Generally, we try to neuter males... depends on the size of the dog now and what your goals are. A lot of times, if you got a giant breed dog or pure bred dog, sometimes they want to develop their male characteristics. So like for example, a St. Bernard male, they might want to fix them at two years old, but generally, if we want to avoid some behavioral complications, other things, six months is probably the earliest we'd do it. In females, we try to fix them between 6 to 12 months old, just before that first heat. So on average, about eight months, but definitely want to consult your veterinarian by about four to six months to discuss that.

That really depends on, I think I said how many vaccines they've received before. Common distemper shots, commonly we like to see your puppy get the vaccines three to four times, depending on when the first vaccine was started. So depending on that, we'll formulate the schedule specific for your puppy. Let's see. But usually I would say about two to three times, depending on how many times the vaccine was given to the puppy.

That would depend on what age you bring your puppy in for the first visit. Generally, we recommend bringing your puppy in right away, and then we'll let you know how often you need to come. If you, for example, bring a four to six-week-old puppy in, we'll probably be seeing you every three weeks until they're current on their vaccinations. If you bring maybe a six-month-old puppy in, we might be seeing you two to three times after that to get them caught up and discuss lifestyles.

So you should expect a lot of information. So when we first see puppies, we try to go over a lot. So we try to reinforce that at future visits because I know when you're in the office, it can feel almost overwhelming having that first puppy. You should expect the veterinarian to do a thorough examination from head to toe as they look for any ecto or internal parasites, such as fleas and ticks. Internal parasites could be worms. They might be stuck underneath the tail.

If the illness can be traced back to the addition of a new ingredient or food or something along those lines, that is when I would become suspicious. To answer one specific set of signs that can say, oh, that means your cat ate something bad, I can't do that because it just depends on what they ate. Certain foods can be toxic to an animal's gastrointestinal system. Some can be toxic to their heart and some can cause skin any issues. It just depends on what they ingest in order to be able to answer that.