G. shepherd puppies' first shotsQ: Please help, i have 10 5 weeks old puppies and i would like to do the shots or vaccinations myself. tell me please what vaccines i need to buy and please what about the schedule of those. can this be done with nonprescriptin medicines? a million thanks! A: I don't like to overvaccinate dogs. i prefer only distemper/parvo in combination without all of the others. i give two shots one at 8 weeks and one again at 12 weeks followed by a rabies shot 1 month after last shot separately.
Enlarged nippleQ: My beagle/terrier mix, is almost 9 years old she has had an enlarged nipple once before, we didn't think anything of it, one day it broke and bled, then it was fine. well gradually within the last 3 months its gotten way bigger than last time, what do you suggest we do, or know what it could be, other than that, she is always scratching herself, and has real puffy dry swelled skin above her tail on her back side, we give her baths and treat the puffy area with peroxide. are we leaving something out? thanks A: Could be benign cyst of teat or less likely a more malignant tumor. take and have evaluated at vet. if persists, might want to have surgical biopsy
DiarrheaQ: I have a 4-year old labrador. each spring (usually around the month of may) he develops severe diarrhea - often a reddish/brown jellylike substance is mixed in with the stool. i notice this change in stool when i started giving him heartgard medication. do you have any alternative suggestions or another medication to recommend? he has been diagnosed with inflamatory bowel syndrome. i have been succeussful giving him nature's recipe - vegetarian formula and dick van patton's duck & potato formula dog foods. any help would be appreciated. thanks, cynthia champa A: If your dog has ibd, then he indeed could react to actually any of the monthly heartworm preventtives. you could try the other known as interceptor. if that no help you could even consider herbal alternatives like black walnut added to his food daily at dose of 1000 mg daily
Shop for: heartgard, interceptor
Pimple/massQ: My fiance and i have a 7 1/2 month old english springer spaniel. i have a habit of massaging our puppy. one day i felt what seemed to be a little pimple on his left upper chest. within one to two weeks, this little pimple grew the size of a pea or little larger, looked pinkish or reddish in color. it was also hard, nonmoveable. it felt like it was on his skin, but hard to say. we took him to the vet, which the same day, he had emergency surgery, which we are waiting for the results of the biopsy at this time. the vet informed us that if we let it go, the mass could get bigger and start to bleed, which would be hard to stop the bleeding. i am afraid it may be cancerous, even thou he seems to be doing fine....his incision is about 3 or 4 inches long. it is a pretty big size with several sutures. the vet also informed us that if it is cancer, it can spread thru his body. can this be a hemangioma? are springers accessible to tumors? cancer? can you give me a little more information? i've been searching thru all kinds of animal books we have since having 3 different types of dogs..and none on english spring spaniels. in the meantime, we're still waiting for the results which will hopefully be this week. thank you so much. linda A: I would wait until you get biopsy back any day before i can comment or make recommendations. i can only tell you that in my experience most of these growths in young dogs are benign histiocytomas, which are very common, and actually sometimes can go down on their own. if that is what it ends up being, then you were alarmed needlessly
