There can be variations in the puppy and dog vaccine schedules. As I said, the puppies will be getting that every three weeks, and then they are good for a year after that last booster. And then dogs sometimes will be able to go every three years, depending on the types of vaccines they need. We’ve come to find that some of them last a little bit longer, but as far as your puppies go, you need to make sure you're doing that every three weeks.

We usually will start puppy vaccines around six to eight weeks old. And then they're going to be getting vaccines about every three weeks until they've had four total. And then, as far as dogs go, their first set of vaccines is usually going to be about a year after they've gotten their last set of their puppy boosters. So about a year and four months old or so is whenever we anticipate that. And then from there, it's usually every one to three years based on what vaccines your dog is getting.

We can usually see some GI issues—vomiting, diarrhea, inappetence, things like that—that tell you that your dog has an upset stomach. If left untreated, especially in smaller dogs with hookworms, we can see what's called hookworm anemia. And that is something that can end up being fatal, so you always want to make sure that if your dog does have diarrhea or you see worms, you're getting to your vet pretty quickly.

Worms inside your dog can last for quite some time, especially without showing any symptoms. They can live for several weeks to months because they continue to reproduce.

So they're a little more common than what you would think. And that's why we always recommend that our puppies be dewormed and have fecal exam testing done. And then whenever dogs come in for their annual exams, we also recommend they have fecal testing done, especially if they're not on heartworm prevention and can get them from the ground. If you’re in your yard and you potentially stepped in some dog poop from somewhere else and tracked that into your yard, you could have brought some warm eggs in there with you.

So, yes and no. Some worms are going to be pretty easily visible. They will look like long pieces, and we always use terms in food, so they'll look like spaghetti. And so that's going to be pretty easily visible. Others will sometimes be in their stool or hang around their back end and their fur, and will look like tiny grains of rice. Those are going to be kind of the more common ones that you'll see in their stool if you'll see anything.