Today was the big day! We went to the vet.
Everything went great!
Yellow does seem to have a broken tail! It sounds awful, but it is really a tiny, tiny bend towards the tip, and completely invisible. Unless you sit there and feel for it, you would never know it is there. They say this happens at birth the most often, but, we did feel some swelling a few days ago, which is gone now. We’ve heard no yelps and have zero clues as to what happened. Anyways, it is invisible and poses no threat to puppy.
We’re still waiting for male testicles to drop, and I‘ve mentioned this on the blog before, historically around 65% of our pups do not drop them until 10 – 12 weeks of age. In the event a puppy’s testes do not come through, it is a very minor procedure at neutering time- I had called around once when we had our first litter and was paranoid and was quoted +$20 or something. Anyways, I do not predict any problems, and historically, 100% of the pups leaving here have eventually had perfect testes with no human intervention (in case you were interested).
Otherwise, all was very good!
Other points:
- They are all microchipped. Registration fees are all paid for. The chip company will email people a letter asking you to subscribe to a service of some sort for an annual fee- this is not necessary– once their information is tied to their chip #, it is in the database permanently.
- Ears were clean.
- They have had their first shots.
- Rabies vaccines can be given starting at 12 – 16 weeks of age (many vets offer to start at 12, I personally wait a bit longer assuming they are not out fighting raccoons).
- We do NOT do kennel cough. It is a cheap $10 shot but several people have asked us to avoid it. It is usually required to board a dog. Various articles online say it is good, others say it does more harm than good. We simply do not give it due to popular request. If you want it, go for it. 🙂 Our adults do not get this vaccine for this either, and they’ve never had this minor illness.
Here is Dr. Holly Weston at Jordan Lake Animal Hospital with one of the pups!
Aside from our midwoofs, this vet tech is our favorite. She has been with Jordan Lake Animal Hospital quite a while, felt as bad as we did during our loss of Fina Vom Chandlerhaus, and been overjoyed with our puppies. She ran off with Blue today; I think it was for a #selfie! Thankfully, she brought him back! Whew!
All of the puppies met kitty again today. Blue was like “What’s this?!” and very skeptical, just like his mom- he followed her at a distance for a while. Orange crept up, and ran away, and crept up, and ran away, then finally crept up and came in for a good sniff. Pink’s tail was wagging as she bounced over to her wondering if she’d play. All of the other pups had their time too, mostly either ignoring her or coming near for a sniff, or something like Blue & Orange. It was a good little experience and we’ll try to get them together again once or twice more. Baby Girl is a pretty good cat and very dog tolerant.
Here is the shampoo that we’ll use on the pups when they get their first bath- usually given about 2 hours before pickup time. It will not strip their oils off.
We’ll get paperwork from the vet in the next day or two regarding their first visit to pass along to the owners in the near future.
A new post will be up soon detailing what food they are on, their food schedule, etc- it is all coming.
