Caring for Your New Puppy

Bringing home a new puppy is exciting, and there are a lot of things to consider. Here are our recommendations to give them a healthy start.

Establish Vet Care

Puppies, just like human children, tend to get into trouble. They will jump off of furniture, eat everything outside, and get into the garbage. We recommend establishing your puppy with a veterinarian as soon as you bring them home.

What to expect at your first vet appointment:

Everything we do for adult dogs, as well as:

  • We’ll check the heart for arrhythmia or murmurs
  • Feel for umbilical hernia
  • Look for hip dyspepsia and luxating patellas
  • Make sure deciduous teeth have erupted
  • Make sure the testicles are not cryptorchid
  • Go over spray/neuter recommendations
  • Talk about training
  • Give dietary recommendations
  • Discuss heartworm and flea/tick prevention
  • Talk about Microchips

Puppies, just like human children, will need a series of pediatric vaccines until their immune system matures. The first round of vaccines starts at 6 to 8 weeks of age, with boosters needed every 3 to 4 weeks. The puppy vaccination series is usually completed with a rabies vaccine at 4 months of age. The next series of vaccines will be 12 months later. Check out our puppy vaccine schedule and pricing page.

Puppies explore the world with their mouths, which means they are constantly licking and eating things they shouldn’t. Because of this, many puppies have intestinal parasites by the time they join your family. That’s why we deworm every puppy as part of their preventive care. We also check their stool for parasites that may require a more specialized medication.

Heartworm is a parasite that your puppy can get from mosquito bites. All puppies should be started on heartworm prevention as part of routine puppy care. These medications prevent heartworm disease as well as the common intestinal parasites like roundworms and hookworms. We recommend testing your dog for heartworm disease every year with your annual visit, a recommendation that is supported by the American Heartworm Society.

In addition to being unpleasant, fleas and ticks can transmit parasites that may lead to serious diseases. Flea allergies and related skin infections are also common complications. Fortunately, fleas and ticks can be easily prevented with appropriate monthly preventatives. We’ll review these options during your puppy’s initial visits to help find the right medication for them.

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Feeding Your Puppy

Puppy Food

Puppies should be on specially formulated puppy food until 9-12 months of age. Large/giant breed dogs (think breeds over 70 lbs full-grown) should be fed a “large breed puppy” formula to ensure that they have appropriate calcium and phosphorus levels to prevent developing certain bone abnormalities as they grow.

Recommended Brands

Although there are many “good” dog foods out there, we recommend 3 brands: Purina Pro Plan, Hills Science Diet, and Royal Canin. In our experience, these diets do the best job of meeting the nutritional needs of the vast majority of dogs. They also rarely cause issues for individual dogs and have had extensive testing to ensure their safety and quality.

What about grain-free & raw diets?

We DO NOT recommend feeding your dog a grain-free or raw diet. Despite their popularity for more then a decade, grain-free diets are no longer medically recommended. Recently, a link between grain-free diets and specific types of heart disease (hypertrophic cardiomyopathy) was discovered. This risk is related to long-term feeding of these diets, not a brief exposure to them; so if your dog is already on a grain-free diet, then start a slow transition to an appropriate food when practical to do so. This risk is most concerning for larger breeds who may already have a predisposition to this condition.

We also do not recommend that you feed raw diets to your dog. Although food safety in the United States is very good, the risk of food-borne illness with raw food diets is significantly higher than kibble or cooked diets. And despite some misconceptions, dogs ARE susceptible to illness from E. Coli, Salmonella, and other pathogens, which thrive in uncooked food. Finally, it is our experience that although some dogs can do well on a raw food diet, a high percentage have recurrent or chronic digestive issues.

Spaying & Neutering

We recommend spaying or neuter your puppy. Spaying your female dog before her first heat cycle can help prevent mammary cancer later in life, and will eliminate the chance of a life-threatening uterine infection (pyometra) when she is older.

Neutering male dogs can help curb some unwanted behaviors (such as humping, urine marking, and dog aggression), and help prevent health issues such as testicular cancer and prostate disease later in life.

There have been recent studies on the appropriate age to spay/neuter. Most breeds should be spayed/neutered at 6-7 months old. However, larger breed dogs should sometimes wait until they are fully grown; usually between 10-12 months. We will consult with you about what would be best for your pet during your new puppy appointment.

My Best Friend Vet or Shelter?

At My Best Friend Veterinary Center, we perform spay and neuter procedures every day, but what sets us apart is the level of individualized care each pet receives.

While shelters provide an important and valuable service to the community, they often operate at high volume, where cost efficiency is the primary focus. Our hospital offers a higher level of care, including advanced anesthetic monitoring, modern surgical equipment, individualized anesthetic protocols, thorough post-operative care, and comprehensive pain management throughout the procedure and recovery.

Because we perform only a limited number of surgeries each day, our team is able to spend more time with each patient. From admission to discharge, your puppy is closely monitored and cared for, with comfort, safety, and recovery as our top priorities.

Heartworm Prevention

Heartworms are spread to dogs by mosquitos. Baby heartworms (larvae) live inside mosquitos, and infect your pet during the mosquito bite.

Once inside your pet, heartworms spend a few months maturing in the tissue, and eventually enter the bloodstream and heart as adults (hence the name HEART worms). Adult heartworms grow to the size of spaghetti noodles and cause heart and lung failure in dogs. Untreated heartworm disease is usually fatal.

In our region, where temperatures fluctuate drastically in the winter, mosquitoes may come out of dormancy even in winter months. This is one reason why we strongly recommend keeping your pets on heartworm prevention year-round.

Most heartworm prevention also protects against intestinal parasites like hookworms and roundworms. Not only do these parasites cause illness in your pet, but they may be spread to humans. This is the second reason why we recommend year-round prevention. Intestinal parasites can be transmitted to your pet by other dogs in places like boarding facilities or dog parks, or even by feces from wildlife in your yard. ALL dogs are at risk of contracting intestinal parasites.

We carry and recommend these heartworm prevention options:

  • HeartGard is a monthly chew that provides effective heartworm and intestinal parasite prevention at an affordable price point. (You will need a separate flea/tick preventative, such as NexGard, to supplement this medication.)
  • Nexgard Plus is a 3-in-1 monthly chew that provides effective heartworm, intestinal parasite, AND flea/tick prevention in one medication.
  • ProHeart is a 12 month injectable heartworm preventative that it is a convenient option for owners who may forget monthly oral doses or for dogs who don’t like the taste of chews.
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Heartworm Testing

St. Louis is considered to be a high prevalence area for heartworms. We see several cases every year in our patients right here from Olivette, Creve Coeur, and Ladue. This is why we strongly recommend annual heartworm testing for all dogs over 1 year of age. Because heartworm prevention is not effective against all stages of the heartworm life cycle, just placing a dog on prevention is not a substitute for testing. The test requires only a small blood sample that will be drawn during your annual visit. This test will detect adult heartworms, which is the stage of the life cycle where the most damage is done.

Crate Training

Dogs are naturally “den” animals, seeking out warmth and safety of an enclosed space for sleeping and resting. Dogs instinctively don’t potty in their dens, holding it until they go outside. Crate training teaches your puppy that their crate is their “den”, and provides them with a safe place to rest and introduces correct housetraining behaviors.

Plastic or wire crates can be used, as long as the puppy is able to stand up and turn around in the space freely. Placing bedding (towels or dog bed) and toys inside to make it cozy.

Put treats and toys inside and let your puppy discover them. Never force your puppy in a crate, it should be a positive experience. Praise your dog every time they enter their kennel.

Puppies start learning to leave their den to use the bathroom between 3-12 weeks of age, so be patient with your pup. Also remember, puppies can only hold their bladder for a few hours at a time, so they need potty breaks frequently! Set your expectations accordingly and train gradually. Make sure to get your pup checked out by a veterinarian before starting the training process because crate training dogs with urinary or tummy issues will not be successful. Dogs with separation anxiety can be difficult to crate train as well. Speak with your veterinarian about options.

How to Crate Train

Begin feeding meals inside the kennel and gradually start closing the door while they are eating. Next, leave the door closed for longer periods of time and stay in the room where your pup can see you. Slowly increase the time and distance. If they tolerate the separation well, you may leave the house for short periods of time.

Never let your puppy out when they are whining and scratching, wait until they are calm. If your puppy whines consistently, reduce the amount of time they are spending in the crate and increase more gradually.