George, a 9 week old German Shorthair Pointer pup, came in for a check up this morning at our Huntly Clinic. He has been with his new owners for 6 days, had vomited a few times last night and seemed to be piddling very frequently. We managed to catch him in the act of piddling and get a sample to check, and everything looked ok. He was also kept in clinic for a few hours for our nurses to monitor closely for any signs of nausea or vomiting. George was very excited to get so much attention, and wouldn’t show any signs of being off colour in clinic. We sent him home with a container for his owners to collect a bigger sample of urine for further testing. His owners are also going to keep watching him closely for signs of nausea or further vomiting, or not eating his biscuits.

Puppies can get upset tummies very easily, especially with the stress of moving to a new house and leaving litter mates behind. They can become dehydrated very quickly and become really sick really fast. Its important to monitor them closely for a few weeks as they settle in. Toilet training can also be completely forgotten with the move, and it can often take a week or two for them to get settled back into a routine.

If a puppy suddenly goes off their food, has vomiting or diarrhoea and doesn’t want to get up and play, it’s important they are checked straight away. Upset tummies can quickly become very serious with babies of the four and two legged variety. We also worry about Parvovirus, which is more common in the warmer months, but hangs around all year. Making sure puppies are vaccinated as soon as they are old enough, until they reach four months of age, is extremely important to help prevent them catching this horrible virus.

Also, though you can’t spot it very well, check out George’s tail!! As of October 2018, tail docking is going to be prohibited in New Zealand. This means that dogs like George, who would normally have a docked tail, get to have a tail to show off to all their doggy mates.