Bayou's first vet visit

I sent an email to Leona at Hope for Animals (the rescue we got Bayou from) to ask about specific information about Bayou. She was born on December 5th, 2010. She will be 8 weeks old on Sunday. Her mom is a Blue Tick Coonhound and her dad is a Catahoula Leopard Dog. She had her first set of shots when she was 6 weeks old and was dewormed then too (1/21/2011). We adopted her when she was 7 weeks old (1/29/2011).

Today I took Bayou to the vet for her first visit with Dr. McKenney and her staff. She weighs 8 lbs. 4 oz. Everything checked out okay and she got her 2nd set of shots. They are checking to make sure she doesn't have any worms or parasites. I'll get those results tomorrow. Bayou was very well behaved while in with the vet. She stuck close to me and cooperated as much as a puppy can. Dr. McKenney said she is at a good weight right now and to continue her on 1 1/2 cups of food per day. She will get her 3rd set of shots on March 3rd or so. Then a month later she'll get her last set of puppy shots. There is a puppy class at HPVH and hopefully I'll be able to get Bayou signed up for that in March.

I decided to get her shots at HPVH instead of through the rescue. I will probably get her fixed there too. I don't want to have to go all the way down to Pueblo to get her fixed. I don't want to have her travel for over an hour after same day surgery. I'm going to have her micro-chipped at the same time. Better to have a 10 minute drive home instead.

I love how she makes a sound when she yawns. It's so cute. She seems to be doing just fine after getting her shots. She's already gone potty twice. She's sitting on David's lap right now. She was sleeping but she's awake and playing now. We're having to work with her on not biting our hands (or other body parts). She's going to be a big time chewer so I'll really have to have lots of things for her to chew on that are safe (like the Kongs and the Busy Buddy toys). I did get all the stuff from Amazon that I ordered. She plays with some of it but doesn't really get it all yet. She'll learn to play as we go along.

David is working with her on "high five". I've been working with her on "sit". She sits before I take her out of her puppy pen. I'm going to start having her sit before she goes out the door too. The weather has been really cold and snowy so I haven't had her outside for very long, just long enough to go to the bathroom, then we run back in to the warmth of the house. She's back in her pen now because she needs to play for a while. She whines when I put her in there but she's going to have to get used to it so I can get things done around here during the day. She also needs to be okay with being in her crate so I can transport her. She's been sleeping in bed with us which has been hard on me because I wake up constantly to check on her. I think I'm going to start her sleeping in her kennel tonight. She'll whine, probably for quite a while, but eventually she will go to sleep. And then I will get a good nights sleep.

She's actually in her puppy pen and not whining. She is playing with one of her fetch dummies. They are covered in canvas and she loves to chew on them. At some point I'll teach her how to retrieve them. She's whining again. I don't like it but I know she has to get used to being in the pen. I can't let her run around the house because, first, it's too dangerous for her to do that and second, it would keep me busy 24/7 and I just can't be expected to do that. I need some time to get things done around here. Now she's playing again. Oops, nope she's trying to dig her way out of the pen. And the whining begins again. LOL

I want to go to bed early tonight so she'll have to sleep in her kennel. She won't like it but she'll get used to it. It'll be difficult for us until she adjusts but that's okay. I don't want her to get upset when she goes in her pen or crate/kennel.

That's it for tonight. I'll keep an eye on her to make sure there is no bad reaction to the vaccinations. So far so good.