Hello everyone

Just wanted to introduce myself, I'm Kelly, and today I adopted this little girl, I've decided to name her Bell. She just turned 8 weeks old, she's a purebred long hair chi.



I just have a couple of questions...first she has not had any vaccines yet. She is very tiny and from what I've been told when puppies are little they recommend doing only one vaccine at a time. Is this true? If so which should I start with and how long do I wait in between vaccines?

Secondly she is currently use to eating purina puppy chow. How long should I wait before I slowly start transitioning her over to a more nutritious food? I feed my other dogs wellness and would like her to eat that as well.

I have checked her over and found a flea on her. Should I be worried? I could only find one. Is there a flea medication that is safe for small puppies?

I plan on talking this all over with my vet as well, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a few opinions. Thanks!

Hi and welcome! Here are my thoughts on your questions:

An 8 week old puppy will be due for a DHPP vaccine. The vet may offer to do a bordatella vaccine or, possibly, a lepto vaccine, but I would advise just getting the DHPP. I would also ask the vet to give her a little benadryl before the vaccine, and hang around in the lobby for about 15-20 minutes after it's administered to make sure she doesn't have an adverse reaction. She'll be due for another DHPP vaccine 3 weeks after the first, and then 3 weeks after that she'll get a DHLPP and rabies and be good for a year. It's the DHLPP and rabies vaccines that I would split up by a couple weeks, rather than doing them both together.

I would just switch her right over to the food you want to feed her. Puppies are much more adaptable to food changes than adult dogs. You may have a day or two of loose stool, but otherwise, she should make the switch pretty easily.

As far as flea prevention, most topical flea treatments are approved for puppies 8 weeks and older, so they should be all right to use. Frontline is gentlest and lasts for a month. Capstar is an oral medication that will kill all adult fleas on her, currently, but won't ward off more. I'm sure the vet can offer other flea solutions as well. The topical flea treatments are probably the easiest overall.

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She's a cutie! I would say that the parvo vaccine is definitely the most important right off the bat (which is included in the dhpp). I wouldn't be too worried about finding one flea, but I would go ahead and do a full deep clean and take all normal flea precautions. If you find more on her, it might be a good idea to use medication because fleas are so nasty to tiny little puppies. Just make sure that the medication is from the vet and that it's specifically for puppies that are her weight.

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She is so beautiful, and welcome to the both of you. We got Ike when he was 7 weeks old, I got an appointment when he was 8 weeks and they started his series of shot at that time. They do have flea med to put on them , it is from 0 to 10 lbs , I believe. Ike also had a virus in his tummy and that was taken care of. Take her as soon as possible because she should not be taken out side or for walks till all her shot have been given.

Ike was on purina chow too, I started mixing his half and half with Fromm dog food , the day we brought him home,and he did great.

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Ike born Aug 15 2012

I have five month old puppy that is almost finished her shots except for her rabies. Tiki had a lot of issues with her shots. If I could do it all over I would seriously limit the amount of shots to just the most important ones like Smith said. Bordatella is unnecessary. If you live in an area where Lyme vaccine is offered, refuse it! Tiki had one round of it and she got sick as if he had Lyme disease. It was very scary. Defiantly! Only do one at a time. I don't know anything about chihuahuas and allowed them to do two. Tiki got so sick! She vomited. Even with just one shot her shoulder would get sore for two days after and she would screech if anyone touched her. I have strong opinions about vaccines now that I've seen what it does to my Tiki.

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