What are some things my vet will be looking for at my puppy’s first appointment?

We basically examine everything from head to toe. We're looking for anything that's orthopedic related, are the joints, long bones are they growing nicely, do they have any pain? Make sure the belly feels great. Are the baby teeth coming in nicely. Ears, eyes, heart, most importantly make sure the puppy does not have heart murmur. So we do check everything.

Well, at your puppy's first appointment, we make sure they're healthy weight. They don't have any cleft palates or congenital issues, any underlying heart issues that we can hear with our stethoscope, any umbilical hernias. We check to make sure there's no fleas or ticks. As far as examining a puppy, these are the main things that we'll be looking at. But we will be discussing a lot of things like how to get your puppy started on vaccines, heartworm, what that is, and prevention, flea, and tick prevention, and toys and behavior. Just setting them up for an overall good life and helping you get used to these conditions that your puppy will grow into.

At your first visit, what we're going to be looking for is their temperament, demeanor, and their general energy level to determine whether or not we think there may be something that the puppy's come with. And then we're going to be looking in their eyes and their ears and their nose and their mouth and listening to their chest and feeling their intestines and looking at how they walk. These are all things that are part of the physical exam. We also collect information from you about how things are going at home to determine a good physical assessment of your dog.