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.

We generally do a series of three injections. We start them on some oral medications before that first injection, and then we wait about a month between the second and third injections. We give those second and third injections about 24 hours apart. Then from there, it's about keeping your dog on heartworm prevention, finishing out their oral medications, and doing some things like activity restriction as your dog finishes out that treatment.