That varies based on the veterinarian that you're working with. It also varies based on how big your puppy is and what the breed is because, for some of them, we want to wait until later on to spay or neuter them for their overall joint health.

Cal here is a Dane, and so we usually wait until a little bit later down the road to get him neutered just because, as you can see, he's only a little over a year old. He's a big boy, so he's going to grow much more than what your Chihuahua would. And so, we want to make sure that we are offsetting that and making sure they have plenty of hormones in there to help with that growth.

Usually, the earliest we will spay or neuter is six months, but that's very variable. And that's why it's great to have a one-on-one relationship with your veterinarian to talk about your puppy. And that way, you can time it and see what's healthiest for your puppy.

Your puppy will need to come in for their booster series. A booster series is several different vaccines; generally, they're known as parvo vaccines or distemper parvo vaccines. Those are going to be something that we give about every three weeks. And so, during that period, usually that's from about 6, 9, 12, and 15 weeks old, they're going to be getting vaccines each of those times. And then after that, it's yearly unless they're coming in for spay/neuter or getting a weight check or anything along those lines.

As far as the vaccines go, ensure that your puppy is up to date and considered protected. And then, we also always want to know about everything that we can do to try and prevent fleas and heartworms and get them started on prevention.

So, those are a couple of things you want to see and just the basics as far as how things are going at home. That's going to be things like crate training, house training, what kind of food to have your puppy on, any kind of collars and toys that we can recommend. We have a lot of information because, as you can see, we have some big puppies of our own, and so we have experience in that field, and we can hopefully help give you some answers that'll make you feel more comfortable.

Right now, we're working curbside, but generally, we will be allowing you to come in with your puppy. You’ll have a face-to-face meeting with the veterinarian, being me, if you happen to come here. So we bring you in, and we want to get to know the puppy. Although you've not had the puppy very long, you know a little more about their habits and things. And so, we want to get to know the puppy and how the puppy's doing at home. We're going to ask you some history.

Also, it's always a good idea to make sure that you're bringing anything that the breeder or the shelter or rescue may have given you, as far as any paperwork to go over that and make sure that your puppy is up to date. We don't need to update vaccines or dewormers or anything along those lines. Cal here is my helper today, so you may see his head or part of his body pop in occasionally. We will do a nice, detailed physical exam on your puppy, ensuring that we are checking him from nose to tail and making sure they’re healthy and up to date on everything they need.

Not to the naked eye. I always tell my clients I wish I had these special x-ray goggles where I could just look into their pet to see if they were there, but they haven't made those yet. So no, they're not visible. They're living in your pet's circulatory system in their bloodstream.

Is it painful in the sense like you stubbed your toe? No, but is it painful in the sense that if left untreated, it could cause the death of your dog.

It takes about six months from what I call a hot active mosquito that's carrying the heartworms. Six months after they bite your dog and inject those larval microfilariae heartworms into your dogs, it takes that six months for them to develop into that adult worm. So generally, it's anywhere from six to 12 months after they've been bitten; you may start noticing signs in your pet. And what we'll see in most cases are things like coughing and exercise intolerance. Maybe they're not as active as they used to be, or you're noticing some lethargy, changes in their appetite, or other things like that.

Many times the answer to that is, yes, it will cure your dog. It's very effective, but not everything's a guarantee. We do our absolute best to ensure they're cured, but now and again, we will have that odd case where we weren't as successful as we hoped.

They definitely can die from heartworm disease. That's generally the end stage of that heartworm disease, and that's why we're so adamant about keeping your pets on heartworm prevention.