Diet
Your new puppy will require a nutritious diet to help them develop properly. It is important they are fed a staple puppy diet for the first year of their life.
During the first 6 months they should be fed small feeds 3 – 4 times a day as opposed to one large feed.
Flea Control
Puppies should be treated for fleas from 8 weeks of age.
They should be treated every 8 weeks as a preventative measure.
Insurance
At Clare Vet Group we strongly advise you to insure your pet in case of accident or illness.
At first vaccination you will be offered 4 weeks free insurance, as long as you have no other policy for your puppy, we advise that you avail of this.
Take care when researching insurance as some companies only provide cover for a year and lifelong conditions can be left uninsured after the years cover has elapsed.
Microchipping
Microchipping is a simple procedure that injects a small chip carrying a unique 12 digit number under the skin of your pet. The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and once inserted is permanent, when read with a scanner this unique ID is used to identify your pet.
This ID will be registered to a national database. In the event of your animal being found by vets or dog wardens, we can then contact you and reunite you with your pet.
All vets and dog wardens carry scanners, ensuring that all microchipped, straying pets get returned to their owners.
Neutering
In this practice we recommend neutering puppies which are not of breeding stock.
We recommend that bitches should be spayed before their first season at 6-7 months or 10-12 weeks after this season.
We advise castrating dogs from 6 months onwards.
Puppy Parties
'We are not running any puppy parties at this current time'
At Clare Vet Group we organise puppy parties for our clients. These are held in Ballyclare. Puppies must be under 6 months of age and have their first vaccination.
The main aim of the party is to help your puppy to socialise with other puppies in a safe environment.
There is lots of free advice on offer from the vets and veterinary nurses, a chance to meet other like minded puppy owners and you get to see behind the scenes of our busy practice!
Run over two evenings, a dog trainer will be on hand during the second evening to give you some tips on how to begin training your puppy.
When you come to the clinic for your puppy’s first vaccination, the reception staff will be able to provide you with details of the next party that is suitable for your puppy.
Worming
Puppies should be wormed from 6 weeks of age, we recommend that you worm your puppy fortnightly until 12 weeks of age.
After 12 weeks of age we recommend that you worm your puppy monthly to 6 months, thereafter every 3 months is sufficient.
We stock a range of products that treat round and tape worms in various formats.