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Conflicting advice between vet and breeder--who to follow??

amyd

Well-known member
I realize that vets aren't necessarily experts on Cavaliers, but they are experts on dog health in general. My breeder has been breeding Cavs for 20 years so she has some level of expertise on the breed. Her advice on some matters conflicts with my vet's advice and I'm wondering whose advice I should follow!

The vet wanted to do Cori's rabies vax along with her 3rd set of puppy shots, but the breeder recommends waiting 4 weeks after the 3rd set. The vet said she never heard of waiting 4 weeks. I told her I thought it was because Cavs are very sensitive to vaccines and it's recommended that they not receive more than one at a time. She said she'd go along with whatever I wanted but thought 4 weeks was too long, esp. because that would mean postponing starting training classes that much longer. I decided to compromise a bit and wait 3 weeks, but that meant I couldn't start Cori's class this week and the next one doesn't start for another month.

The breeder said not to start flea and tick treatment until she is 6 months old. When I took her for her first appointment (2 days after we brought her home), they found fleas on her. My vet said it was fine to give the medicine at 4 months and we needed to since she already had fleas.

The breeder also said not to start heartworm preventative until 6 months old, but the vet said there is no need to wait. Also, the breeder said not to give the flea and tick medicine and heartworm medicine at the same time--to separate by 2 weeks. Again, the vet said that's not necessary. (I'm going to do that, though, because it's easy enough to do.) Do you all start heartworm preventative before 6 months??

Lastly, the breeder was feeding Cori twice a day (she's 4 months old), but the vet said it's really better to feed puppies 3 times a day until 6 months. So, I started doing that, while still feeding the same amount (1/3 cup, 3 times a day). The vet also said I should add 1 Tbsp. wet dog food to each feeding (and a little less kibble) since dry kibble is so processed. Our breeder said she experimented with lots of different foods over the years and has had the best health in her puppies with just feeding the kibble she recommended to me.

All this conflicting advice! LOL Do any of you have the same issue? How do you decide whose advice to follow?

Thanks so much for your help!

Amy
 
Hi Amy,
I have a 2 year old Cav, named Max. Fortunately, I didn't have much conflicting advice between the breeder and vet. But, I did want to weigh in on starting the training classes later. Max wasn't able to start training classes until he was almost 6 months due to the vaccine issue, and we had absolutely no problem or delay in the training process. He learned just fine even though he was older than some of the other puppies in the class. We started teaching him "sit" and "down" before the training classes begun, so he knew those commands.
Best of luck with the puppy!
 
I'd agree with the breeder on the vax advice and separating flea and heartworm medication at the same time. But disagree on her feeding suggestions -- only kibble is a pretty grim lifetime diet for a dog and even adding a little wet helps make it somewhat more interesting. There's lots of info in the library section on adding 'real' food to a dry diet too. And there are options like (properly balanced) home cooked as well as commercial or home prepared raw diets that I believe are far superior to kibble all the time. I feed a mix -- about half kibble and half raw or good quality wet food. All recent research on the importance of balanced gut flora and their role in causing or preventing many diseases indicates good flora thrive on a varied fresh diet in humans and animals. A processed diet -- which is what kibble and most tinned food is -- affects those gut flora negatively.

Believe me, there are a lot of breeders and vets who feel their years of expertise outweigh any other point of view... but most of them have changed views over time too... :) -- and also people are not necessarily right just because they've done something for a long time. Feeding by the way is easily THE most contentious issue (second is probably training methods) in dog ownership! A good owner reads widely, considers many points of view, and finds their own balanced way.

I argued with a vet today myself BTW, who wanted to redo the puppy series vax on an older rescue dog, in order to include lepto. I said no, and no. Had a basic core vax as it has been more then 3 years since the dog was last vaxed, and no lepto at all. It can be hard to stand up to a vet even when you have owned lots of dogs and done rescue for years! 8)
 
Thanks for the well wishes, Ashley! We've already started training at home, too. I think the main concern with getting started in the class was for puppy socialization. We'll do what we can before then. Glad to hear your training went well!

Amy :)
 
Thanks for your reply Karlin! The breeder's recommendation was only for puppyhood. Sorry I wasn't clear on that. I'll definitely be doing a mix of high quality kibble and commercial raw, plus 'real' food when she transitions to adult food. I learned a lot from your library section--so helpful! I don't know what I'd do without this site!

Thanks again!

Amy :)
 
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