Dog Health
Signs of illness
Your dog cant talk to you and tell you that they are not feeling well, so you need to be able to spot the signs of when they are under the weather.
The good news is that if you are familiar with the way your dog normally reacts you should be able to spot when his behaviour changes. This is often the first sign you will get that you dog is not well.
It is difficult to give accurate and safe advice on your dogs illness on a website like this. If you have any doubt about your dogs health you should take your pet to your vet. Indeed if you dog shows any of the following symptoms your should go to your vet as soon as possible;
- Collapse
- Repeated vomiting or diarrhoea for 24hrs or more
- Troubled breathing
- Bleeding from any orifice
- Acute pain
Healthy Dogs
|
From the very beginning you should try and create a healthy life style for your dog. Regular vaccinations, tick and flea treatment, healthy eating and plenty of exercise are vital if your new puppy is to grow up and lead a long and active life.
If you neglect any aspect of your dogs health you will be causing your self more trouble, for example many kennels and day cares won’t accept dogs who don’t have their vaccinations unto date, and you are being cruel to your dog.
Remember you are in charge and your have to use that power wisely. Don’t weaken when your dog begs for that extra treat ( I know how hard it is, I have a couple of spaniels) as the distress of an overweight dog is not one you want to have to deal with.
Much better to have a happy health dog running and playing in the park, that’s what they love to do.
Vaccinations
Your dog should have regualr vaccinations to ensure he is protected against some of the nastier illness that can effect dogs. In the past diseases such as parvovirus and distemper caused the mortality rate of dogs to be high. Thankfully nowadays you can protect you dog from these nasties by ensuring they have regular jabs from your vet. The RSPCA advice that vaccinations should be given to protect against the following four diseases as a minimum;
- Canine parvovirus
- Canine distemper virus
- Leptospirosis
- Infectious canine hepatitis ICH(Also know as canine adenovirus)
In addition be sure to get your dog vaccinated against kennel cough if his is likely to be spending much time in kennels or at doggy day care. To get full details of the shots your dogs needs, and to check if there are any locally specific additional ones, make an appointment with you local vet.
Food Supplements
You should aim to supply all your dogs nutritional needs via a good healthy Diet. However there may be times (old age, pregnancy, illness) when vitamin and other supplements might help your dog.
Common Health Problems in dogs
I did think long are hard about including this section on this page. The reason being, that if you have any concerns about the health of your dog should should go to your vet. This page is really intended to give general advice on how to keep your dog fit and healthy. However I can see that at times it is useful to have some general advice on what to look for, or how to ease symptoms if you dog is not quite himself. That said, let me be absolutely clear again.
I am not a vet, and also I cant see or examine your pet. Hence I am in no way qualified to give advice on how to treat your dog, if you are concerned you MUST go to see your vet. With that understood here is some general advice on some of the main ailments you may see in your dog.
When your dog is lackluster, or looking off color
From time to time our dogs get a bit of a bug, tweak something or just have a bad day…like we do. In many instances they will have shaken that off inside 24 hours and be their normal self again. However if your dog is off color for more than 24 hours you should seek the advice of your vet.
In addition if any of the following symptoms are present don’t wait for the 24 hours, go ahead and take your dog to the vets.
- You dog is drinking abnormal amounts
- has your dog been losing weight recently
- Are any of the acute signs of illness at the beginning of this page present
Vomiting
Once you have had a few dogs, you will realize that dogs vomit fairly regularly. Given that they will eat all the food they can find, and a few unsavory non food items they find this is hardly surprising. So the general advice is to withhold their food overnight and then give them a small meal. This will normally sort the problem out, so if after this process they appear back to normal there is no cause for concern.
However if your dog is still vomiting after 24 hours, or if the vomiting co-incides with diarrhoea, him being generally off color, him being in an accident or if he is repeatedly vomiting then you should visit your vet immediately.
Diarrhoea
A similar approach should be take to that of vomiting symptoms. If the diarrhoea coincides with vomiting, blood in the faeces or generally being off color then you should visit your vet. Otherwise hold back food overnight, and then start them back on a diet of chicken and rice for a day or two. If this doesn’t resolve the problem then take your dog to your vet.
Scratching
Even if you dog is scratching repeatedly it is unlikely that he has a serious illness. However excessive scratching can be particularly distressing for both the dog, and you as his owner. Some of the common causes of scratching are;
- Scratching ears – if the ears are full of wax this will cause your dog to scratch. You should clean your dogs ears using a specialised dog ear cleaner. However of the problem is not wax, but a colored discharge fro mthe ears, then you should take your dog to the vet as this is probably a mor serious infection.
- Insects on, or in, the coat – Grey insects are normally lice, black insects are fleas. You should give your dog a flea / lice treatment and also spring clean your house (flea treat your house as well) to remove fleas / lice eggs etc that might have moved from your dog into carpets and dog
Leave a Reply