Home health checks: catching things early

The point of a routine

Dogs are very good at hiding discomfort. By the time a problem is obvious enough that a busy owner notices it in passing, it has often been there a while. A short, regular check turns that around: you are not looking for something wrong, you are building such a clear picture of normal that anything different stands out immediately.

It has a second benefit that matters more than people expect. A dog who is handled calmly and regularly at home is enormously easier to treat at the vet, because having their ears looked at or their paws held is ordinary rather than alarming.

Teeth, the most neglected part of the dog

Most dogs have some degree of periodontal disease by the age of three, and it is not just a mouth problem — the bacteria involved put a constant load on the heart, liver and kidneys. It is also one of the most common reasons for an expensive procedure under general anaesthetic in middle age.

Brushing is genuinely the only thing that reliably prevents it, and it needs to be daily to be worth much. Start by letting the dog lick dog toothpaste off your finger for a few days, then a finger along the gum line, then a brush. Never use human toothpaste — xylitol in particular is toxic to dogs. Look for red gum margins, brown tartar at the gum line, and breath that has changed.

Paws, ears, skin and coat

Paws: check between the pads for grass seeds, grit and cracks, and look at nail length. If you can hear nails clicking on a hard floor when your dog walks normally, they are long enough to be changing how the dog stands.

Ears: a healthy ear is pale, dry and almost odourless. Dark waxy discharge, a yeasty smell, heat, or a dog shaking their head and tilting it to one side all mean a vet visit. Do not put cotton buds down the canal.

Skin and coat: run your hands over the whole dog, feeling rather than looking. You are checking for lumps, scabs, hot patches, fleas and ticks, and for any spot that makes your dog turn round and look at you. Note where a new lump is and how big — "on the left ribs, pea-sized, three weeks" is far more useful to a vet than "a lump".

Weight, and why the eye lies

Excess weight is the most common preventable health problem in dogs, and it shortens lives measurably. It is also very hard to see, because it arrives slowly and because most of us have recalibrated what a normal dog looks like.

Use your hands instead. You should be able to feel the ribs easily under a thin layer, without pressing. Looking down from above, there should be a visible waist behind the ribs, and from the side the belly should tuck up rather than run parallel to the ground. If you are having to press to find ribs, the dog is carrying too much, whatever the scales say.

When to stop checking and call the vet

None of this replaces a professional. Call the same day for: repeated unproductive retching with a swollen, hard abdomen, difficulty breathing, pale or blue gums, collapse, a seizure, straining to urinate without producing anything, a suspected poisoning, or any injury to the eye. These are not wait-and-see situations, and bloat in particular is measured in hours.

For everything else, the rule that serves people well is: anything that has not improved in forty-eight hours, or that is getting worse rather than staying the same, is worth a call.