Baby chihuahua mix questions

[BuddyRoo]

Cute!

I wouldn’t worry too much about the vaccines. The immune response is what you’re after so the amount of vaccine vs weight of dog isn’t really relevant.

If you want to stagger, that’s fine, but unless you have a pooch who has had issues w/ vaccination, I wouldn’t bother. (I do stagger for my older lab due to a previous reaction, but I do not for my other dog.)

The general rule with vaccs is to wait until the pups are weaned as they get antibodies from mother’s milk if she’s been vaccinated. So vaccinating before weaning is fairly useless. Typically vaccinating at 8, 12, and 16 weeks is good.

Get on the HW preventative soon–some vets will not script out HW preventative til the pups are 4 mos or so as HW preventative treats for microfilaria which means you actually have to HAVE them first and that takes a litle time. But the HW meds will also help with intestinal parasites other than tapes. You mentioned that your pup had fleas, so I personally would get the ivermectin injections and treat for tapes as they don’t normally show up on a fecal and are transmitted by fleas quite often.

Best wishes!

[kelliope]

[QUOTE=JER;6624215]
My chihuahua mix was a stray until he was ‘found’ (he would dispute this term) as a young adult.

When I first brought him home, he was a mess of matted fur and relentless sex drive. His diet appeared to consist mostly of insects eaten off shrubs/ground followed by a helping of newspaper. This regime – he made an insect-eating circuit of my yard each morning, then went inside to the newspaper basket – was supplemented by whatever organic matter he encountered.

The vet remarked on how healthy he was for a stray. He did have a broken foreleg that had already healed but didn’t make much difference in a 6 pound dog.

He went on to live for another 16.5 years, dying of natural causes, probably in his 18th year. Along the way, he accidentally jumped off a second-floor roof and also got trampled by a Trakehner. He was utterly lawless, ate all kinds of garbage, hunted moles and mice, and even flushed a (surprised) bobcat once.

My dog’s other half was Papillon. Yours is Jack Russell. If mine was that tough, I imagine yours will be even tougher. I’d look for some small-breed puppy food (there’s a chihuahua food that someone – Royal Canin? – makes, which even the cats will want to eat) but I wouldn’t be worried about him having adult food in the meantime.

Do try to keep the tyranny in check, however. Your family and other pets will appreciate it. When my dog died, you could hear Ding Dong the Witch is Dead playing throughout my house for months.

Good luck. :)[/QUOTE]

I just have to say I love this story!!! Sounds like quite a character!

[Houndhill]

[QUOTE=BuddyRoo;6629891]
Cute!
The general rule with vaccs is to wait until the pups are weaned as they get antibodies from mother’s milk if she’s been vaccinated. So vaccinating before weaning is fairly useless. Typically vaccinating at 8, 12, and 16 weeks is good.
![/QUOTE]

Yes, very cute, and so tiny!

Just wanted to point out, antibodies are only transmitted through the mother’s colostrum, so only in the first days of nursing. Age of weaning does not affect age of vaccination.

It is my understanding that most vaccine protocols are similar to the 8-12-16 week recommdations, because the immunity the mother transmits interferes with that produced by the vaccine, but you don’t actually know how long the mother’s immunity is going to last. So you begin vaccinating at eight weeks, as that has been shown to be when the maternal immunity from the colostrum might be wearing off, and continue to over 16 weeks as most puppies maternal immunity would have ended by that age.