We’re delighted to welcome you and your puppy ahead of their first vaccination appointment and health check. We thought it would be useful to give you an idea as to what to expect at your appointment so you can prepare any questions you would like to raise with your vet in advance. If you have any questions before then though, you are welcome to phone us in practice and we’d be delighted to help.

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Bringing your puppy to your appointment

Until puppies are fully protected by vaccination, it is important to keep them as safe as possible and to reduce their risk of exposure to some unpleasant viruses. Please carry your puppy to the practice and keep them either on your lap or in a carrier with some comforting bedding. To keep all other pets in the practice safe, please always use a short lead and harness or collar.

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What will happen at the appointment?

1. Full health assessment

After welcoming you both, your vet will first ask you some questions and make full clinical examination of your puppy.  They will ask you details about your puppy’s eating and toilet habits as well as how active they are, in order to better understand how your puppy is developing and to help identify any areas of concern.

2. Vaccinating your puppy

If your puppy has not yet had its first vaccine…

• • Your vet will then administer your puppy’s first vaccination. This will protect against four important diseases: Canine Distemper Virus, Canine Parvovirus, Canine Infectious Hepatitis and Leptospirosis.).
  • Your puppy will be given two, sometimes three vaccine doses, the second of which will be two to four weeks after the first. Puppies will need to be at least 10 weeks old at the time of the second vaccine. Please ensure you book a date for this second dose before you leave the practice.
  • After the second vaccination at, or after 10 weeks of age, your puppy will need to wait another week before going for walks outside of your house and garden. If your vet advises the need for a third vaccination (which is sometime needed to complete the course of protection against Leptospirosis, you should not allow your puppy near waterways, muddy areas or areas where rodents may be for a further two weeks.

If your puppy has already had its first vaccine elsewhere…

• • We use Nobivac® vaccinations. Please let us know before your appointment, by emailing us a copy of the vaccination certificate if your puppy has had its first vaccination elsewhere.  The brand of vaccination and the timing of that vaccination will influence when we need to see you, and what vaccinations your puppy will need.

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Other vaccines and boosters

• • Your vet may also recommend an additional parvovirus vaccination at 16 weeks of age to boost immunity if we have concerns about increased risks to your puppy.  There will be an additional charge for this vaccination.  
  • Additionally, we recommend vaccination against Kennel Cough, especially if your puppy will be either mixing with other dogs, going to day care, or boarding kennels. Your vet will advise you at what age we recommend kennel cough vaccination for your puppy.

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Yearly boosters

• • A yearly booster jab will be needed to ensure protection against disease is maintained. We’ll remind you via email or text when your puppy’s annual booster jab and annual health check is due.

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Will it hurt?

• • In the majority of cases puppies will not even notice the injection. Sometimes it may cause a sting or discomfort at the time of injection that will make your puppy wriggle or cry out.  You may notice a small swelling at the site of injection and this can occasionally be hard or painful to touch for 3 days. 

3. Healthcare Advice

At your appointment your vet or nurse will talk with you about a number of common healthcare- related considerations to help you make the best choices for your puppy. These will include:

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Parasite Control

• If your puppy has already had flea or worming treatment given by the breeder or yourself, please bring details of what product was used and when it was given, to your appointment.
• Puppies are very susceptible to the effects of worm and flea infections and adult dogs also require regular worm and flea control to prevent serious illness, poor health and to keep your family safe.
• At the appointment your vet will assess your puppy’s health, weight and lifestyle and will recommend a regular program of both treatment and prevention.
• The most effective parasite treatments are often only available by veterinary prescription. We don’t recommend over-the-counter products or online products bought without a veterinary assessment and weight check. 
• There is a particular problem with lungworm in Greater London and this can only be prevented by regular treatments prescribed by a veterinary surgeon.

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Neutering

• We advise neutering of most puppies from 5 – 6 months of age. For larger breed dogs we may advise delaying neutering until 12 – 24 months of age depending on the breed. Your vet will discuss this in more detail with you.
• Neutering your female dog (spaying): Spaying a bitch is a surgical procedure performed under general anaesthetic where the ovaries (and, usually, the uterus or womb) are surgically removed. It’s a fairly big operation though young dogs tend to recover remarkably quickly from the procedure.  
• Neutering your male dog (castration): Castrating a dog is a very simple surgery because his reproductive organs are conveniently located outside his body. In the procedure, his testicles are removed (so it is not the same as a vasectomy, where the testicles remain in situ but the tubes carrying sperm from them are cut) preventing him from making either sperm or testosterone.

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Microchipping

• It is a legal requirement for all puppies over 8 weeks old to be microchipped. This can be done at your vaccination appointment but may have already been done if you’ve bought your puppy from a breeder. If so, please make sure you contact the microchip company to change the registered contact details to your own.

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ProActive Pets

• Goddard Vet Group offers its own preventative healthcare plan which means you can save money on the cost of routine vaccinations and flea and worm treatments as well as spreading payments for them throughout the year by direct debit.
• As well as saving at least 21% on the costs of vaccines and parasite control, you’ll also benefit from discounts on pet food, neutering, dental treatments and over-the-counter purchases at your practice. It also includes the cost of microchipping.
• Ask us when you come into your appointment should you wish to join or to find out how much more you could save.  You can sign up in practice on the day of your dog’s vaccination to take advantage of an immediate 30% discount.  You may of course decide to join at any time you wish, though discounts will only apply from the date that you start of your membership.

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Insurance

• We recommend that you consider pet insurance to cover unexpected sickness or injury which can be costly. (This is different to preventative healthcare which is not insurance).
• If you’ve not already organised pet insurance, ask us at your appointment about setting up an initial 4 weeks of free cover once the vet has assessed your puppy to be fit and healthy and free from pre-existing conditions.
• Should you wish, we can pass your details to a pet insurance provider to provide your dog with an immediate temporary four-week insurance policy.
• The company can provide information about its policies which you are under no obligation to take up. Activating this free insurance can help cover the cost of unexpected veterinary treatment during this period and give you peace of mind whilst you decide which, if any, policy or insurance company is best for you.

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Nutrition

• We advise a good quality complete puppy food such as the Royal Canin range which is stocked in our practice. If your breeder has given you food, then it is best to continue with this initially, unless any concerns are raised by your vet. Many home-cooked diets that are followed by breeders may not give adequate nutrition to a growing animal and we’ll advise on appropriate diets for the age and breed of your puppy.
• If you would like to change to a different food then you should do so gradually over the course of about seven days, changing the proportions of new to old food each day. Sudden changes to diet can cause diarrhoea in puppies. Be careful with the treats that you are giving, some may not be suitable for puppies and again, can cause diarrhoea.
• Do not give your puppy human food and ensure they always have access to clean and fresh drinking water.

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Dental Health

• Whilst your puppy is young it is the best time to get him/ her used to being handled. It is a good time to start ear cleaning and teeth cleaning so your puppy gets used to these preventative care procedures and they may help reduce the occurrence of ear infections and dental problems in the future.
• Dental problems commonly affect dogs later in life, so starting teeth cleaning early on can certainly be beneficial. 

Lungworm (Angiostrongylus vasorum) is a parasitic worm that can cause serious health problems and even be fatal to dogs. It was first seen in 1975 and used to be confined to certain areas of the UK. It has now been re-labelled an emerging disease. The risks of infection are higher in the south, but it has now spread throughout much of the UK. On a positive note, if caught in time, it is treatable, and can also be prevented. 

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What is lungworm and why is it so dangerous for my dog?

Lungworm is a type of parasitic worm affecting dogs, and also foxes, who are often implicated in spreading the disease from area to area. With the number of urban foxes in London, it means there is a relatively high risk of infection. 

Once infected, adult lungworm live in the host dog’s heart and the major blood vessels supplying the lungs, where they often cause a host of potentially serious problems. The developing larvae cause inflammation of the lung tissue leading to coughing as well as less specific signs such as lethargy, vomiting and diarrhoea. Presence of lungworm can lead to clotting issues signified by nosebleeds, bleeding within the whites of the eyes or skin, or blood in the urine or faeces. If not treated it can be fatal. This type of lungworm thankfully poses no risk to humans.

How do dogs get lungworm?

Only snails and slugs carry the infectious late-stage larvae. When a dog (or fox) eats a snail or slug (either on purpose or accidentally), the larvae migrate from the gut wall through the liver tissue and into the bloodstream on its way to the heart (the right ventricle and pulmonary arteries, to be precise) where they mature into adults. There they breed, and their eggs hatch into larvae which enter the airways. From the lungs, the larvae are coughed up, swallowed, and passed within faeces, finally infecting passing slugs and snails. 

Slime trails can also contain larvae, making anything the snail or slug has crawled over a risk. This includes bowls, toys and grass, which a dog may eat. Young dogs may be more at risk, purely because they may be more curious. 

Although a dog cannot directly catch lungworm from another dog or fox, an infected fox (or dog) in the area can infect local snails and slugs, thus increasing the risk for everyone in the locality. 

How common is it?

Once rare in the UK, it has spread into new areas and now cases are being reported across the country, including the Midlands, north of England and Scotland, as well as expanding in the already established hot spots in the south of England and Wales. You can check your local area using Elanco’s Lungworm Map.

Researchers have recently found that while the number of infected foxes has grown rapidly in Britain, the growth was most significant in Greater London, with approximately three in every four foxes found to be carrying lungworm. Land type, dog density and climatic factors may be involved, but the simple presence of foxes locally increased the risk of lungworm infection in dogs five-fold. 

It is not just Greater London where lungworm prevalence in foxes is on the rise. Bristol University published a study in 2015 which found 18.3% of foxes across the UK were found to be carrying lungworm. This was more than double what was found in a similar study published 7 years before.

These foxes infect local slugs and snails, putting our pet dogs more at risk. Not all slugs or snails contain lungworm larvae, but according to an almost unbelievable Countryfile statistic, an average British garden is home to more than 20,000 slugs and snails. The risk of a dog encountering a lungworm host is therefore high.

It’s also thought that more people now travel around the UK with their pets, spreading this parasite further and further to local fox populations and thus, if preventative measures are not taken, also to the local dog population. It is now accepted that it is endemic across much of the UK. Wider recognition, vigilance and testing throughout the veterinary profession may also explain some of the increase in reported cases. Ticks, fleas and canine lungworm are all likely to benefit from milder winters and warmer summers, thus climate change may be another factor in the emergence of this disease. 

One in five practices in the UK have reported at least one case of lungworm. Importantly, as lungworm can be difficult to diagnose, confirmed cases may not represent all cases actually seen. Our vets may recommend using blood, faecal or lung fluid samples to look for evidence, alongside tests to check for other causes of signs such as a cough or bleeding. We can get false negatives with these tests so sometimes we recommend treating for lungworm to cover all bases.

How is it treated?

Thankfully, lungworm often does not require invasive or costly treatment if caught early. It may be as simple as changing from one anti-parasite product to another (moxidectin-based spot-ons will kill the parasite, and both moxidectin and milbemycin spot-ons and tablets will prevent it from developing). However, if the symptoms are advanced or the level of infection is severe there is a greater likelihood of permanent damage.

How do I reduce the risks?

• It’s advisable to add an anti-lungworm preventative into your anti-parasite routine wherever you live, but especially here in London. Not all wormers prevent this type of worm, and treatments are a prescription-only medication, needing to be given monthly to successfully prevent infection. Please speak to a member of our team for more information on protecting your pet. 
• Remove snails and slugs in your garden when possible, and try to prevent your dog from swallowing them. Don’t leave toys out overnight as your dog may inadvertently eat a hiding slug or their slime. Wash outside water bowls regularly and always pick up your dog’s poop to limit the spread of disease. 
• It’s not advisable to use slug bait as certain types of slug bait are very toxic to dogs if eaten.
• There are many conditions in dogs that cannot be prevented, so despite its potentially serious nature, the silver lining with lungworm is that it’s risk can be removed relatively easily.

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If you require further advice of information, please contact your local Goddard vet today.