highly recommended for all dogs.  This vaccine is given one time after 8 weeks of age and some clinics will booster it 3 weeks later.
• Distemper (DHPP)
• This vaccine integrates multiple defenses against distemper, hepatitis, parvovirus and parainfluenza. Vaccine is a series of 3 boosters, each given 3-4 weeks apart.
• Leptospirosis
• Lepto is bacteria that is spread through stagnant water where small rodents, wildlife will live and urinate. This can be lethal to dogs and should be given especially when living in cities or by  forestry preserves. This vaccine is a series of 2 boosters, given 3-4 weeks apart.
• Rabies
• This vaccine is mandated by law! This is a one-time vaccine that is given is on or after your pet is 16 weeks old and is good for 1 year.
• Influenza
• Yes, dogs can get the flu like humans. Although this is not considered a “core” vaccine it is better to be safe than sorry if your pets daycare, boarding facility, groomer (etc) were to have a flu outbreak. Vaccine is a series of 2 boosters, given 3-4 weeks apart.
• Lyme
• The prevalence of ticks in the United States is increasing at an alarming rate. In addition to flea/tick preventatives, this vaccine is an extra defense mechanism. And yes, it should be given even if you live in a city. Ticks can travel from wooded areas to alley ways on the bodies of little critters! Vaccine is a series of 2 boosters, given 3-4 weeks apart.
• Fecal Test
• This is done once a year to check if your puppy has any intestinal parasites. But before you get nervous, they are very common and easily treated! It is best to get this done once a year, or if you notice your pet having loose stool.
• Heartworm Test
• This is a simple blood test done to check if your puppy has been exposed to heartworm. If positive, you and your vet will talk about treatments for your pet. If negative, ask your vet about heartworm preventatives that might fit your pet and lifestyle the best.

 Kittens:

• FVRCP
• This vaccine protects against the 5 most common cat viruses that they can be exposed to. Vaccine is boostered 3 times, each given 3-4 weeks apart.
• FELV
• Protects against feline leukemia. Vaccine is boostered 2 times, 3-4 weeks apart.
• FELV/FIV Test
• This is a simple blood test that will be run on your kittens first vet visit to see if they are negative for feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency virus.  
• Fecal Test
• This is done once a year to check if your kitten has any intestinal parasites. But before you get nervous, they are very common and easily treated.

That was a lot of information, but once these boosters are done your pet should only have to come in for their annual exam and annual vaccines! It is important to educate yourself on what your pet needs to stay healthy and keep track of when the boosters for each vaccine are due. In addition to these core vaccines, there are some preventatives for fleas and ticks as well as heartworm so that your pet is not at risk of contracting heartworm or lyme disease from infected mosquitos or a flea wrecking havoc on your pet’s skin.

It may seem like a lot for a tiny four legged animal, but if you start out your pet’s health journey on the right foot, you will have many happy years with your new pet!

Written By: Dr. Megan Moser, Companion Animal Hospital Wicker Park

Five Tips in Feeding Your Puppy

FIVE TIPS IN FEEDING YOUR PUPPY

Feeding a puppy can be challenging with all the different foods available.  Here are five tips that are important when feeding a puppy:

Tip one:  Feed puppy food.  I realize this sounds obvious, but puppy food is designed and formulated for the specific nutrients needs of a puppy.  I will routinely have a pet mom or dad come into my office that was told to feed an adult food to their puppy to slow the growth.  This is not advisable.  A puppy formulated food is best.

Tip Two:  Check the label.  All dog food manufacturers are required to have a feeding statement on the label.  That statement should say one of two things for puppies:  “For all life stages” or “for growth and maintenance” of puppies.  If this is not on the label, do not feed this food to your puppy.

Tip Three:  Feed for your breed.  Large or giant breeds have different nutritional requirements than a small or medium breed of puppy.  Large and giant breeds have higher caloric requirement as well as a calcium to phosphorus ratio than a small to medium breed.  If you feed a large to giant breed puppy a food formulated for a small to medium breed, this can be seriously lacking in the nutritional requirements for your puppy.

Tip Four:  Feed for body condition.  All puppies go through growth phases.  They will “grow out” before they “grow up.”  What we refer to as “puppy fat.”  It is important as you take your puppy into the checkups, we will monitor the growth of your puppy.  If they are growing to quick or not quick enough, we will make recommendations on the amount or type of food for your puppy.

Tip Five:  How much to feed?  First, do not look at the manufacturer’s recommendation.  Generally, they recommend overfeeding.  A good rule of thumb:  One cup per 10 pounds per day divided into 3 portions.  So, a 10 pound puppy should be fed ¼-1/3 cup three times daily.  A 20 lb puppy should be fed ½-2/3 cup three times daily.  Keep in mind, this is a general rule.  We will look at other factors:  energy, body condition, and lifestyle that could affect the amount to feed. 

Written By: Dr. Dan Markwalder
Companion Animal Hospital Partners, LLC

Lumps and Bumps on Dogs

Lumps and Bumps on Dogs

Few things in life are as scary as finding a lump on your dog.  Immediately your mind will jump to worst case scenario and the “C” word will inevitably creep into your thoughts.  So if you do find a lump, try to stay calm, and call your veterinarian to make an appointment to have it investigated.

Before you get to the office it is helpful to document the location and size of the lump.  It may be helpful to draw a circle on the fur with a sharpie marker or shave off the hair where the lump is.  It is amazing how many lumps cannot be found once the owner is in the office.  Documenting the size with a ruler can be very helpful for your veterinarian when it comes time to decide whether or not the lump should be removed.

Once at the office the doctor will likely ask you how long the lump has been there and then examine your dog to look for other lumps on their body.  A next step is to perform a needle aspirate of the lump that the doctor will look at under the microscope to try to determine what the lump is and how they should proceed with treatment.  If the doctor cannot accurately determine what the lump is they will either make a recommendation to send the slide to a pathologist (a doctor that evaluates cells and tissues microscopically all the time) or they may recommend having the mass removed and sent in for testing.

There are so many different types of lumps that dogs can get – most of them are benign, but some of them are malignant.  Approaching each lump with care and caution will help to keep your dog healthy and cancer free.

article written by:

Dr. Lorene Rockwell

Formerly of Wolf Merrick Animal Hospital

Kenosha, WI

Correct Diet is Important!

Before joining Wolf Merrick Animal Hospital, I was presented with an unexpected case of a female Bichon that had started seizing several minutes prior to arriving at the hospital.  The limited information we were able to obtain was that the female had recently given birth to puppies and was in the process of nursing.  A quick blood test confirmed my suspicion - low calcium, known more commonly in lactating cows as “milk fever.”  After carefully supplementing the Bichon’s calcium while monitoring her heart rhythm, she was looking right as rain.  In follow-up discussion with her owner, I learned that she was still on an adult maintenance diet!  This was not the appropriate diet for a female who was nursing puppies.  I was reminded of this case while reading a recent veterinary journal article about a survey of just over 2,000 dog breeders.  It found nearly 17% of them were using an incorrect commercial diet for their pregnant females and 9% an incorrect commercial diet for their puppies.  That doesn’t include those who were feeding unbalanced home-made diets.  Of the breeders surveyed, only 50% had consulted with a veterinarian about diet selection.

As a pet owner, when it comes to pet foods and pet treats, the most important group to be familiar with is the Association of Animal Feed Control Officials – a.k.a. AAFCO (petfood.aafco.org).  While it is up to each state to enforce rules and regulations for pet food labeling and production, it is the AAFCO’s responsibility to make those rules and set minimum standards.  Did you know that there are limitations on what ingredients can be included in pet foods and treats?  Despite some marketing campaigns’ attempts to claim that “other dog foods” put unwholesome or unfit ingredients in their diet(s), this is simply untrue as long as the food meets “AAFCO Guidelines” and states such on its nutrition label.  Of course, if a pet food or treat does not list “AAFCO tested” or “meets AAFCO guidelines” on its nutrition label, it is probably something you want to avoid. 

As many pet owners have experienced, your pet has different needs at different stages of his or her life.  In general, these stages can be simplified into two groups: maintenance ‘adult’ diets and puppy/pregnancy diets.  Growing puppies are putting extra energy and nutrients towards developing bigger muscles, bigger bones…bigger everything!  As a result, they require a diet that is proportionally higher in energy content, mineral content and other nutrients.  Pregnant and nursing females have nutritional requirements similar to puppies – after all, the nutrients they pass on to those growing puppies need to come from somewhere!  Whether you’re intentionally breeding or had an unexpected pregnancy, it is important to keep a pregnant or lactating female on a “gestation,” “puppy” or “all life stages” diet.  You can then use the same diet for the puppies when it comes time to wean them!  Without an appropriate diet, you may find yourself with growth abnormalities or a female unexpectedly having seizures. 

When in doubt, don’t make the mistake that 50% of the surveyed breeders made – consult a veterinarian.  If you are aiming to use a non-commercial diet, such as a home-made diet, consult a veterinary nutritionist or a PhD in animal nutrition. 

-- A veterinary nutritionist service we often recommend is BalanceIt (balanceit.com), which is based out of the University of California-Davis -- 

article written by:

Dr. Erich Roush

Wolf Merrick Animal Hospital

Kenosha, WI

Companion Animal Hospital Takes on Rare Case

Companion Animal Hospital takes on rare case with successful outcome

As a Veterinarian you will always have those cases that stick with you and remind you even on the toughest day that I love what I do and grateful to have the opportunity to work with caring people and great owners."Queen" White is one of those cases....

The Problem    

Queen was a 8 week old female German Shepherd puppy that presented for vomiting/ regurgitation.  She had been drinking her mother's milk but as soon as she went over to solid food the episodes started and we saw her two days after the vomiting had started.  Queen had a sweet disposition was incredibly adorable.  Dr. Johnson recommended radiographs to look at her gastrointestinal tract which looked somewhat abnormal, so we pursued doing a barium study which highlights different areas of the gastrointestinal tract and is able to pick up strictures and other abnormalities that a normal radiograph could not.  As we looked at the radiographs during barium study, my heart sunk because I could see the problem immediately.

The Diagnosis     

Queen had a persistent right aortic arch which left untreated would mean death.  This congenital abnormality occurs when the right aortic arch which normally regresses during development does not and wraps/ compresses the esophagus.  This causes the esophagus to stricture down at the site of the irregularity and severely distend in front of it collecting food and then causing regurgitation.   We typically will see this problem in very young puppies because milk or watery substances can pass much easier then solid food. 

There is a surgery to correct the problem but usually handled by a Boarded Surgeon because of the delicacy of working in the thoracic cavity.  This is a costly surgery and some puppies do not recover even with the surgery.  As I presented all the options to the client, Mr. and Mrs. White really wanted to give Queen a chance and were willing to pay for the surgery even with an unknown outcome.

The Plan

I called Dr. Hammer at Companion Animal Hospital of Norridge, a Boarded, skillful, experienced surgeon to see if they would see the White's and Queen for a surgical consultation.   Dr. Hammer not only saw them he performed the surgery a few days later.  The surgery involves going in to the thoracic cavity and removing the persistent right aortic arch segment by ligating both sides and removing the part that is compressing the esophagus.  He also went in a ballooned out the strictured area to try and open it up more.  Queen recovered from the anesthesia and surgery well.

   Little Queen is a fighter and with patience and small meals frequently throughout the day, she will continue to thrive and get in to trouble as every puppy should!

Queen's case stayed with me is that this type of congenital abnormality is pretty rare.  I had heard about it during Veterinary School and read about it, but honestly I never thought I would get to see, diagnose, and treat a case.  We call these the ZEBRA cases.......rare cool cases.

Queen's story continues and her recovery again reminds me of my love of this field.

Written By:

Megan Moser DVM

Companion Animal Hospital of Skokie