What To Bring To Your Adopted Dog's First Vet Visit
It's important to schedule an checkup appointment with a veterinarian as soon as possible after adopting your new dog and bringing him home. Ensuring that your vet personally knows your dog and has a clear understanding about their past will make the process of emergency treatment or establishing a health prognosis more efficient and less stressful when your dog needs care in the future. Here's what you should bring to your new adopted dog's first veterinarian visit:
Adoption Paperwork
Gather all of the paperwork that you get from the adoption agency when your new dog is released to go home with you, and make copies of it all for your veterinarian to keep. This will help give your vet an idea of what condition the dog was in when they were kept at the adoption facility, the kinds of vaccinations that have been administered, as well as the type of food and care that the dog had been receiving before you took him home to become part of your family.
All of the information your veterinarian gets from the adoption agency paperwork will provide them some insight into the dog's past health statuses, and should help them determine which types of treatments and care techniques will work best for your dog as he ages. The information about your dog's past may also help your vet diagnose health issues that may arise in the future.
Flea Treatment Info
It's also important to document all of the flea treatments that the dog has been given at the adoption agency and since heading home with you after being adopted. The dosage, name of the treatment product, as well as the day it was administered should be listed in order so your veterinarian can quickly and easily determine when treatment needs to be administered in the future.
This information will come in handy if your dog shows signs of allergies or other health problems, as your veterinarian should be able to effectively figure out whether or not the symptoms have resulted from a particular flea treatment brand or dosage. There's no need to create a spreadsheet or a letterhead to document flea treatments – simply write down the treatments on a piece of paper as they're administered.
By bringing these things with you to your dog's initial visit at the vet's office, you'll make handling emergencies and health problems easier and quicker for the veterinarian who is charged with caring for your furry pal. To learn more, contact a veterinary hospital like Seattle Emergency Veterinary Hospital.