...and go to a vet who is not familiar with large and/or giant breed dogs!!!
My little Mokey, who is a mixed breed, is 11 weeks old. Her mama was believed to be an Irish Wolfhound mix and it looks like daddy was probably a Pyr or Pyr mix. My pup weighs 25 lbs. Nothing shocking there.
Well, I went to a new vet who was recommended to me by someone in town. I made an appointment for shots and deworming. Well, the woman seemed nice until... she stuck my pup with a rabies vaccine before I could even react.
I couldn't even speak. 11 weeks... surely that's too young for a rabies shot!!! So when I went to pay, the receptionist starts complaining that we have the birthday of my pup wrong because there is no way the vet would give an 11 week old puppy a rabies shot!! (Well guess what, she just did!!!!) So she went to the back to check with the vet, and then the vet told her to tell me my puppy was older than what I wrote down. Why didn't she tell me to my face I wonder???
So I contacted the woman I got the puppy from, and ask if I had the age wrong. She tells me I had it right, Mokey is 11 weeks old. So then I was worried and I took Mokey to another vet who I used before. He used to have a Kuvasz and is very familiar with "big paws"... as we like to call them. He looked her over and checked out her teeth. "This dog is too young to have a rabies shot. She is definitely under 12 weeks". I almost fell off the seat. He said it would be easy for someone to think she was older because of her size, but a close examination told the true story. He thinks Mokey will be ok and she didn't seem to be having any bad reaction to the shot.
So... I called the vet who gave Mokey the Rabies shot. And I can't even believe it- she tried to argue with me and she was defensive and rude. She said "there's no way the dog could be 25 lbs at 11 weeks old". Honey, my dog Nigel weighed more than that at 11 weeks!!!
Anyhow, I learned a good lesson and poor Mokey had to endure a rabies shot at too young an age. AND it won't even work because she's too young and she has to get ANOTHER one in a few weeks.
DON'T LET IT HAPPEN TO YOU!!!!
Mokey still can't believe it happened to her!!!