Checking the health of your beloved dog will help you monitor the heath condition which protection is always better than cure. You should check their health condition and find out any signs of illness early every month. Do remember that some illness can be hidden behind so you have to watch out and see.
What to check?
- Body – when touching the side body of the dog, check at the ribs. There should not have anything wrong. The waistline should be between the rib and the hip and the stomach should not be too drooped. Beware the abnormal on high or low weight.
- Ears – The dogs should not have any brown or green earwax with the stinky smell. Some of the long ear breeds should get the regular ear cleaning with the special tools that is appropriate to the sensitive ears. Don’t clean too deep or too hard which can lead to broken eardrums.
- Eyes – The dog’s eyes should be bright and clean, no tear stain, red spots or inflammation. The eyes malfunction might be happened together with the flu.
- Nose – the skin around the nose should be smooth, no dry flakes, no snot, no blood. The color can be changed all the time, from dark to pink and dark again. The nose should not in the cold or wet condition.
- Breath – Human bad breath is not only the social problem or health problem, so do the dogs. The bad breath can indicate the digestive problem or teeth problem that can lead to internal organ problem if not curing on time.
- Oral cavity – The dog teeth should be white, no plague. Having plague will cause the teeth look thicker and become brown. The gum color should be pink or black, not red or inflammed.
- Skin and fur – Dog’s skin should be in pink or black, depends on the skin pigment of each breed. The fur should be full and thick (but depends on the breed), shiny and not fragile. Both skin and fur should have no dandruffs or inflammation. The moulting will be happened all year long but will be peak at the summer and autumn season. Some breeds like puddle won’t moult but the owner needs to groom regularly.
- Nail – the nail surface should be smooth with white or black color. The rough surface and easy-to-tear nail will be the sign of problem. Some breeds have small inner toes only at front but some have both sides. Some even don’t have ones.
- Digestive system – always monitor the eating habit of the dogs. It might be a bit difficult to observe from the new dogs or the difficult-to-eat ones. During eating, the dogs should not suffocate or have anything wrong. Also, the color of the dog poo should be normal, no diarrhea, constipation or having liquid mucus.
- Thirst – if the dogs become thirsty or want to drink water than usual, please contact your veterinarian.
- gesture – the overall gesture of the dog can help identify its health.
If you notice that the head and the tail of your dogs getting dropped than normal, it means your dogs might be unwell. The sick dogs will usually hide behind the corner or digging the hole to sleep in the garden. Contact your veterinarian for consultant.