Vaccinations and Preventative Medicine for Your New Pet
You've decided to bring a bundle of fur and energy into your family. Congratulations! Whatever your family looked like before, it is sure to be enriched by the addition of a pet. Now you have your furry friend, you need to find a convenient vet, as the first year of a pet's life involves many trips to ensure vaccinations are administered. Our veterinarian at Duarte Azusa Animal Hospital will set up a schedule and help you in any way to make this process pain free for you and your pet.
How Often Should My Pet Visit the Vet?
Part of our veterinary care is to keep your pet healthy, not to just fix health issues once they arise. For this reason, we recommend vaccination appointments as per the below schedule for the first year. In California, pet care law involves dogs having rabies shots and being licensed by the age of 5 months.
Puppy's Age | Recommended Vaccines |
6 to 8 weeks | Distemper, parvovirus, and optional bordetella |
10 to 12 weeks | DHPP (a vaccine for distemper, hepatitis, parainfluenza, and parvovirus), and optional Lyme disease/bordetella. |
16 to 18 weeks | DHPP, rabies, and optional Lyme disease/Bordetella. |
12 to 16 months | DHPP (then repeated every 1-2 years), rabies (then repeated every 1-3 years), and optional Lyme disease/bordetella. |
Following the first year, annual wellness check-ups are recommended.
What Preventative Care Do We Offer at Duarte Azusa Animal Hospital?
In addition to vaccinations, pets also require regular preventative care procedures. We recommend your pets visit us for annual wellness exams to make sure they are up to date with vaccines and their regular health is good. This is a great opportunity to ask any questions you may have about your pets. Other procedures recommend are:
- Microchipping - is essential for responsible pet owners, ensuring you are reunited with your pet in the event that you are separated. The procedure is quick and pain-free as the chip is the size of a grain of rice and is injected between their shoulder blades.
- Heartworm, flea, and tick treatment - monthly medication can be prescribed according to your pet's requirements and size.
- Spay and Neuter - Depending on your pet, these procedures are generally performed around your animal's first birthday. It is a part of being a responsible pet owner to prevent the production of unwanted animals through an unexpected pregnancy.
Ask the veterinarian at Duarte Azusa Animal Hospital to set up a wellness program for your new pet. Together we can make the best plan for a happy and healthy future of pet ownership.