Two weeks after adopting Archer, our eight-week-old boxer puppy, my boyfriend and I came home from the UF Small Animal Hospital without him.
He was our first puppy, and we had plans for him. His illness started as kennel cough, a highly contagious upper respiratory disease that plagues dogs in shelters, and the veterinarian gave us antibiotics to treat him for it.
A week later, the kennel cough progressed to pneumonia, and the doctor told us that Archer would not recover. We kissed him and held his tiny paws for the last time on a metal table in an isolation room, while blood ran down his nose and his eyes stared blankly.
If you’re going to adopt a puppy, you need to consider every possible scenario beforehand. Visit veterinarians in the area before you adopt and ask questions. Ask the shelter what the dog has been eating, if it has any allergies and what warning signs to look out for. The ASPCA is an excellent resource regarding the adoption process.
If the dog hasn’t eaten for an entire day, take it to the vet. If the dog is being unsocial, take it to the vet. If the dog throws up, take it to the vet. I’m sure you’re beginning to see a pattern here: If anything seems remotely off about the puppy, don’t take any chances — just bring it to the vet.
It sounds expensive, but $200 in preventative care is easier to digest than $1,000 in emergency vet bills and a lifetime of heartbreak.
[Stacey Marquis is a 22-year-old journalism graduate student and an Alligator copy editor. A version of this guest column ran on page 8 on 7/1/2014 under the headline "Adoption possibilities "]
