First Vet Visit

Hey all!

My Hubby and I are taking Kip to his first vet visit since we have gotten him. (The breeder had him checked multiple times before we got him and is on track with his vacs). Are there vital questions or things to watch for during our visit? One concern we have (besides his overall health) is that he doesnt seem to be eating much. He eats here and there but nothing close to what the food recommends. He doesnt seem sick and isnt acting out of the ordinary but he deffinately doesnt seem to be eating a lot. We tried weighing him last night and he seemed to be between 3 1/2 lbs to 4 lbs. at 11 weeks.

Any concerns we should be having? I have heard that Cavy's are fussy about food but I want to make sure he is eating enough!

Our Beau was a tiny thing when we got him. We got him young... I want to say 8 weeks... but he only weighed 2.2 lbs. I suspect he was right about where yours is at 11-12 weeks. He didn't eat much at all for a couple days, and very little for a couple weeks after that. Eventually he got 'regular'. Probably nothing to worry about if he's playing and otherwise acting normal... he'll eat when he's hungry.

On our first vet visit, we took along printed information about large platelets, MVD, and SM for the vet to keep in our cavs' folders. This information can be found and printed from the Cavalier Talk Health Library.

One of my cavaliers (Geordie) has the large platelets and very few of them. Fortunately our vets don't overreact when they cannot find any platelets - they just do a hand count. Geordie is unaffected by it.

I would ask the vet to take a blood count when your dog is healthy, perhaps when his heartworm test is done. Then you'll know the status of his platelets while he's healthy. Otherwise your vet may discover a platelet problem when he is sick (if he ever gets sick) and may cause a mis-diagnosis.