Veterinary Services

Pet Puppy Care

The Importance Of Good Puppy Care

At Cloverleaf Animal Hospital, we provide the best pet puppy care services for your pet.

Pet Puppy Care

How will proper puppy care impact the life of my dog?

This is a new family member. This is a new companion to you as an owner, so we want to get them started off on the right foot, in our case, all four feet. We want to get a nice long, happy, healthy life out of them.

Dr. Adam Stout
Cloverleaf Animal Hospital

Why is it important to start good puppy care on day one?

With puppies, we want to see them all on day one as soon as you get them. That gets us as a team and you as an owner, and everybody involved started on the right path of what they need to obtain that goal of a nice, long, happy, healthy life.

How soon should I bring my puppy in to see a veterinarian for their first exam?

We recommend that puppies have their first exam at six to eight weeks of age.

What are the most common health problems in puppies?

The most common thing we see with puppies is intestinal parasites or worms. We may see some dirty ears; they’re rolling around and may get some dirty ears. Maybe some skin infections or diarrhea. This puppy’s in a new home and new environment, so something could be causing diarrhea, like a disease or just stress. Those are probably the most common ones we see here at Cloverleaf Animal Hospital.

What are some signs and symptoms of illness in a puppy?

As a new owner or just an owner with a new puppy, maybe it has been a while since you had a puppy; things you should be looking for as an owner at home are vomiting, diarrhea, not acting right, or just laying around, a running nose, a cough, runny eyes, even things like difficulty going to the bathroom or peeing a lot. Is that a house training issue, or is there a medical issue?

What are the signs of a healthy, thriving puppy?

A nice, healthy, thriving puppy should be running around, playing, eating and drinking well, and moving fine. They should also have nice clean skin and a nice hair coat.

When should I start training my puppy?

We tell people starting off with these little guys at home that the initial things would be leash training or harness training and getting them used to that. Messing with their feet because these guys will need their toenails trimmed at some point in their lives. So, as soon we start messing with their feet and desensitize them to that, the easier it is on you as an owner to trim those nails, but we can also trim their nails here at the clinic. They may need their ears cleaned or checked one of these days. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get started desensitizing them where that’s more comfortable. As far as the other major training goes, we as a team have contacts of somebody we may recommend for puppy training or a puppy class for your new puppy.

What will my vet be looking for when first examining my puppy?

That first exam is a big day. You’re going to make contact with our team here at the clinic. A technician’s going to talk to you about the history of your puppy, what you see at home, where the puppy comes from, diet, and exercise. That’s going to be part of the first wellness exam on these puppies. After that, I’m going to do a full physical exam on your puppy. We’re going to get their temp and check their eyes, little noses, teeth, mouth, heart, and lungs. We’re going to palpate their little bellies and see what they feel. We’re going to watch them move around and play with them to see how they interact with us to see if this is an anxious puppy. Is this a nervous puppy? Do we have aggression problems already? These are all things that are part of that puppy’s first wellness visit.

If you still have other questions and you’d like to reach out to us, you can call us directly at (330) 948-2002, email us, or reach out on social media. But please do reach out, and we’ll get back to you as fast as we can.