Caring For Your New Dog Or Puppy
Congratulations on the addition of your new dog or puppy! Here are some basics:
Supplies
- Premium-quality dog food and treats for the right breed and size
- Food and water bowls: ceramic and metal bowls clean up better
- Safe toys: make sure there’s no lead paint or breakable parts
- Dog brush and comb
- Dog shampoo
- Pooper scooper and biodegradable poop bags
- Collar with license and ID tag
- Leash
- Dog nail clippers
- Carrier or crate
- Dog bed
- Dog toothbrush and dog toothpaste
- Outdoor dog house
- Make sure you have shaded areas outdoors
Health
- When you get your dog, take it to a veterinarian for a preventive care exam
- Your dog should see a veterinarian at least once a year and when you think it might be sick
- Ask your veterinarian for a dog food recommendation of what you should be feeding given your dog’s lifestyle and life stage
- Ask your veterinarian for regular heartworm preventive medication
- Ask your veterinarian to microchip your dog so that your dog has a better chance of making it back home if it gets lost
- If your dog seems to be acting strangely, call your veterinarian right away
- Never give your dog medicine unless it’s recommended by a veterinarian. Keep all poisons, like rat poison, away from your pet. If you think your pet has been poisoned, call your veterinarian.
- To prevent health problems, females should be spayed and males should be neutered at 6 months of age, as dogs that are spayed/neutered don’t run away or fight as much
What To Feed Your Puppy Or Dog
- Adult dogs should eat premium-quality dry food. If you want, you can mix the dry food with water, low-salt broth, or canned food
- Dogs can eat fruits and vegetables but never more than 10% of their daily diet. See below for a list of foods that shouldn’t be given to dogs.
- Puppies need high-quality puppy food
- Avoid “people food” for all dogs and puppies
- Dogs and puppies need clean, fresh water available at all times
When To Feed
- Puppies 8 to 12 weeks old: 3 meals a day
- Puppies 3 to 6 months old: 2 meals a day
- Puppies 6 months to 1 year: 2 meals a day
- Dogs, 1 year or older: 2 meals a day
- Large dogs: may need 3 meals a day
Dangers! Never Give Your Dog…
- Anything harder than your pet”s teeth. This includes cow bones, nylon bones, and real bones. These can break a dog’s teeth.
- House plants
- T-shirts or knotted socks. If accidentally chewed apart and ingested, they can become “foreign bodies,” causing your pet to become very ill.
- Alcohol
- Chocolate
- Coffee
- Grapes and raisins
- Moldy or spoiled food
- Onions, garlic, or chives
- Poultry bones
- Salty foods or salt
- Tomato leaves or stems
- Unripe fruit
- Yeast dough
- Nuts
Exercise
- Different dogs need different amounts of exercise. Some dogs need a lot. Some dogs get hurt if they exercise too much. Ask one of our Doctors what’s best for your pet.
- When walking your pet, be careful of ice or snow, deicer salt, or hot pavement
- A trained dog is a happy dog! Contact your local humane society or veterinarian to find a training class, which is a good way to exercise and socialize your dog while also providing mental stimulation!
Spaying / Neutering
Did you know? Spaying and neutering prevent pet overpopulation while also keeping your dog healthy. The American Animal Hospital Association has a position statement that supports neutering cats and dogs as young as 8 weeks of age in order to help reduce the overpopulation problem affecting companion animals.
AAHA encourages pet owners to ask their veterinarians to spay or neuter their pets before they have an unwanted litter. McLean Animal Hospital veterinarians will make recommendations based on an assessment of each patient.
Summer Heat
Keeping Your Dog Safe From Summer Heat
Summertime is a great time to enjoy the outdoors with pets and as long as pet owners take precautions to prevent overheating. Issues that arise from overheating in summer heat can include dehydration, heatstroke, and sunburn.
DEHYDRATION
Symptoms of dehydration include the gums of the mouth feeling tacky to touch, and/or the skin may become slow to return to its natural position when pulled up. According to Carpenter, dehydration can lead to lethargy as it progresses, and the pet’s eyes may appear to be sunken. In mild to moderate cases, giving your pet small amounts of water to drink over time will help, but in severe cases, they’ll need IV fluids administered at your veterinary hospital. To prevent this, it’s important to have clean, fresh water available for your pet at all times, in a container that can’t be tipped over accidentally.
HEAT STROKE
Heatstroke is very serious. Symptoms include extreme panting, salivating, staggering, vomiting, and diarrhea. As it becomes fatal, your pet will lose consciousness, and their temperature will range from 104- 110°F.
If your pet is experiencing heatstroke, get them to a cooler area and call us immediately. To prevent this situation, access to shade, ventilation, and water is key, as well as avoiding exercise during the peak heat of the day (this is particularly important for short-nosed dogs such as pugs, which cannot cool off by panting as efficiently).
SUNBURN
Sunburn will look similar on a pet as it would on a human and typically occurs in non-pigmented areas that have less or no hair—often the ears and nose in many breeds or the underside of the belly. Since dogs and cats might lick off their sunblock, access to shade is critical. Try to keep them out of the sun from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Aloe can soothe pets’ burned skin, but they’ll need to see their veterinarian if it is severe.
In general, it’s important to avoid walks or hikes during peak heat and to keep up on normal wellness visits as recommended by your veterinarian. A summer check-up can help detect early problems such as kidney disease, which might be worsened by the stress of heat during the summer.
On walks, be careful to avoid hot asphalt, which can burn pets’ feet if they aren’t toughened from exercise, or if it is extremely hot — you can test it with your own hands or feet to be sure.
HOT CARS AND MORE
It is important that pet owners avoid leaving their pets inside their cars, as the heat can easily be 20-40 degrees warmer in a very short period of time. He also urges pet owners to be careful with their swimming pools.
“Teach your dog how to get out safely,” he says. “It is better to do this as a precaution than to deal with the incredible sadness of losing a pet to drowning.”
By taking precautions to keep your pet safe from summer heat, you’ll have little to worry about. Then you can focus on enjoying the summer together!