The first vet visit is always stressful for both the pups and the rest of us. Never know what they may notice or feel or hear that we have not observed. But these guys have no issues. There are no hernia (umbilica that sometimes happen if where the umbical is attached does not close properly), no overbites, no heart murmurs. The boys both have two testicles (so unicordate is not an issue). Some of the girls do have vulvas that are somewhat indented, so I asked Dr. Nowle about this and she said not to worry about them at this stage, as they are still growing and they can totally change with age.
As well as their wellness check, the pups each was micro-chipped. The contact info at this stage is mine, but as the pups go home, I will have that changed over to the new family.
The pups were vaccinated with Nobivac DAPPV, which is their first shot against canine distemper, adenovirus type1 and type2, canine parainfluenza and canine parvovirus. This vaccination should be repeated in about 4 weeks (definitely before 6 weeks, and aim for July 15) when they will get bordettela as well, and then 4 weeks later should get their 3rd booster and their rabies shot. They have not been vaccinated for rabies. The rabies vaccination cannot be given until the pup is at least 12 weeks old. After those next two visits, the pup hopefully will not need to go to the vet for a year. (However, accidents do happen, like Hope getting into her Grandma Kassey's gabapentin at 10 weeks of age.) Do not take your pup to dog parks or other areas where they may be exposed to unvaccinated dogs before they have all three shots. Not everyone vaccinates or keeps their vaccinations up to date, so do not put your pup at risk.
For those who watch the live video, I was going on about yellow no longer being the lightest. Then I double checked with the vet office, and indeed they had transposed the numbers. Yellow is still the smallest pup at 4.5 kg; Pink and Mauve both weigh 4.8 kg; Teal weighs 5.08 kg; Silver is 5.2 kg; Red is 5.4 kg; Orange is 5.59 kg; Green is 5.6 kg; and our biggest pup is now Gold at 5.73 kg. For comparison purposes Abbey was 5.6 kg at 7 weeks. At 6 weeks, Hope was 4.68 kg, Maggie was 5.24 kg and Grace was 5.8 kg.
So I hope the clean bill of health sets everyone's mind at ease. There is no reason to pick one pup over another based on their health. Dr. Nowle did put them down as 5.5 for body score, but she said that was just to indicate that these were well fed, chunky lab pups that have not suffered from any malnutrition.
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