My sick puppy... Please help!

Question
My puppy is about 12 weeks old and I haven't taken him to the vet to get his shots. I was told not to til he ws about 6 months. This makes no sense to me. Anyways, he started vomiting today and he is running a fever. I don't know what I can do... I just changed his dog food about a week ago to regular dog food. Please help me!

Answer
Hi Rebecca,

A puppy's first set of vaccines should be given a 6 or 8 weeks, not six months as you were told. For most puppies, the final vaccination in the series is administered at when they about 4 months of age. There are some pretty serious and even life threatening diseases that a puppy can pick up, so please do not delay any further... have your puppy examined, and vaccinated now!

Vomiting with a fever is not a good sign, that by itself would be reason enough to have your pup examined by a vet. If your puppy hasn't been dewormed yet, he may have internal parasites. Bring a stool sample with you the vet appointment.

Also, you mentioned changing your puppy's food. A puppy needs to be fed a puppy food for his first full year. At just 12 weeks old, he is much MUCH too young to be getting an adult dog food.

You can read more about puppy care here:

http://www.bordercolliepuppies.com/puppy%20care.htm
http://www.puppycare.com/
http://www.thepetcenter.com/gen/pups.html
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1651&articleid=704

Best of luck,
Patti