I HOPE your Christmas was different. Ours turned out to be just the same as it always is. I don’t mean the repetitive turkey, the recurrent brussel sprouts, the ubiquitous tree, the cracker jokes that I will recycle at every opportunity throughout the year, or even the tired old bread sauce.

I refer instead to the peculiar veterinary problems that pop up at this time of year, which, despite our greatest efforts, continue to occur in a relentless, annual cycle.

The one that habitually rears its ugly head is the phenomenon of the Christmas puppy. Year after year, parents, in their wisdom, decide that this is absolutely the best time for a cuddly puppy to arrive in the house, just as the place is littered with the accumulated debris of presents, decorations, excessive food and, of course, exhausted, over-excited, irritable children.

As a result, numerous items are swallowed, some of which are required to be surgically removed. Others cause more sinister outcomes. Christmas is also the period when we are least able to supervise, and so early puppy training, both of the toilet and the sit-come-stay type, is habitually poor.

Unfortunately, some owners will only discover in late January that the bad habits developed in this lax ‘honeymoon period’ will take hours of time to correct. By then, many people are fed-up with their new toy and so it is discarded to join the massed ranks of abandoned puppies in February.

If you have a new puppy, now is the time to get it right. It might be with you for thirteen years or so and every minute spent now is worth a hundred in the future. Lay the ground rules with everyone and start as you mean to go on.

Worse is the fact that many unscrupulous puppy farmers take advantage of the desperation to purchase a Christmas puppy and flood the market with animals of dubious breeding, health status and upbringing.

Some are hardly weaned before they are driven around the country to be hand delivered to naive, expectant owners. Our Christmas experience of these poor wee guys was not good.

Many had heart murmurs, abnormal dentition, retained testicles and much more and, surprise, the sellers could never be contacted when it was suggested the pup was returned. Some ended up on intravenous drips to correct their severe hypoglycaemia. They were so young they did not even know how to eat.

Others were infested with a variety of parasites, both inside and outside the body. Fleas and roundworms are not the most pleasant stocking fillers. And then, as you might expect, since they are reared in tragic circumstances with poor hygiene, many were diagnosed with Salmonella or Campylobacter. It’s not fun having a new puppy with diarrhoea just as Christmas dinner is served.

Of course, there are exceptions. There are still some decent breeders and many owners sensibly take advantage of their time off work to ensure their pup gets the best possible start in life. Good luck to them.

Happy New Year when it comes...